The Conflicting Impact of COVID-19’s Health and Economic Crises on Helping
By Mindy Shoss, Kristin Horan, Michael DiStaso, Chelsea LeNoble, Anthony Naranjo
Every day, news headlines juxtapose reports on the economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. These reports serve as indications of the double-punch of the pandemic and how it has profoundly impacted both people’s lives and livelihoods. The exit polls from the recent US election suggest that votes were determined in large part by people’s beliefs about whether the pandemic or economy should be prioritized in recovery. Those who voted for President Donald Trump overwhelmingly indicated belief that the country should try to save the economy even if it means worsening the pandemic. In contrast, those who voted for President-Elect Joe Biden felt that it was more important to contain the virus even at the cost of the economy. How might these opposing perspectives influence what people do and how they interact with one another during the pandemic? Since nothing in recent history compares to the ways this pandemic has affected the US, previous research may not be entirely able to answer this question.
In light of the fact that both the disaster and business literatures state that helping is critical for recovery from disasters and downturns, our team investigated how economic and health-related aspects of the pandemic impact helping, both for society at large and within the workplace. We wanted to know how the economic versus health perspectives might explain helping behavior at both of these levels because that information could make it easier to facilitate and encourage helping in the future. Our findings suggest that, at a broad society level, having concerns about the economic elements of the crisis (like work hours loss) may make people less likely to help. Within the workplace, people who express concerns about the health issues at work (potential COVID-19 exposure) report that they provide more help to coworkers but less help to customers.
These results emerge from two studies. Using a service that tracks the popularity of internet searches over time, we first examined whether searches for “how to help” were relatively higher or lower on days that people also searched for “COVID” and for “recession” during the 143 days between March 1, 2020 and July 21, 2020. Especially given that people were socially isolated and had limited access to other sources of information, web search data provides useful insights into what people are thinking about at any given point in time. We found that on the days where search interest in recession was higher, search interest in helping was lower.
Our second study surveyed employees about their experiences at work. To explore the opposing economic and health crisis perspectives, we asked people about their concerns about COVID-19 exposure on the job as well as concerns about work hours insecurity. Concern about job-related COVID-19 exposure reflects attention being directed towards the health aspect of the pandemic. Works hours insecurity captures employees’ concerns about whether they’ll have sufficient work hours in the future. We found that work hours insecurity was related to less help being given to coworkers. Concerns about job-related COVID exposure was associated with greater help directed to coworkers but less help directed at customers.
These findings echo psychological research that suggests people who think resources are scarce (i.e., the pie is shrinking) are more likely think in a zero-sum mindset that makes them act less caringly toward others. In contrast, a more disaster mindset of “we’re all in this together” may promote helping behavior in light of concerns about the COVID-19 disaster. Given that COVID-19 is spread through person-to-person contact, helping may be directed more to people who reflect a known risk (e.g., coworkers) as opposed to customers who reflect a more ambiguous risk.
Returning to the U.S. Presidential Exit Poll, our research suggests that viewing the pandemic and economy as either-or sets up a false dichotomy that may be unproductive from a helping standpoint. To facilitate recovery from the pandemic’s health and economic crises, there is a very real need for people to come together and help one another. The best strategy is to recognize that both of these perspectives matter to people and to tackle economic and health elements at the same time. Practically, this suggests at least three simultaneous strategies: (1) businesses and governments concerned with economic impacts must not lose sight of the disaster element of this crisis; (2) businesses need to reduce the virus exposure risk that helping poses, for example, by requiring customers to follow safety protocols; (3) businesses and governments need to reduce economic insecurity (e.g., through enhancing the social safety net).
Article Details
The Conflicting Impact of COVID-19’s Health and Economic Crises on Helping
Mindy Shoss, Kristin Horan, Michael DiStaso, Chelsea LeNoble, Anthony Naranjo
First Published October 26, 2020 Research Article
DOI: 10.1177/1059601120968704
Group & Organization Management
About the Authors
