A dual-process approach to prosocial behavior under COVID-19 uncertainty

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 29;17(3):e0266050. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266050. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Uncertainty has been shown to reduce the willingness to cooperate in various social dilemmas and negatively affect prosocial behavior. However, some studies showed that uncertainty does not always decrease prosocial behavior, depending on the type of uncertainty. More specifically, recent research has shown that prosocial behavior tends to increase under impact uncertainty-uncertainty about the consequences for others if they become infected. In addition, researchers have argued that intuition favors prosocial behavior while deliberation leads to selfish behavior. Our study explored how intuitive (time pressure) or deliberate mental processing, under outcome, or impact uncertainty affect prosocial behavior in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our sample consists of 496 participants, and we used a 4 (COVID-19 scenario: Control vs. Impact Uncertainty vs. Worst-Case vs. Indirect Transmission) by 2 (decision time: time delay vs. time pressure) between-subjects design. Results suggest that participants are more inclined to stay at home (prosocial intention) when forced to make their decisions intuitively rather than deliberately. Additionally, we found that uncertainty does not always decrease prosocial behavior. It seems that uncertainty does not affect the prosocial intention in a scenario with a real infectious disease. These findings suggest that the distinction between outcome and impact uncertainty may be due to the realism of experimental stimuli interventions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Altruism
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Intuition
  • Pandemics
  • Social Behavior
  • Uncertainty

Grants and funding

This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (CIPsi/UM), School of Psychology, University of Minho, supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the State Budget (UIDB/01662/2020). The FCT also supported Daniela Costa through a PhD fellowship (PD/BD/143025/2018).