Prosocial Behavior Can Safeguard Mental Health and Foster Emotional Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Happiness, Anxiety, Depression
About this trial
This is an interventional supportive care trial for Happiness
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
- Canadian and American respondents from the Amazon Mechanical Turk
Exclusion Criteria:
Respondents will be excluded from the study if any of the following apply:
- A respondent completes the baseline study unrealistically quickly. We measure response speed using the average number seconds spent on each survey item (seconds per item, or SPI). We judge a response to be unrealistically fast if its SPI value is less than 1. SPI calculations will exclude optional items.
- A respondent does not complete at least half of the items in the baseline survey.
- A respondent provides off-topic, non-sensical (e.g., random or gibberish words), or non-English responses to an open-ended question in the baseline survey. The open-ended question follows a dictator game (that is not part of the pre-registered portion of the study) and asks respondents what they hoped to accomplish by acting as they did during the dictator game. The specific nature of this question will make it straightforward to detect off-topic responses. A comment must be judged as off-topic, non-sensical, or non-English by two members of the research team to be excluded.
- A respondent does not agree to continue with the study when asked if they wish to continue taking part in the study at the end of the baseline study, or in private correspondence with the researchers.
- A respondent completes the baseline study using an IP address from outside Canada or the United States, or that appears to originate from a VPS or other suspicious source.
- Technical difficulties prevent a respondent from completing the baseline study.
Because obtain sufficient power to detect effects is a central aim of this study, the investigators will replace respondents who are removed for reasons 1-5 in a rolling fashion. In the case of technical failure (#6), the first approach will be to resolve the issue and administer the baseline survey to the same participant. If this is not possible, a replacement will be recruited.
Sites / Locations
- Online, Amazon's Mechanical Turk
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Arm 3
No Intervention
Experimental
Experimental
Track activities
Self-focused acts
Prosocial acts
For three weeks research subjects will be keeping track of the things they do without altering their routine in any way.
For three weeks research subjects will be "treating themselves" by doing things that they enjoy. These acts don't have to be large or costly, but they should be over and above what they typically do. They are asked to do one (or more) things they enjoy each day for the first three days of each week and report them.
For three weeks research subjects are asked to perform acts of kindness, meaning behaviors that benefit someone else and are over and above what they typically do (i.e., they are not expected of them). These acts should also involve some sacrifice by them (e.g., in effort, energy, time, or money) and be completed for the first three days of each week.