Prosocial Effects Research Articles

Perceived Attachment and Problematic Smartphone Use in Young People: Mediating Effects of Self-Regulation and Prosociality.

Problematic use of smartphones is a challenge facing societies around the world. This phenomenon has been associated with negative socialization experiences through the impact they have on how the youth relates to their environment. This study was designed to examine parental and peer attachment, self-efficacy and prosocial reasoning as predictors of different attitudes towards online communication and problematic smartphone use. 561 youth aged 14-20 years (Mage = 17.82; SD = 1.64; 67.7% Female) participated in an online survey. Results indicated that an increase in self-efficacy or prosocial reasoning is correlated with a decrease in problematic smartphone use and attitudes towards online communication aimed at avoiding reality or constructing a more comfortable parallel social reality. Attachment to parents and peers had direct and indirect effects on problematic smartphone use and attitudes toward online communication through youth personal and social adjustment. Attachment plays a relevant role in the symptoms reduction of smartphone addiction and attitudes to online communication in youth, through its impact on self-efficacy perceptions and prosocial reasoning.

The importance of pro-social processing, and ameliorating dysfunction in schizophrenia. An FMRI study of oxytocin

Schizophrenia is often a severe and debilitating mental illness, frequently associated with impairments in social cognition that hinder individuals' abilities to relate to others and integrate effectively in society. Oxytocin has emerged as a putative therapeutic agent for treating social deficits in schizophrenia, but the mode of action remains unclear. This placebo-controlled crossover study aimed to elucidate the neural underpinnings of oxytocin administration in patients with schizophrenia. 20 patients with schizophrenia were examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging under oxytocin (40 IU) or placebo nasal spray. Participants performed a stochastically rewarded decision-making task that incorporated elements of social valence provided by different facial expressions, i.e. happy, angry and neutral. Oxytocin attenuated the normal bias in selecting the happy face accompanied by reduced activation in a network of brain regions that support mentalising, processing of facial emotion, salience, aversion, uncertainty and ambiguity in social stimuli, including amygdala, temporo-parietal junction, posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus and insula. These pro-social effects may contribute to the facilitation of social engagement and social interactions in patients with schizophrenia and warrant further investigation in future clinical trials for social cognitive impairments in schizophrenia.

Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution.

Our hominin ancestors inevitably encountered and likely ingested psychedelic mushrooms throughout their evolutionary history. This assertion is supported by current understanding of: early hominins’ paleodiet and paleoecology; primate phylogeny of mycophagical and self-medicative behaviors; and the biogeography of psilocybin-containing fungi. These lines of evidence indicate mushrooms (including bioactive species) have been a relevant resource since the Pliocene, when hominins intensified exploitation of forest floor foods. Psilocybin and similar psychedelics that primarily target the serotonin 2A receptor subtype stimulate an active coping strategy response that may provide an enhanced capacity for adaptive changes through a flexible and associative mode of cognition. Such psychedelics also alter emotional processing, self-regulation, and social behavior, often having enduring effects on individual and group well-being and sociality. A homeostatic and drug instrumentalization perspective suggests that incidental inclusion of psychedelics in the diet of hominins, and their eventual addition to rituals and institutions of early humans could have conferred selective advantages. Hominin evolution occurred in an ever-changing, and at times quickly changing, environmental landscape and entailed advancement into a socio-cognitive niche, i.e., the development of a socially interdependent lifeway based on reasoning, cooperative communication, and social learning. In this context, psychedelics’ effects in enhancing sociality, imagination, eloquence, and suggestibility may have increased adaptability and fitness. We present interdisciplinary evidence for a model of psychedelic instrumentalization focused on four interrelated instrumentalization goals: management of psychological distress and treatment of health problems; enhanced social interaction and interpersonal relations; facilitation of collective ritual and religious activities; and enhanced group decision-making. The socio-cognitive niche was simultaneously a selection pressure and an adaptive response, and was partially constructed by hominins through their activities and their choices. Therefore, the evolutionary scenario put forward suggests that integration of psilocybin into ancient diet, communal practice, and proto-religious activity may have enhanced hominin response to the socio-cognitive niche, while also aiding in its creation. In particular, the interpersonal and prosocial effects of psilocybin may have mediated the expansion of social bonding mechanisms such as laughter, music, storytelling, and religion, imposing a systematic bias on the selective environment that favored selection for prosociality in our lineage.

