The prosocial pandemic. COVID-19 reminders increase consumers’ prosocial behavior intentions

Abstract

Purpose Policies aiming to control the COVID-19 pandemic framed health guidelines as prosocial behav-iors. This research aims to explore whether contextual cues reminding of the COVID-19 pan-demic can activate prosocial goals unrelated to the pandemic. It is hypothesized that COVID-19 reminders, such as mask-wearing images, will increase prosocial behavioral intentions.

Design/methodology/approach Five studies (N = 956) test the hypotheses. Study 1 tests whether consumers chronically con-cerned with the pandemic show higher prosocial intentions. Studies 2–5 test if COVID-19-related media cues increase prosocial intentions when compared with control conditions.

Findings Consumers chronically concerned or exposed to pandemic-related cues showed higher proso-cial behavior intentions, were willing to donate more money and showed a higher preference to consume in smaller businesses. This tendency persisted after health policies ceased and was not explained by concerns with the pandemic or mortality salience, suggesting it may result from simple semantic associations between the COVID-19 pandemic and prosocial goals.

Research limitations/implications Subtle contextual cues can be used to promote prosocial behaviors benefiting from previous associations between health policies and prosocial goals. Future research should further explore the mechanism underlying the reported effect and explore other associations between prosocial behaviors and contextual information.

Practical implications Public health policies may be used for social marketing strategies and programs promoting pro-social behavior.

Social implications Prosocial intentions may be primed by contextual reminders of crises that are strongly associat-ed to a need to act in a prosocial way, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Originality/value This research provides new insights into the consequences of health policy programs focused on the promotion of prosocial behaviors. It also highlights how contextual cues associated with COVID-19 can prime socially responsible behaviors in different domains.