Altruism in the time of {COVID}-19: We are all in this together, but who is we?

Theory posits that in situations of existential threat, selfish motivations will be outweighed by altruistic ones, and cooperation will be parochial. Yet, the global character of the COVID-19 pandemic makes unclear which level of group inclusiveness individuals will privilege. In an online experiment, participants from the U.S. and Italy chose to allocate a monetary bonus to a charity active in COVID-19 relief efforts at the local, national, or international level, or to keep the bonus for themselves. We found that personal exposure to COVID-19 increased donations relative to those not exposed, even as levels of environmental exposure (numbers of cases locally) had no effect. Only one-third of individuals acted entirely selfishly. Donors predominantly benefitted the local level (state in the U.S., region in Italy); donations toward country and world levels were half as large. Social identity was a moderating factor in both countries. These results confirm and qualify existing theories.