‘We are all in the same boat’: How societal discontent affects intention to help during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Main Authors: Resta, Elena, Mula, Silvana, Baldner, Conrad, Di Santo, Daniela, Maximilian, Agostini, Belanger, Jocelyn J, Gutzkow, Ben, Kreienkamp, Jannis, Abakoumkin, Georgios, Abdul Khaiyom, Jamilah Hanum, PsyCorona, Collaboration, Leander, N Pontus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: John Wiley and Sons Ltd 2021
• Subjects: BF Psychology; BF309 Consciousness. Cognition; BF501 Motivation; BF511 Affection. Feeling. Emotion; H Social Sciences (General); HM Sociology; HM1001 Social psychology; RA Public aspects of medicine; RA644.C67 Coronavirus infections. COVID-19 (Disease). COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/95821/1/2021_PsyCorona%20Collaboration_JCASP.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/95821/; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/casp.2572; https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2572

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has cau-sed a global health crisis. Consequently, many countries have adopted restrictive measures that caused a substantial change in society. Within this framework, it is reasonable to suppose that a sentiment of societal discontent, defined as generalized concern about the precarious state of society, has arisen. Literature shows that collectively experienced sit-uations can motivate people to help each other. Since societal discontent is conceptualized as a collective phenomenon, we argue that it could influence intention to help others, particu-larly those who suffer from coronavirus. Thus, in the present study, we aimed (a) to explore the relationship between soci-etal discontent and intention to help at the individual level and (b) to investigate a possible moderating effect of societal discontent at the country level on this relationship. To fulfil our purposes, we used data collected in 42 countries (N = 61,734) from the PsyCorona Survey, a cross-national longitudinal study. Results of multilevel analysis showed that, when societal discontent is experienced by the entire com-munity, individuals dissatisfied with society are more prone to help others. Testing the model with longitudinal data (N = 3,817) confirmed our results. Implications for those find-ings are discussed in relation to crisis management. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this arti-cle's Community and Social Impact Statement.