Li Shuaiqi, Li Kehan, Li Jianbiao
School of Finance, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, People's Republic of China.
School of Economics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, People's Republic of China.
Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2023 Mar 24;16:971-987. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S401420. eCollection 2023.
This study assesses how various social information influence individuals' money donation behaviors towards charitable funds against the COVID-19 pandemic at different stages of the pandemic. It also explores the mediating role of social anxiety and the moderating role of self-control.
This three-wave study was conducted with online survey experiments using convenience sampling at the pandemic's outbreak stage (April-June 2020), trough stage (February-March 2021), and resurgence stage (May 2022) in China. The nudge power of social information was measured by whether participants changed their initial money donation decisions after informed positive or negative social information. Self-report scales were used to measure levels of social anxiety (Social Interaction Anxiety Scale) and self-control (Self-Control Scale). The final data set included 1371 participants from 26 provinces of mainland China. Stata medeff package and SPSS PROCESS were used to analyze the data.
Individuals' initial donation behaviors did not fluctuate along with the pandemic status, but the nudge effect of social information did. From outbreak stage to trough stage, the nudge power of positive social information significantly declined, but did not significantly change again at the resurgence stage. By contrast, the nudge power of negative social information did not significantly differ between outbreak and trough stage but did significantly increase at the resurgence stage. Social anxiety played a significant mediating role in the relationship between COVID-19 status and power of social information. Moreover, self-control moderated the direct effect of COVID-19 status on power of social information and the indirect effect via social anxiety.
Our findings enrich research on the nudge power variation of social information on individuals' donation behaviors along with the pandemic status and its potential psychological influence factors. This study also helps guide organizations to better design and carry out social information nudge mechanism.
本研究评估了在新冠疫情不同阶段，各种社会信息如何影响个体对新冠疫情慈善基金的捐款行为。同时，本研究还探讨了社交焦虑的中介作用以及自我控制的调节作用。
本三阶段研究采用便利抽样法，于中国疫情爆发阶段（2020年4月至6月）、低谷阶段（2021年2月至3月）和复苏阶段（2022年5月）进行在线调查实验。社会信息的助推力通过参与者在得知正面或负面社会信息后是否改变其初始捐款决定来衡量。采用自我报告量表来测量社交焦虑水平（社交互动焦虑量表）和自我控制水平（自我控制量表）。最终数据集包括来自中国大陆26个省份的1371名参与者。使用Stata medeff软件包和SPSS PROCESS对数据进行分析。
个体的初始捐款行为并未随疫情状况而波动，但社会信息的助推效应却有所不同。从爆发阶段到低谷阶段，正面社会信息的助推力显著下降，但在复苏阶段没有再次显著变化。相比之下，负面社会信息的助推力在爆发阶段和低谷阶段之间没有显著差异，但在复苏阶段显著增加。社交焦虑在新冠疫情状况与社会信息力量之间的关系中起到了显著的中介作用。此外，自我控制调节了新冠疫情状况对社会信息力量的直接影响以及通过社交焦虑产生的间接影响。
我们的研究结果丰富了关于社会信息对个体捐款行为的助推力随疫情状况变化及其潜在心理影响因素的研究。本研究还有助于指导组织更好地设计和实施社会信息助推机制。
