COVID-19 protective behaviors are forms of prosocial and unselfish behaviors
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The aim of this study was to explore the effects of prosocial and antisocial personality tendencies and context-related state factors on compliance with protective behaviors to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections. Six types of prosocial tendencies (altruism, dire, compliant, emotional, public, and anonymous) and selfishness as the antisocial tendency were included as personality factors, while fear related to the pandemic and empathy toward vulnerable groups (i.e., those in forced isolation) were context-related factors. Furthermore, mediation effect of empathy and moderation effect of fear were explored in relations between personality factors and protective behaviors. The sample included 581 participants (78.3% females). The data were collected from March 28 to April 6, 2020, during the emergency state and curfew in Serbia. The results showed that tendency to help anonymously had a positive effect and selfishness had a negative effect on protective behaviors, over and above demographic characteristics and context-related factors. Among context-related factors, only fear related to the pandemic had a significant unique positive effect on protective behaviors, but it had no moderator effect in the relationship between personality traits and protective behaviors. However, empathy acted as a mediator and partly accounted for the negative effect of selfishness and positive effect of tendency to help anonymously on protective behaviors. The results revealed that compliance with protective measures could be seen as prosocial and unselfish form of behavior. Furthermore, these findings have practical implications for shaping public messages and they can help effectively promote health-responsible behaviors.
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Achieving the five pillars of a successful fight against emerging infectious diseases requires an ethical framework of prosociality, meaning that individuals and government regulations prioritise societal needs over narrow individual interests.
“To accomplish these five pillars requires an ethical framework of prosociality—the orientation of individuals and government regulations to the needs of society as a whole, rather than to narrow individual interests.”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [6]
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The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
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- Authors
- Dinić, B. M., & Bodroža, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Novi Sad (RS)
- Corresponding author
- Dinić, Bojana M.
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2021-04-09
- Volume
- 12
- Pages
- 647710-647710
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8062771
- OpenAlex
- W3156089762
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 8
- FWCI
- 18.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › COVID-19 Prevention and Impact
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, protective behavior, prosocial behavior, antisocial personality, selfishness, altruism, empathy, mediation, moderation, public messaging
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