Rethinking the Virtuous Circle Hypothesis on Social Media: Subjective versus Objective Knowledge and Political Participation

Abstract Despite early promise, scholarship has shown little empirical evidence of learning from the news on social media. At the same time, scholars have documented the problem of information ‘snacking’ and information quality on these platforms. These parallel trends in the literature challenge long-held assumptions about the pro-social effects of news consumption and political participation. We argue that reliance on social media for news does not contribute to people’s real level of political knowledge (objective knowledge), but instead only influences people’s impression of being informed (subjective knowledge). Subjective knowledge is just as important for driving political participation, a potentially troubling trend given the nature of news consumption on social media. We test this expectation with panel survey data from the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Two path model specifications (fixed effects and autoregressive) support our theoretical model. Implications for the study of the ‘dark side’ of social media and democracy are discussed.

Motor Learning Based on Oscillatory Brain Activity Using Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation: A Review.

Developing effective tools and strategies to promote motor learning is a high-priority scientific and clinical goal. In particular, motor-related areas have been investigated as potential targets to facilitate motor learning by noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS). In addition to shedding light on the relationship between motor function and oscillatory brain activity, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), which can noninvasively entrain oscillatory brain activity and modulate oscillatory brain communication, has attracted attention as a possible technique to promote motor learning. This review focuses on the use of tACS to enhance motor learning through the manipulation of oscillatory brain activity and its potential clinical applications. We discuss a potential tACS–based approach to ameliorate motor deficits by correcting abnormal oscillatory brain activity and promoting appropriate oscillatory communication in patients after stroke or with Parkinson’s disease. Interpersonal tACS approaches to manipulate intra- and inter-brain communication may result in pro-social effects and could promote the teaching–learning process during rehabilitation sessions with a therapist. The approach of re-establishing oscillatory brain communication through tACS could be effective for motor recovery and might eventually drive the design of new neurorehabilitation approaches based on motor learning.

Prosocial Effects of Nonpsychotropic Cannabis sativa in Mice.

Introduction:Cannabis sativa L. (C. sativa) is used since ancient times to produce fabrics, baskets, and cords. Later, different ethnic groups used to burn the leaves and flowers of psychotropic cultivars with high Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (D9-THC) levels, during the religious or propitiatory rites to alter the state of consciousness. To date, it is not known whether also nonpsychotropic cultivars of C. sativa were used during these rites, and whether these varieties could have an effect on human behavior. This study aimed to evaluate the behavioral effects of an extract of nonpsychotropic C. sativa (NP-CS) in mice. Materials and Methods: An extract of a nonpsychotropic cultivar of C. sativa dissolved in medium-chain triglyceride oil was used and the different phytochemical components were evaluated. The relative composition in terms of phytocannabinoid content was assessed by reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to UV detection (RP-HPLC-UV), and the volatile components were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In addition, the behavioral effect of NP-CS was assessed on a wild-type mouse model. The animals were treated for 14 days (oral gavage) and motility, anxiety, and social effects were assessed. Results: RP-HPLC-UV analysis demonstrated that D9-THC was present in lower concentration with respect to other cannabinoids, like cannabidiol. Furthermore, the GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of several terpenoids. Concerning in vivo studies, chronic treatment with NP-CS did not alter body weight, motility, and anxiety and increased social interaction. Conclusions: This study highlighted the prosocial effects of NP-CS.

