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An unintended consequence of social distance regulations: COVID‐19 social distancing promotes the desire for money
Author(s) -
Lee ChunChia,
Chen YenJung,
Wu PaiLu,
Chiou WenBin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/bjop.12497
Subject(s) - social distance , dictator game , social psychology , psychology , perspective (graphical) , prosocial behavior , altruism (biology) , ultimatum game , covid-19 , medicine , disease , pathology , artificial intelligence , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Social distance regulations have been widely adopted during the global COVID‐19 pandemic. From an evolutionary perspective, social connection and money are interchangeable subsistence resources for human survival. The substitutability principle of human motivation posits that scarcity in one domain (e.g., social connection) could motivate people to acquire or maintain resources in another domain (e.g., money). Two experiments were conducted to test the possibility that COVID‐19 social distancing enhances the desire for money. Results showed that compared with controls, participants receiving social distancing primes (via recollection of experiences of social distancing or a Chinese glossary‐search task) offered less money in the dictator game, showed lower willingness towards charitable donation (Experiment 1; N = 102), donated less money to a student fund, and rated money as having more importance (Experiment 2; N = 140). Our findings have far‐reaching implications for financial decisions, charitable donations, and prosociality during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic.