Social norms (not threat) mediate willingness to sacrifice in individuals fused with the nation : Insights from the COVID-19 pandemic
Pretus, Clara (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)
Vilarroya Oliver, Óscar (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)

Date:	2022
Abstract:	Identity fusion with the community has been previously found to mediate altruism in post-disaster settings. However, whether this altruistic response is specifically triggered by ingroup threat, or whether it can also be triggered by global threats remains unclear. We evaluated willingness to sacrifice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic across three survey waves. Against expectations, participants fused with the nation (vs. non-fused) did not differentially respond to a national versus global threat condition. Conversely, social norms decisively influenced willingness to sacrifice in this sample, with fused individuals with stronger norms about social distancing reporting the highest altruistic response during the first weeks of the pandemic. Longitudinally, after an initial peak in the altruistic response, deteriorating social norms mediated decreases in willingness to sacrifice in individuals fused with the nation (vs. non-fused). Implications of these results for the development of interventions aimed to address global challenges are discussed.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación RTI2018-093952-B-I00
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Costly sacrifices ; COVID-19 ; Identity fusion ; Prosocial behaviour ; Social norms
Published in:	European Journal of Social Psychology, 2022 , ISSN 1099-0992

DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2851
PMID: 35942292

10 p, 1.6 MB

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