Constructing Conflict: The Politics of Job Creation Policy, Precarious Work, and Citizenship in South Africa’s Construction Industry

The paper examines the politics of state job creation policy in South Africa. We focus on the construction industry, which is a major sector for job creation policy, especially through a large scale public works programme. We argue that, while the creation of jobs is framed by government as a path towards dignity and social inclusion for poor and unemployed citizens, the precarious reality of low-wage work in the construction industry undermines the potential pro-social effects of wage employment. Beneficiaries of job creation policy often experience frustration and alienation, and the construction sites on which they work are often marked by conflict and disruption. We describe two different forms that this conflict takes, on the one hand demanding wage work as a citizenship right, on the other eschewing generalized citizenship claims in favour of particularistic and exclusionary demands for jobs based on localized identities. These seemingly contradictory but intertwined types of conflict show the complexity of the relationship between state job creation and citizenship rights in an industry and an economy defined by precarious forms of employment.

Words beyond the Partial Deed: Prosocial Framing of a Partial-Trust Act Promotes Reciprocation between Strangers

Displaying partial trust in exchanges between strangers is a common practice, but it does not effectively promote reciprocation. This is an intriguing phenomenon that warrants investigations regarding social mechanisms that can promote reciprocation without changing the level of trust. We seek to examine, given a partial-trust act, whether framing the motive underlying the act as prosocial (mutually beneficial) can promote reciprocation in an exchange between strangers. Across three experiments in the United States, we found that trustor prosocial (vs. no-motive) framing can promote trustee reciprocation through trustee felt obligation and that this effect is particularly strong among trustees with a strong rather than weak exchange orientation. Concurrently, this prosocial framing effect can operate serially through trustee perceived invitation for exchange and felt obligation. Our findings help address the conundrum of promoting reciprocation without introducing deleterious uncertainty about social motives given a partial-trust act that is prevalent in exchanges at zero acquaintance.

Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying improvement of prosocial responses by a novel implicit compassion promotion task

Compassion is closely associated with prosocial behavior. Although there is growing interest in developing strategies that cultivate compassion, most available strategies rely on effortful reflective processes. Furthermore, few studies have investigated neurocognitive mechanisms underlying compassion-dependent improvement of prosocial responses. We devised a novel implicit compassion promotion task that operates based on association learning and examined its prosocial effects in two independent experiments. In Experiment 1, healthy adults were assigned to either the compassion or control group. For the intervention task, the compassion group completed word fragments that were consistently related to compassionate responses toward others; in contrast, the control group completed word fragments related to emotionally neutral responses toward others. Following the intervention task, we measured attentional biases to fearful, sad, and happy faces. Prosocial responses were assessed using two measures of helping: the pen-drop test and the helping intentions rating test. In Experiment 2, independent groups of healthy adults completed the same intervention tasks used in Experiment 1. Inside a functional MRI scanner, participants rated empathic care and distress based on either distressful or neutral video clips. Outside the scanner, we assessed the degree of helping intentions toward the victims depicted in the distressful clips. The results of Experiment 1 showed that the compassion promotion task reduced attentional vigilance to fearful faces, which in turn mediated a compassion promotion task-dependent increase in helping intentions. In Experiment 2, relative to the control group, the compassion group showed reduced empathic distress and increased activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex in response to others’ suffering. Furthermore, increased functional connectivity of the medial orbitofrontal and inferior parietal cortex, predicted by reduced empathic distress, explained the increase in helping intentions. These results suggest the potential of implicit compassion promotion intervention to modulate compassion-related and prosocial responses as well as highlight the brain activation and connectivity related to these responses, contributing to our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying compassion-dependent prosocial improvement.

