Social norms (not threat) mediate willingness to sacrifice in individuals fused with the nation. Insights from the COVID-19 pandemic

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 sacrif...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Pretus, Clara, Vilarroya, Óscar
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/55617
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/55617
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2851
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:COVID‐19
Costly sacrifices
Identity fusion
Prosocial behaviour
Social norms
Descrição
Resumo: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.