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 risk, and (alarming) information in behavioral adaptation play a
key—but independent—role.