Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Yi Ding, Tingting Ji and Yongyu Guo
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Yi Ding: School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China
Tingting Ji: School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China
Yongyu Guo: School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 22, 1-10

Abstract: The behavioral immune system (BIS) theory suggests that pathogen avoidance motives relate to greater behavioral avoidance against social interactions that pose potential risks of pathogen transmission. Based on the BIS theory, pathogen avoidance motives would decrease people’s helping behavior towards others. However, would pathogen avoidance motives decrease all types of helping behavior towards others during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (i.e., COVID-19) pandemic indiscriminately? In the present study, we conducted a within-subjects design to compare people’s helping intentions toward voluntary work with and without social contact. Specifically, participants ( N = 1562) completed an online survey at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in China measuring pathogen disgust sensitivity, state anxiety, and intentions to perform volunteer work with and without social contact. Results revealed that pathogen disgust sensitivity negatively predicted intentions to perform voluntary work with social contact yet had no influence on intentions to perform socially distanced voluntary work. Moreover, the effect of pathogen disgust sensitivity on socially distanced volunteering preference was mediated by the state anxiety people experienced during the pandemic. The findings have implications for understanding people’s helping behavior during the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; behavioral immune system; disgust sensitivity; helping; social distancing; anxiety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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