Assessment of the effects of health and financial threat on prosocial and antisocial responses during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of empathic concern

Celia Serrano-Montilla; María Alonso-Ferres; Ginés Navarro-Carrillo; Luis M Lozano; Inmaculada Valor-Segura

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.110855

Assessment of the effects of health and financial threat on prosocial and antisocial responses during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of empathic concern

Pers Individ Dif. 2021 Aug:178:110855. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110855. Epub 2021 Mar 23.

Authors

Celia Serrano-Montilla¹, María Alonso-Ferres², Ginés Navarro-Carrillo³, Luis M Lozano¹, Inmaculada Valor-Segura²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Methodology for Behavioral Sciences, University of Granada, Spain.
² Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Spain.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Spain.

Abstract

This research aims to elucidate the connection of perceived health and financial threat linked to the COVID-19 pandemic with the willingness to engage in prosocial and antisocial behaviors, while also testing the potential mediating role of empathic concern. During the lockdown period, a sample of Spanish community members (N = 702) filled in a multi-measure online survey. Our results revealed that (a) COVID-19 health (but not financial) threat predicted a greater tendency to express prosocial actions, (b) none of these forms of COVID-19 threat predicted antisocial inclinations, and (c) empathic concern mediated the effects of COVID-19 health threat on both prosocial and antisocial tendencies. Findings speak to the ongoing debate about whether individuals most psychologically impacted by the pandemic would tend to respond in a more prosocial or antisocial manner.

Keywords: Antisocial tendencies; COVID-19; Empathic concern; Prosocial tendencies; Threat.