Prosociality and Social Responsibility Were Associated With Intention of COVID-19 Vaccination Among University Students in China.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination is expected to end the pandemic; a high coverage rate is required to meet this end. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of behavioral intention of free/self-paid COVID-19 vaccination and its associations with prosociality and social responsibility among university students in China. An anonymous online cross-sectional survey was conducted among 6922 university students in five provinces in China during November 1-28, 2020. With informed consent, participants filled out an online survey link distributed to them via WeChat study groups. The response rate was 72.3%. The prevalence of behavioral intentions of free COVID-19 vaccination was 78.1%, but it dropped to 57.7% if the COVID-19 vaccination involved self-payment (400 RMB; around 42 USD). After adjusting for background factors, prosociality (free vaccination: adjusted odds ratio [ORa] = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.09-1.12; self-paid vaccination: ORa = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.07-1.09) and social responsibility (free vaccination: ORa = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.14-1.19; self-paid vaccination: ORa = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.11-1.14) were positively associated with the two variables of COVID-19 vaccination intention. The present study demonstrated the positive effects of prosociality and social responsibility on the intention of COVID-19 vaccination. Accordingly, modification of prosociality and social responsibility can potentially improve COVID-19 vaccination. Future longitudinal and intervention studies are warranted to confirm such associations across populations and countries.

A Systematic Review of the MDMA Model to Address Social Impairment in Autism.

Background Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by repetitive behaviours, cognitive rigidity/inflexibility, and social-affective impairment. Unfortunately, no gold-standard treatments exist to alleviate the core socio-behavioural impairments of ASD. Meanwhile, the prosocial empathogen/entactogen 3,4-methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) is known to enhance sociability and empathy in both humans and animal models of psychological disorders.Objective We review the evidence obtained from behavioural tests across the current literature, showing how MDMA can induce prosocial effects in animals and humans, where controlled experiments were able to be performed.Methods Six electronic databases were consulted. The search strategy was tailored to each database. Only English-language papers were reviewed. Behaviours not screened in this review may have affected the core ASD behaviours studied. Molecular analogues of MDMA have not been investigated.Results We find that the social impairments may potentially be alleviated by postnatal administration of MDMA producing prosocial behaviours in mostly the animal model.Conclusion MDMA and/or MDMA-like molecules appear to be an effective pharmacological treatment for the social impairments of autism, at least in animal models. Notably, clinical trials based on MDMA use are now in progress. Nevertheless, larger and more extended clinical studies are warranted to prove the assumption that MDMA and MDMA-like molecules have a role in the management of the social impairments of autism.

Improving Interaction Experience through Lexical Convergence: The Prosocial Effect of Lexical Alignment in Human-Human and Human-Computer Interactions

ABSTRACT There is evidence that linguistic alignment can give rise to prosocial effects in human–human interaction (HHI), but little has been done to explore whether the same effects can be evoked in human–computer interaction (HCI). This study investigates whether being lexically aligned improves people’s evaluation of their conversational partner and the interaction in HHI and HCI, and whether such effects differ in HHI and HCI. A text-based interaction task was adopted in which a naïve participant and his/her partner took turns to name and match pictures. In both HHI and HCI, participants interacted with a computer program but they were led to believe that the partner they were interacting with was a human interlocutor in HHI conditions but a smart dialogue system (i.e. a computer partner) in HCI conditions. Lexical alignment was varied in the experiment such that in the align condition the program repeated the word use of participants, whereas in the nonalign condition, it chose words different from those used by participants. After the interaction task, a questionnaire survey was carried out to measure participants’ evaluation of their partner and the interaction. Results showed that lexical alignment significantly improved participants’ evaluation of the interaction in terms of perceived cognitive demand and response accuracy in both HHI and HCI. In addition, lexical alignment significantly enhanced people’s liking of the aligning partner and reduced their perceived annoyance in HHI, but the effect was negligible in HCI.

Nature promotes self-transcendence and prosocial behavior

Spending time in nature has many psychological benefits for people, including stress reduction and improved mood. Using behavioral measures and field study settings, we demonstrate that exposure to nature also leads to prosocial behaviors, such as increasing charitable donations. We show these prosocial effects are explained by an increased sense of self-transcendence, whereby a person feels connected to something greater than oneself or the social groups one belongs to. When self-transcendence is not experienced, such as when people feel separate or distinct from others, these effects are no longer observed. The theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed.

