Trust in government moderates the association between fear of COVID-19 as well as empathic concern and preventive behaviour

Arzu Karakulak, Beyza Tepe, Radosveta Dimitrova, Mohamed Abdelrahman, Plamen Akaliyski, Rana Alaseel, Yousuf Abdulqader Alkamali, Azzam Amin, Danny A Lizarzaburu Aguinaga, Andrii Andres, John Jamir Benzon R Aruta, Marios Assiotis, Hrant Avanesyan, Norzihan Ayub, Maria Bacikova-Sleskova, Raushan Baikanova, Batoul Bakkar, Sunčica Bartoluci, David Benitez, Ivanna BodnarAidos Bolatov, Judyta Borchet, Ksenija Bosnar, Yunier Broche-Pérez, Carmen Buzea, Rosalinda Cassibba, Marta Martín Carbonell, Bin-Bin Chen, Gordana Ristevska Dimitrovska, Dương Công Doanh, Alejandra Del Carmen Dominguez Espinosa, Wassim Gharz Edine, Nelli Ferenczi, Regina Fernández-Morales, Jorge Gaete, Yiqun Gan, Suely Giolo, Rubia Carla Formighieri Giordani, Maria-Therese Friehs, Shahar Gindi, Biljana Gjoneska, Juan Carlos Godoy, Maria Del Pilar Grazioso, Camellia Hancheva, Given Hapunda, Shogo Hihara, Mohd Saiful Husain, Md Saiful Islam, Anna Janovská, Nino Javakhishvili, Veljko Jovanović, Russell Sarwar Kabir, Nor Ba'yah Abdul Kadir, Johannes Karl, Darko Katović, Zhumaly Kauyzbay, Tinka Delakorda Kawashima, Maria Kazmierczak, Richa Khanna, Meetu Khosla, Martina Klicperová-Baker, Ana Kozina, Steven Eric Krauss, Rodrigo Landabur, Katharina Lefringhausen, Aleksandra Lewandowska-Walter, Yun-Hsia Liang, Ana Makashvili, Sadia Malik, Denisse Manrique-Millones, Stefanos Mastrotheodoros, Breeda McGrath, Enkeleint A Mechili, Marinés Mejía, Samson Mhizha, Justyna Michalek-Kwiecien, Diana Miconi, Fatema Mohsen, Rodrigo Moreta-Herrera, Camila Muhl, Maria Muradyan, Pasquale Musso, Andrej Naterer, Arash Nemat, Felix Neto, Joana Neto, Luz Marina Alonso Palacio, Hassan Okati-Aliabad, Carlos Iván Orellana, Ligia María Orellana, Sushanta Kumar Mishra, Joonha Park, Iuliia Pavlova, Eddy Peralta, Petro Petrytsa, Saša Pišot, Franjo Prot, José Rasia, Rita Rivera, Benedicta Prihatin Dwi Riyanti, Adil Samekin, Telman Seisembekov, Danielius Serapinas, Fabiola Silletti, Prerna Sharma, Shanu Shukla, Katarzyna Skrzypińska, Iva Poláčková Šolcová, Olga Solomontos-Kountouri, Adrian Stanciu, Delia Stefenel, Lorena Cecilia López Steinmetz, Maria Stogianni, Jaimee Stuart, Laura Francisca Sudarnoto, Kazumi Sugimura, Sadia Sultana, Angela Oktavia Suryani, Ergyul Tair, Lucy Tavitian-Elmadjan, Luciana Dutra Thome, Fitim Uka, Rasa Pilkauskaitė Valickienė, Brett Walter, Guilherme W Wendt, Pei-Jung Yang, Ebrar Yıldırım, Yue Yu, Maria Angela Mattar Yunes, Milene Zanoni da Silva, Maksim Rudnev

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

With the COVID-19 pandemic, behavioural scientists aimed to illuminate reasons why people comply with (or not) large-scale cooperative activities. Here we investigated the motives that underlie support for COVID-19 preventive behaviours in a sample of 12,758 individuals from 34 countries. We hypothesized that the associations of empathic prosocial concern and fear of disease with support towards preventive COVID-19 behaviours would be moderated by trust in the government. Results suggest that the association between fear of disease and support for COVID-19 preventive behaviours was strongest when trust in the government was weak (both at individual- and country-level). Conversely, the association with empathic prosocial concern was strongest when trust in the government was high, but this moderation was only found at individual-level scores of governmental trust. We discuss how motivations may be shaped by socio-cultural context, and outline how findings may contribute to a better understanding of collective action during global crises.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)43
JournalCommunications psychology
Volume1
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

© 2023. The Author(s).

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