Shared fate was associated with sustained cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic
Did the COVID-19 pandemic bring people together or push them apart? While infectious diseases tend to push people apart, crises can also bring people together through positive interdependence. We studied this question by asking an international sample (N = 1,006) about their inclinations to cooperate, perceptions of interdependence (i.e., shared fate), and perceived risk as well as local prevalence of COVID-19 infection across 14 time points from March to August, 2020. While perceived interdependence with others tended to increase during this time period, inclinations to cooperate decreased over time. At the within-person level, higher local prevalence of COVID-19 attenuated increases in perceived interdependence with others, and was associated with lower inclinations to cooperate. At the between-person level, people with high perceived interdependence with others reported more stable, or increasing, inclinations to cooperate over time than people with low perceived interdependence. Establishing a high sense of perceived interdependence with others may thus allow people to maintain cooperation during crises, even in the face of challenging circumstances such as those posed by a highly transmissible virus.
Authors
- Athena Aktipis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7128-670X)
- Joe Alcock (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0807-164X)
- Diego Guevara Beltrán (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3667-052X)
- Geoffrey T Miller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2234-3093)
- Andrew Van Horn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5203-8049)
- Keith G. Tidball (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9856-8731)
- Scott Claessens
- Lee Cronk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7583-7417)
- Pamela Winfrey
- Emily Zarka
- Nicole Hudson
- Hector Hurmuz-Sklias (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0667-129X)
- Peter M. Todd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0231-513X)
- Jessica D. Ayers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7722-0376)
- Cristina Baciu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6314-0869)
Institutions
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Boise State University (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- University of New Mexico (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- Indiana University Bloomington (US)
- Tempe Union High School District (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PLoS ONE
- Published
- 2024-09-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307829
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.69
Funders
- John Templeton Foundation
- Arizona State University
- University of Arizona
- Charles Koch Foundation
- School of Medicine, University of New Mexico
- College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington