Exposure to the Covid-19 pandemic and generosity in Spain

We report data from an online experiment, which allow us to study how generosity has changed during the initial explosive growth of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain. We have gathered data from over a six-day period in which Covid-19-associated deaths in Spain, one of the most affected countries in the corresponding period, increased fourfold. In our experiment, participants could donate a fraction of a €100 prize to a charity. Our data are particularly rich in the age distribution and we complement them with daily public information about the Covid-19-related deaths, infections, and hospital admissions. We find correlational evidence that donations decreased in the period under study and scale down with the public information about the life and health impact of the pandemic. The effect is particularly pronounced among older subjects. Our analysis of the mechanisms behind the detected decrease in solidarity suggests that subjects’ expectations about others’ behavior, perceived mortality ri...本研究报道一项线上实验的相关数据，借此探究西班牙新冠疫情（COVID-19）初期暴发式增长阶段民众慷慨行为的变化趋势。本次数据采集周期超过6天，在此期间，作为同期受疫情冲击最严重的国家之一，西班牙的新冠相关死亡病例数增长至原先的四倍。本实验中，参与者可从100欧元的奖励金中捐献部分金额至慈善机构。本数据集的年龄分布维度尤为详实，同时我们补充了每日公开的新冠相关死亡、感染及住院收治数据。研究发现存在相关证据表明：实验期间捐赠行为有所减少，且该减少幅度随疫情对生命健康造成影响的公开信息增加而缩减。该效应在老年受试者群体中尤为显著。本研究针对检测到的互助行为下降背后的机制展开分析，结果显示受试者对他人行为的预期、感知到的死亡风险……