“The greedy I that gives”—The paradox of egocentrism and altruism: Terror management and system justification perspectives on the interrelationship between mortality salience and charitable donations amid the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

Why do people give and help others in face of their own mortality salience? The existential struggle with the awareness of death impacts the gamut of human cognition, emotion, and behavior. This multi‐method research (Σ N = 1,219) explains the psychosocial impact of COVID‐19‐related mortality salience on altruism. Drawing from terror management theory, two studies tested death‐thought accessibility, mortality salience, and anxiety buffer hypotheses. Study 1 (cross‐sectional survey), using structural equation modeling, confirms death anxiety and fear are predictors of powerlessness and materialism which, in turn, predict charitable donations. Study 2 (between‐subjects experiment) confirms the causal effects of COVID‐19‐induced mortality salience on altruism. Controlling income and socioeconomic status, people in the mortality salience treatment condition indicate greater monetary donations ($), ratio of prosocial (altruistic) to proself (egocentric) spending (%), donation of time (hour), monetary valuation of time (hourly rate = $/hour), and economic value of donated time (hourly rate*hour) than the controls. These effects are mediated by powerlessness. Moderating effects of relevant individual difference factors are significant: the greedier, more selfish, narcissistic, materialistic, and system‐justifying the donor is, the higher monetary donations, volunteer time, and perceived value of donated time are, only when the COVID‐19‐induced mortality is made salient but not in the controls. Environmental and dispositional factors jointly influence vulnerability to mortality salience. The paradox of egocentrism and altruism, as an evolutionarily adaptive protective buffer against existential insecurity for social and cultural animals, can help revitalize resilience, thus shedding some lights on the sociopsychological mechanism of consumers' subjective well‐being. Implications for consumer affairs, social marketers, and policymakers are discussed.

Has the COVID‐19 pandemic made us more materialistic? The effect of COVID‐19 and lockdown restrictions on the endorsement of materialism

“…Indeed, mortality reminders have been found to increase the value given to money (Zaleskiewicz et al, 2015 ), boost one's intentions to spend money (Fransen et al, 2008 ), and intensify behaviors that seek individual gains (Kasser & Sheldon, 2000 ). Moreover, death‐anxiety and fear have been both linked to materialistic attitudes (Jin & Ryu, 2021 ; Longmire et al, 2021 ). In addition, within the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic, a recent study found a small to medium correlation between materialism and a composite measure looking at the perceived risk of contracting the virus, fear about the virus, and perceived social isolation (Song et al, 2020 ), suggesting that perceived self‐threat of the virus and social isolation during the COVID‐19 outbreak are associated with higher materialism.…”

Income and geographically constrained generosity

“…Moreover, substantial research suggests that spending on others can promote consumers' happiness (Dunn et al, 2008). Besides, compared with material product consumption, experiential consumption leads to more happiness (e.g., Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003), and charitable behavior is typical of experiential spending (Jin & Ryu, 2021). Thus, how to promote more charitable actions among consumers is essential for research on consumer affairs.…”

Pandemics and consumers' mental well‐being

“…Other papers focused more on consumers' psychological responses to the pandemic including risk perceptions and consumer purchase behavior (Li & Qian, 2022 ) and goal orientation effects on well‐being (Sonmez, 2022 ). Articles in this special issue also examined morality based consumer responses including religion versus escape behaviors on life satisfaction (Ekici & Watson, 2022 ), religiosity's influence on service failure response and emotional well‐being (Sarofim et al, 2022 ), and mortality salience and altruism (Jin & Ryu, 2022 ). Other papers examined consumers' financial positions with regards to the pandemic including financial preparedness and pandemic prevention behaviors (Warmath et al, 2022 ) as well as financial changes for parents before versus during the pandemic (Garrison et al, 2022 ).…”