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

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 towar...

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Autores principales:	Yi Ding, Tingting Ji, Yongyu Guo
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	COVID-19 behavioral immune system disgust sensitivity helping social distancing anxiety Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/4db947fd636f413e83050eb91534188e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:4db947fd636f413e83050eb91534188e2021-11-25T17:51:15ZHelping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic10.3390/ijerph1822121131660-46011661-7827https://doaj.org/article/4db947fd636f413e83050eb91534188e2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/12113https://doaj.org/toc/1661-7827https://doaj.org/toc/1660-4601The 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 (<i>N</i> = 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.Yi DingTingting JiYongyu GuoMDPI AGarticleCOVID-19behavioral immune systemdisgust sensitivityhelpingsocial distancinganxietyMedicineRENInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 12113, p 12113 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	COVID-19 behavioral immune system disgust sensitivity helping social distancing anxiety Medicine R
spellingShingle	COVID-19 behavioral immune system disgust sensitivity helping social distancing anxiety Medicine R Yi Ding Tingting Ji Yongyu Guo Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
description	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 (<i>N</i> = 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.
format	article
author	Yi Ding Tingting Ji Yongyu Guo
author_facet	Yi Ding Tingting Ji Yongyu Guo
author_sort	Yi Ding
title	Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short	Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full	Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr	Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed	Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort	helping while social distancing: pathogen avoidance motives influence people’s helping intentions during the covid-19 pandemic
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/4db947fd636f413e83050eb91534188e
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Helping While Social Distancing: Pathogen Avoidance Motives Influence People’s Helping Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic

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