Use information adapted from Pfattheicher et al. (2020) to answer the following questions.

The Emotional Path to Action: Empathy Promotes Wearing of Face Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic presents a major challenge to societies all over the globe. A measure implemented in many countries to curb the spread of the disease is wearing of face masks. Personal costs are present when one wears a face mask because they alter one's appearance and breathing, and some people find it strange (initially) to wear a face mask in public (Carbon, 2020; Capraro & Barcelo, 2020). It is important to note that simple cloth (non-surgical grade) face masks are likely to have a greater effect on protecting other individuals from virus infection than on protecting the wearer, because they retain most of the respiratory droplets released from the wearer (V. C. Cheng, Wong, et al., 2020; Greenhalgh, Schmid, Czypionka, Bassler, & Gruer, 2020). From this perspective, wearing a face mask is clearly a prosocial act (K. K. Cheng, Lam, & Leung, 2020). Building on these notions, we tested the idea that wearing face masks can reflect and can be encouraged through the activation of a prosocial emotional processempathy for people most vulnerable to the virus (Batson, 2011).

Method

Participants

We aimed to collect 1,500 participants (three between-subjects conditions). With this sample size, we are able to detect effects (fs) greater than .09 with high statistical power (power = .90; = .05, two- tailed). The study (final N = 1,526; 47.2% female; age: M = 34.71 years, SD = 12.09) was run in Germany between June 23 and June 26, 2020. At the time the study was conducted, it was mandatory in Germany to wear a face mask in public places (e.g., in shops and in public transport).

Procedure

Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three conditions: the information-only condition (n = 492), the empathy condition (n = 500), or the control condition (n = 534).Participants in the information-only condition read an informative text from the Robert Koch Institute (Germany's national public health institute) detailing facts about the coronavirus, how it is transmitted (aerosols), and that face masks can prevent the spread of the disease. Participants in the empathy condition read a text of approximately similar length, in which a woman with a rare immune disease reported having had a coronavirus infection, detailed how seriously affected she was (comatose and in the intensive care unit), and stated that she did not like it when people met others without wearing a face mask. Before the respective text in the information-only condition and in the empathy condition was presented, participants read that they should read the entire text in order to qualify for payment for the study; the "next" button to proceed with the study was displayed only after 75 s. In the control condition, no text and information were given, resembling a situation of no intervention. The dependent variable was motivation to wear a face mask, which we measured with one item: "During the coming days, I will wear a face mask as often as possible when I meet other people," which was rated on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Results

A one-way ANOVA showed that the motivation to wear a mask differed between conditions, F(2, 1523) = 8.97, p < .001, 2 = .01, 95% CI = [.003, .02]. Tukey's post hoc tests revealed that the motivation to wear a mask was significantly higher in the empathy condition (M = 4.00, SD = 1.12) compared with the control condition (M = 3.69, SD = 1.24), t(1032) = 4.25, p < .001, Cohen's d = 0.26, 95% CI = [0.14, 0.38], and significantly higher than in the information-only condition, (M = 3.83, SD = 1.20), t(990) = 2.43, p = .015, Cohen's d = 0.15, 95% CI = [0.02, 0.27]. The motivation to wear a mask also increased in the information-only condition compared with the control condition, but the effect failed to reach conventional levels of statistical significance, t(1024) = 1.76, p = .079, Cohen's d = 0.12, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.24].

Discussion

We can use empathy to promote the motivation in people to follow masking measures. Importantly, providing individuals with mere background information about why it is important to wear a mask was not enough to significantly increase the behavioral motivation; only if empathy was added did motivation increase. The present research has important policy implications. Specifically, in the effort to reach high numbers of people following measures that curb the spread of the virus, it might not be sufficient to provide only basic information about why the measures are important. Basic information certainly is important. However, in addition to basic information, affective empathy is seemingly an emotional ingredient that further increases the motivation to adhere to measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, when designing interventions and communication materials to change behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers should consider enriching mere informational content with emotional content. As shown in the present investigation, empathy for people most vulnerable to the virus might be a promising candidate here.

What were the independent and dependent variables?

Was the research design within-subjects or between-subjects ? Explain.

What type of statistical test was used to analyze the data in the experiment?