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Prosocial Behavior Within Unique Contexts: Consideration in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Student

Department of Life Sciences, Texas A&M University University-San Antonio

PSYC 2385 Writing in Psychology

Professor

Semester
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Prosocial Behavior Within Unique Contexts: Consideration in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Prosocial Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

 (Rose et al., 2022) Indicates that even during a time of significant crises, people will still

go out of their way to help each other through prosocial behaviors despite experiencing

extreme stress on their own behalf.

 (Haller et al., 2022) Prosocial behaviors in the pandemic were reported to occur more

frequently in which individuals inadvertently care for one another through the association

of perceived social support.

Contactless prosocial behavior.

 (Campos-Mercade et al., 2021) Prosocial contactless behaviors predict positive health

behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 (Varma et al., 2022) Forms of contactless prosocial behavior, such as mask-wearing and

social distancing, can promote positive emotions and an increase in mental-wellbeing

during the pandemic.

 (Tan M., & Tan C.M., 2021) Contactless prosocial behavior in the form of virtual

museums to aid in mental health during the pandemic.

Influence of others on prosocial behavior.

 (Abel & Brown, 2022) Examines the effect of private versus public role models

engaging in prosocial (or non-prosocial) behaviors during the pandemic and how it can

influence others to follow in their footsteps.

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 (Rudert & Janke, 2021) Descriptive norms (perceived behavior of others) predicts

prosocial behaviors in the COVID-19 pandemic, such as social distancing and mask-

wearing.

Influence of context on prosocial behavior.

Age and legacy motives.

 (Jin et al., 2021) Reflects on how age differences can lead to increases or decreases of

prosocial behavior during the pandemic, such as staying home to not further spread the

virus.

 (Syropoulos & Markowitz, 2021) Examines how older-aged individuals have more of a

“cost” when it comes to the effect of the pandemic, leading to legacy motives and an

increase in prosocial actions.

National identity and nationality.

 (Van Bavel et al., 2022) Discusses how nationality plays an important factor in

determining whether an individual displays behaviors of prosocial actions or not during

the pandemic.

Mental health.

 (Alvis et al., 2022) States that one’s degree of mental health during the pandemic plays a

large role when examining if the individual partakes in prosocial behaviors to aid others.
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References

Abel, M., & Brown, W. (2022). Prosocial behavior in the time of COVID-19: The effect of

private and public role models. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 101.

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4024080

Alvis, L. M., Douglas, R. D., Shook, N. J., & Oosterhoff, B. (2022). Associations between

adolescents’ prosocial experiences and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02670-y

Campos-Mercade, P., Meier, A. N., Schneider, F. H., & Wengström, E. (2021). Prosociality

predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Public Economics,

195, 104367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104367

Haller, E., Lubenko, J., Presti, G., Squatrito, V., Constantinou, M., Nicolaou, C., Papacostas, S.,

Aydın, G., Chong, Y. Y., Chien, W. T., Cheng, H. Y., Ruiz, F. J., García-Martín, M. B.,

Obando-Posada, D. P., Segura-Vargas, M. A., Vasiliou, V. S., McHugh, L., Höfer, S.,

Baban, A., … Gloster, A. T. (2022). To help or not to help? Prosocial behavior, its

association with well-being, and predictors of prosocial behavior during the Coronavirus

disease pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.775032

Jin, S., Balliet, D., Romano, A., Spadaro, G., van Lissa, C. J., Agostini, M., Bélanger, J. J.,

Gützkow, B., Kreienkamp, J., & Leander, N. P. (2021). Intergenerational conflicts of

interest and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Personality and

Individual Differences, 171, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110535

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Rose, L., Dezecache, G., Powell, T., Chokron, S., & Kovarski, K. (2021). The emergency of

prosociality: A developmental perspective on altruism and human prosocial behavior in the

face of disaster. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 31(6).

https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6b5z4

Rudert, S. C., & Janke, S. (2021). Following the crowd in times of crisis: Descriptive norms

predict physical distancing, stockpiling, and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19

pandemic. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 25(7).

https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qmn2t

Syropoulos, S., & Markowitz, E. M. (2021). Prosocial responses to COVID-19: Examining the

role of gratitude, fairness and legacy motives. Personality and Individual Differences,

171, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110488

Van Bavel, J. J., Cichocka, A., Capraro, V., Sjåstad, H., Nezlek, J. B., Pavlović, T., Alfano, M.,

Gelfand, M. J., Azevedo, F., Birtel, M. D., Cislak, A., Lockwood, P. L., Ross, R. M., Abts,

K., Agadullina, E., Aruta, J. J., Besharati, S. N., Bor, A., Choma, B. L., … Boggio, P. S.

(2022). National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic. Nature

Communications, 13(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9

Varma, M. M., Chen, D., Lin, X., Aknin, L. B., & Hu, X. (2023). Prosocial behavior promotes

positive emotion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emotion, 23(2), 538–553.

https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001077