Psychological Well-Being Is Associated With Prosociality During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of Swedish and Chinese Samples

This study revisited the link between psychological well-being and prosociality during a global crisis from a cross-cultural perspective. We surveyed two large samples of Chinese (N-1 = 1,030; 89 regions; May 1-6, 2020) and Swedish (N-2 = 1,160; 22 regions; May 14-24, 2020) individuals during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Across both countries, we observed that psychological well-being was strongly associated with one's self-reported tendency to perform prosocial behaviors, including actions aimed at relieving the burden of the pandemic (e.g., money donation to charity organizations during COVID-19). Moreover, leveraging inter- and within-subject similarity approaches, our findings suggested that well-being was related to the coherence of prosocial behaviors across domains (including trust, cooperation, and altruism). Collectively, our replication effort shows that psychological well-being holds relevance for prosocial behaviors during a global crisis, with primarily invariance between individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Automated summary

This study revisited the relationship between psychological well-being and prosociality during a global crisis from a cross-cultural perspective. The findings showed a strong association between psychological well-being and self-reported tendency to engage in prosocial behaviors in both Chinese and Swedish samples, suggesting the relevance of psychological well-being for prosocial behaviors in individualistic and collectivistic cultures.