Prosociality During COVID-19: Pathways Through Affect, Financial Stress, Well-being, and Collective Disempowerment across 39 Countries

Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in great loss of life worldwide and shook the global economy, required individuals’ willingness and ability to behave prosocially. To contribute to the understanding of predictors of prosociality, we used multilevel models to test three previously established pathways to prosocial behavior, which we call the “broaden and build”, compensation, and incapacity pathways. We also tested whether these three paths are mediated by general wellbeing, and moderated by collective disempowerment, i.e., individuals’ belief that external societal forces have made it harder for people like them to function effectively. Participants from 39 countries (N= 59987) were surveyed on their willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors in the context of the pandemic. The “broaden and build” pathway was supported: positive affect was associated with willingness to engage in prosocial behavior via higher well-being. Two (in)capacity paths were also supported: financial strain and negative affect were both negatively associated with prosociality via lower well-being. A compensation pathway was also observed: Controlling for lower well-being, negative affect was associated with greater prosociality. Finally, differences in disempowerment moderated the affective pathways: higher disempowerment strengthened the positive association of positive affect with prosociality via well-being, and buffered the negative affect incapacity path.