心理学报2025，Vol.57Issue(4)：652-670,中插16-中插17,21.DOI:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2025.0652
联结还是疏离:探究疫情死亡凸显对亲社会意愿的影响及其作用机制
Connecting or isolating:Investigating the influence of pandemic mortality salience on prosocial intention
摘要
Abstract
Research has found that mortality salience leads to increased engagement with a cultural worldview,as reflected in heightened prosocial intentions.During the COVID-19 pandemic,the influence of mortality salience on prosocial intention may be distinct.Pandemic mortality salience encompasses information from both pandemic and mortality saliences,with each representing a distinct facet.We hypothesized two opposing mechanisms:On one hand,pandemic salience activates the behavioral immune system,prompting individuals to avoid potential pathogen threats and consequently reducing their prosocial intention.On the other hand,mortality salience initiates cultural worldview defense,prompting individuals to identify with group beliefs and universal values,thus promoting prosocial intentions. Experiment 1 compared typical mortality salience(TMS)and pandemic mortality salience(PMS)conditions to pain salience(PS)control condition.We hypothesized that pandemic salience weakens mortality salience's effect on promoting prosocial intention.Consequently,we expected that unlike in the TMS condition,pandemic prosocial intention(prosocial intention in pandemic scenarios)in the PMS condition would not significantly increase compared to the PS control condition.However,Experiment 1 was limited in that the TMS and PMS differed in nature,with the latter being more contextually oriented.Hence,Experiment 2 aimed to replicate the findings of Experiment 1 by replacing the TMS condition with the earthquake mortality salience(EMS)condition.Experiment 3 explored whether mortality salience also diminishes the effect of pandemic salience on reducing prosocial intention by comparing prosocial intention under the pandemic non-mortality salience(PNMS),PMS,and PS conditions.As the resource allocation task used to measure prosocial intention in Experiments 1 and 2 potentially led to lower ecological validity,Experiment 3 enhanced the measurement of prosocial intention by assessing volunteer willingness in two scenarios:with and without face-to-face interaction.Experiments 1-3 were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic,and Experiment 5 was partially repeated in Experiment 3 in the post-pandemic era.Furthermore,Experiment 6 explored the effects of salience types on non-pandemic prosocial behavior(prosocial behavior unrelated to the pandemic).Experiment 4 served as a control experiment to assess the effectiveness of the salience manipulations. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that compared to the PS control condition,pandemic prosocial intention increased in the TMS and EMS conditions,but not in the PMS condition.This suggests that pandemic salience in the PMS might attenuate the effect of mortality salience in promoting prosocial intention.Experiment 3 revealed that in face-to-face scenarios,participants in the PNMS condition exhibited a lower willingness to help than those in either the PS control or PMS condition,with no significant difference between the PS control and PMS conditions.These results suggest that mortality salience in the PMS may also weaken the effect of pandemic salience on reducing prosocial intention,thus confirming the initial hypothesis.In Experiment 5(data collected after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic),there were no significant differences in pandemic prosocial intention among the PNMS,PMS,and PS conditions.However,a mediating effect of the behavioral immune system was observed.Furthermore,for non-pandemic prosocial intention,the PMS group showed higher levels than the control group(with marginal significance),suggesting that in the post-pandemic era,or when prosocial nature was unrelated to the pandemic,the reducing effect of pandemic salience on prosocial intention weakened,whereas the enhancing effect of mortality salience on prosocial intention became evident.Experiment 6 revealed no significant differences in non-pandemic prosocial behavior between the PNMS,PMS,and PS conditions,suggesting that the effects of salience types on non-pandemic prosocial intention in this study cannot be directly generalized to non-pandemic prosocial behavior. In conclusion,this study separated the effects of mortality and pandemic salience on prosocial intention and revealed that these effects manifest differently across different societal periods.关键词
疫情凸显/死亡凸显/亲社会意愿Key words
pandemic salience/mortality salience/prosocial intention分类
心理学引用本文复制引用
孟鲁,田宇浩,王海飞,董佳一,蔺星儒,籍宏伟,田启瑞,周梁..联结还是疏离:探究疫情死亡凸显对亲社会意愿的影响及其作用机制[J].心理学报,2025,57(4):652-670,中插16-中插17,21.基金项目
国家自然科学基金(32100853,31871100),山东省自然科学基金(ZR2021QC134),山东省高等学校"青创团队计划"团队(2023KJ196)资助. （32100853,31871100）
