Social Identity and Prosocial Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global recalibration of social bonds and collective action, revealing how shared identities underpin both compliance with health measures and voluntary support for others. Drawing on the social identity approach, research emphasises the potency of group belonging—from family and neighbourhood to nation and humanity—in shaping individuals’ willingness to adopt distancing, hygiene and vaccination behaviours. When people regard a particular social group as central to their self‐concept, they are more likely to internalise group norms and act in the group’s interest, whether by limiting mobility to curb virus spread or by volunteering to deliver groceries to vulnerable neighbours. Cultural context moderates these processes: in collectivist societies, identification with the nation or extended community bolstered emotional resilience and adherence, whereas in more individualistic settings, close‐knit family ties proved particularly salient for psychological well‐being. Beyond compliance, prosocial behaviour flourished through mutual aid networks, coordinated community helping and digitally mediated support, underscoring the importance of perceived social support in sustaining giving and collective efficacy. The interplay of emotion, values and norms suggests that effective public health strategies should harness shared identities to reinforce protective behaviours and foster solidarity in times of crisis.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have examined how patterns of social connection and emotion co-evolved during pandemic phase transitions in different cultural milieus. One investigation of social media discourse in China and the United States found that expressions of anxiety, sadness and anger followed distinct trajectories under lockdown and that deepening connections with ‘country’ in China and with ‘family’ in the US mitigated negative emotional impact. This work highlights how culturally shaped identity foci can buffer distress and inform tailored public health communication. Earlier in the pandemic, a large international collaboration across nearly 50 000 participants in over 60 countries demonstrated that individuals with stronger national identification reported higher engagement in distancing and hygiene behaviours and greater support for restrictive policies. These effects were corroborated by analyses linking pre‐pandemic national identity indices to reductions in mobility observed via aggregated location data, illustrating the predictive power of collective identity for real‐world behaviour.

Social Identity and Prosocial Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in social identity and prosocial behavior during the covid-19 pandemic across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Social identity: A person’s sense of self derived from membership in social groups and the emotional significance attached to that membership.

Prosocial behavior: Voluntary actions intended to benefit others, such as helping, sharing or cooperating during crisis situations.

In-group norms: Shared expectations and rules that guide behaviour among members of the same social group.

Collective efficacy: The belief in a group’s joint capability to organise and execute actions required to achieve desired outcomes, such as controlling disease spread.

References

1. Social bonds are related to health behaviors and positive well-being globally. Science Advances (2023).
2. The role of emotion and social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic phase transitions: a cross-cultural comparison of China and the United States. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2024).
3. National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic. Nature Communications (2022).
4. Harnessing Shared Identities to Mobilize Resilient Responses to the COVID‐19 Pandemic. Political Psychology (2021).
5. The mental health benefits of community helping during crisis: Coordinated helping, community identification and sense of unity during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology (2021).
6. Collectively coping with coronavirus: Local community identification predicts giving support and lockdown adherence during the COVID‐19 pandemic. British Journal of Social Psychology (2021).