Strategies of Prosocial Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

To mitigate the potentially devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital to identify psychosocial and moral resources. The care, preservation, protection, and well-being of social communities are attributes of prosocial behavior that can be such a resource.

The purpose of the study is to identify the features of prosocial orientation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sample consisted of 447 people. The study was conducted in May 2020 in the form of an online survey of subjects using Google Forms (“Portrait Values Questionnaire”).

The research made it possible to establish that participants were dominated by values of benevolence-universalism. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the prosocial orientation may manifest itself in the following behavioral strategies: proactive prosocial strategy of “caring for others” (true altruism, expressed in forms of volunteering, helping a stranger, and charity despite the risk of contracting a coronavirus infection); egoistic strategy of prosocial behavior “self-care through caring for others” (volunteering based on self-development; helping a stranger to improve your own psychological well-being); conventional prosocial strategy “self-care” (self-isolation and preventive behavior).

In the long run, it is necessary to identify personal and environmental resources that can allow people to effectively implement a prosocial self-isolation strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as various forms of volunteerism.