Combined Oxytocin and Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training for Social Function in People With Schizophrenia

A significant proportion of people with schizophrenia are characterized by impaired ability to socially engage with others. The development of effective interventions for social functioning remains a central therapeutic challenge. Cognitive-behavioral social skills training (CBSST) has been found to improve social functioning in schizophrenia, but with only medium effect sizes. Intranasal oxytocin also has prosocial effects, but also only with modest effect sizes. This study assessed whether the addition of intranasal oxytocin to CBSST can strengthen their impact on social function. Participants (N = 62) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder entered a 24-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial with a 3-month follow-up evaluation at 2 sites: Maryland and San Diego. Participants were randomized to either intranasal oxytocin 36 IU (3 sprays) twice a day (n = 31) or intranasal placebo-oxytocin (3 sprays) twice a day (n = 31). All participants received CBSST plus a social cognition skills training module (48 total sessions). There were no significant treatment group differences in social functioning, positive symptoms, negative symptoms, defeatist beliefs, or asocial beliefs. The interpretation of treatment effects was complicated by site effects, whereby participants in San Diego began the trial with greater severity of impairments and subsequently showed greater improvements compared with participants in Maryland. The results did not support the utility of add-on intranasal oxytocin to psychosocial rehabilitation interventions like CBSST for improvement in social function (ClinicalTrials.gov trial number: NCT01752712).

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) promotes social behaviour through 5-HT2A and ampa in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)

IntroductionAutism Spectrum Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder are mental illnesses characterized by a dysfunction in social behavior (SB); a phenomenon largely mediated by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Clinical studies have demonstrated that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a partial agonist of the 5-HT2A receptor, can promote SB. However, its mechanism of action on SB is unknown.ObjectivesTo assess the effects of repeated LSD administration on social behavior in mice and to identify which mPFC receptors mediate LSD’s behavioral effects.MethodsEight-week-old C57BL/6J male mice received vehicle or repeated LSD (30 μg/kg/day i.p. for 7 days) as well the selective 5-HT2A receptor antagonist MDL, or the AMPA receptor antagonist NBQX. Twenty-four hours following the last injection, mice underwent the Direct Social Interaction Test and the Three-Chamber Test (TCT) to assess sociability and preference for social novelty. in vivo electrophysiological recordings were performed in mice treated with vehicle or LSD using multi-barrelled electrodes for microiontophoretic ejections of the selective 5-HT2A receptor agonist DOI or the selective AMPA receptor agonist quisqualate on mPFC pyramidal neurons.ResultsRepeated treatment with low doses of LSD increased the interaction time in the DSI as well as sociability and social novelty indices in the TCT. These pro-social effects were blocked by the intra-PFC administration of both 5-HT2A and AMPA antagonists. LSD also potentiated, in a current-dependent manner, the excitatory response of mPFC neurons to 5-HT2Aand AMPA agonists.ConclusionsRepeated, low doses of LSD increases social behavior via a mechanism of action that is mediated by 5-HT2A and AMPA in the mPFC.

Self-diminishing effects of awe on consumer forgiveness in service encounters

Previous studies address consumers' emotions as an endogenous consequence of the service experience and assume that consumers base their decisions to forgive on the service situation's features; however, they rarely mention the role of the emotions that people might be experiencing, for reasons unrelated to the service failure itself. The current study thus considers a foundational but rarely examined human experience in business settings, awe, as well as its prosocial effect in service encounters. Incidental awe might alleviate the negative impacts of a service failure and enhance consumer forgiveness, through self-diminishment processes. Using four scenario-based experiments, referring to four types of service failures (outcome, process, controllable, and uncontrollable failures), this study tests for the positive effect of awe on consumers' inclination to forgive service failures and the mediating role of the small self in this effect. The present research thus enriches understanding of consumer forgiveness due to incidental emotions, which offers marketers some insights into how they might leverage methods that affect consumers' incidental emotions to encourage consumer forgiveness in service failures.

