The emotional path to action: Empathy promotes physical distancing and wearing of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Standard
The emotional path to action: Empathy promotes physical distancing and wearing of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. / Pfattheicher, Stefan; Nockur, Laila; Böhm, Robert; Sassenrath, Claudia; Petersen, Michael Bang.
I: Psychological Science, Bind 31, Nr. 11, 2020, s. 1363–1373.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - The emotional path to action: Empathy promotes physical distancing and wearing of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic
AU - Pfattheicher, Stefan
AU - Nockur, Laila
AU - Böhm, Robert
AU - Sassenrath, Claudia
AU - Petersen, Michael Bang
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic presents a major challenge to societies all over the globe. Two measures implemented in many countries to curb the spread of the disease are (a) minimizing close contact between people (“physical distancing”) and (b) wearing of face masks. In the present research, we tested the idea that physical distancing and wearing of face masks can be the result of a prosocial emotional process—empathy for people most vulnerable to the virus. In four preregistered studies (N = 3,718, Western population), we found that (a) empathy indeed relates to the motivation to adhere to physical distancing and to wearing face masks and (b) inducing empathy for people most vulnerable to the virus promotes the motivation to adhere to these measures (whereas merely providing information about the importance of the measures does not). In sum, the present research provides a better understanding of the factors underlying the willingness to follow two important measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic presents a major challenge to societies all over the globe. Two measures implemented in many countries to curb the spread of the disease are (a) minimizing close contact between people (“physical distancing”) and (b) wearing of face masks. In the present research, we tested the idea that physical distancing and wearing of face masks can be the result of a prosocial emotional process—empathy for people most vulnerable to the virus. In four preregistered studies (N = 3,718, Western population), we found that (a) empathy indeed relates to the motivation to adhere to physical distancing and to wearing face masks and (b) inducing empathy for people most vulnerable to the virus promotes the motivation to adhere to these measures (whereas merely providing information about the importance of the measures does not). In sum, the present research provides a better understanding of the factors underlying the willingness to follow two important measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - COVID-19
KW - empathy
KW - face masks
KW - physical distancing
KW - prosociality
KW - open data
KW - open materials
KW - preregistered
U2 - 10.1177/0956797620964422
DO - 10.1177/0956797620964422
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32993455
VL - 31
SP - 1363
EP - 1373
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
SN - 0956-7976
IS - 11
ER -
ID: 249906008