Social distancing as altruism in the context of the coronavirus pandemic: A cross-cultural study

Abstract

11 March 2020. COVID-19 is declared a pandemic. The era of “social distance” has come, characterized as minimizing contacts between people and maintaining the one-to-two meter distance between individuals. Reduction of interpersonal contacts and increased social distance are part of behavioural adaptation to epidemics in the human evolution. In this article we consider social distance as an act of altruism toward fellow citizens. The society found itself facing a moral dilemma – COVID-19 poses little risk to healthy persons, while social distance and isolation impose limits on everyone. The benefits of keeping precautionary measures in place are vital for the groups most at risk, and the community as a whole benefits greatly by reducing the likelihood of a large-scale outbreak. This study was conducted among Russian-speaking respondents living or staying in various countries, as well as in Russia, at the time of the outbreak and spread of the coronavirus. We used a set of methods: semi-structured in-depth interview, questionnaires, the “snowball” method, photographing elements of people’s behaviour during the pandemic, as well as content analysis of news stories in the media. A total of 371 profiles (48 men and 323 women) from 33 countries were collected. Our data show that individual behaviour in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is influenced by factors such as country of residence, sex, level of stress, trust in authorities, awareness of the prescribed rules of behaviour, cultural norms, and traditions. Moreover, these factors affect both the perception of the situation and the implementation of the authorities’ recommendations.