- Published
- 15 December 2023
- Journal article
Trust in government moderates the association between fear of COVID-19 as well as empathic concern and preventive behaviour
- Authors
-
- Source
- Communications Psychology
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.
Rights
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Cite as
Karakulak, A., Tepe, B., Dimitrova, R., Abdelrahman, M., Akaliyski, P., Alaseel, R., Alkamali, Y., Amin, A., Lizarzaburu-Aguinaga, D., Andres, A., Aruta, J., Assiotis, M., Avanesyan, H., Ayub, N., Bacikova-Sleskova, M., Baikanova, R., Bakkar, B., Bartoluci, S., Benitez, D., Bodnar, I., Bolatov, A., Borchet, J., Bosnar, K., Broche-Pérez, Y., Buzea, C., Cassibba, R., Martín-Carbonell, M., Chen, B., Ristevska Dimitrovska, G., Duong, C., Dominguez Espinosa, A., Edine, W., Ferenczi, N., Fernández-Morales, R., Gaete, J., Gan, Y., Giolo, S., Formighieri Giordani, R., Friehs, M., Gindi, S., Gjoneska, B., Godoy, J., del Pilar Grazioso, M., Doncheva Hancheva, C., Hapunda, G., Hihara, S., Husain, M., Islam, M., Janovská, A., Javakhishvili, N., Jovanović, V., Kabir, R., Kadir, N., Karl, J., Katović, D., Kauyzbay, Z., Delakorda Kawashima, T., Kaźmierczak, M., Khanna, R., Khosla, M., Klicperová-Baker, M., Kozina, A., Krauss, S., Landabur, R., Lefringhausen, K., Lewandowska-Walter, A., Liang, Y., Makashvili, A., Malik, S., Manrique-Millones, D., Mastrotheodoros, S., McGrath, B., Mechili, E., Mejía, M., Mhizha, S., Michałek-Kwiecień, J., Miconi, D., Mohsen, F., Moreta-Herrera, R., Muhl, C., Muradyan, M., Musso, P., Naterer, A., Nemat, A., Neto, F., Neto, J., Alonso Palacio, L., Okati-Aliabad, H., Orellana, C., Orellana, L., Mishra, S., Park, J., Pavlova, I., Peralta, E., Petrytsa, P., Pišot, S., Prot, F., Rasia, J., Rivera, R., Riyanti, B., Samekin, A., Seisembekov, T., Serapinas, D., Silletti, F., Sharma, P., Shukla, S., Skrzypińska, K., Poláčková Šolcová, I., Solomontos-Kountouri, O., Stanciu, A., Ştefenel, D., López Steinmetz, L., Stogianni, M., Stuart, J., Sudarnoto, L., Sugimura, K., Sultana, S., Suryani, A., Tair, E., Tavitian-Elmadjian, L., Thome, L., Uka, F., Pilkauskaitė Valickienė, R., Walter, B., Wendt, G., Yang, P., Yıldırım, E., Yu, Y., Mattar Yunes, M., Zanoni da Silva, M. & Rudnev, M. 2023, 'Trust in government moderates the association between fear of COVID-19 as well as empathic concern and preventive behaviour', Communications Psychology, 1, article no: 43. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00046-5