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) promotes social behavior through mTORC1 in the excitatory neurotransmission

Clinical studies have reported that the psychedelic lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) enhances empathy and social behavior (SB) in humans, but its mechanism of action remains elusive. Using a multidisciplinary approach including in vivo electrophysiology, optogenetics, behavioral paradigms, and molecular biology, the effects of LSD on SB and glutamatergic neurotransmission in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) were studied in male mice. Acute LSD (30 μg/kg) injection failed to increase SB. However, repeated LSD (30 μg/kg, once a day, for 7 days) administration promotes SB, without eliciting antidepressant/anxiolytic-like effects. Optogenetic inhibition of mPFC excitatory neurons dramatically inhibits social interaction and nullifies the prosocial effect of LSD. LSD potentiates the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA) and 5-HT2A, but not N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and 5-HT1A, synaptic responses in the mPFC and increases the phosphorylation of the serine-threonine protein kinases Akt and mTOR. In conditional knockout mice lacking Raptor (one of the structural components of the mTORC1 complex) in excitatory glutamatergic neurons (Raptorf/f:Camk2alpha-Cre), the prosocial effects of LSD and the potentiation of 5-HT2A/AMPA synaptic responses were nullified, demonstrating that LSD requires the integrity of mTORC1 in excitatory neurons to promote SB. Conversely, in knockout mice lacking Raptor in GABAergic neurons of the mPFC (Raptorf/f:Gad2-Cre), LSD promotes SB. These results indicate that LSD selectively enhances SB by potentiating mPFC excitatory transmission through 5-HT2A/AMPA receptors and mTOR signaling. The activation of 5-HT2A/AMPA/mTORC1 in the mPFC by psychedelic drugs should be explored for the treatment of mental diseases with SB impairments such as autism spectrum disorder and social anxiety disorder.

A Sense of Fellowship: Mindfulness Improves Experienced Interpersonal Benefits and Prosociality in A Military Aviation Unit

ABSTRACT Objective: Explore how personnel in a military aviation unit experienced personal as well as interpersonal aspects concerning their participation in a group-based four-month MBT programme. Background: mindfulness-based training (MBT) have been used as a personal stress management tool in stressful working environments, including military aviation. There is little knowledge about the interpersonal mechanisms involved when engaging in MBT. Method: Adhering to Grounded Theory (GT), we conducted post-intervention interviews with 42 programme participants. We selected 30 interviews with evidence of interpersonal effects for in-depth analyses to build a theoretical model of the pathways through which interpersonal effects might develop. Results: The majority of the interviewees (30/42 = 71%) experienced significant interpersonal effects from MBT. The in-depth analyses revealed an increase in the common theme “Sense of Fellowship” (SOF). SOF comprised three primary change processes: “Attention to others,” “Self-observation” and “Reflection.” In addition, five behavioral changes emerged: “Direct communication,” “Increased patience,” “Decreased anger expression,” “Calmness,” and “Acceptance.” Finally, four contextual factors appeared to have particular importance for the development of SOF: “Plenary sessions,” “Sharing experiences,” “Doing something new together,” and “Sitting in silence.” Conclusion: These findings indicate that MBT has prosocial effects in a military aviation setting, and the constructed model contributes theoretically by suggesting how these psychosocial effects may arise and develop.

War exposure, altruism and the recalibration of welfare tradeoffs towards threatening social categories

How does war shape human altruism? Some find warfare increases generosity within groups only. Others maintain that war's prosocial effects extend to outgroup members as well. To make sense of these disparate findings, we offer a theoretical framework that highlights the role of threat sensitivity in altruism. Refugees from Syria and Iraq (N = 1521) completed a welfare tradeoff task and threat perceptions scale where the other's group identity, gender and age were experimentally varied. We found that individuals belonging to social categories associated with more threat (outgroup members, males, and younger individuals) were afforded less altruism compared to individuals belonging to non-threatening social categories (ingroup members, females and the elderly). War exposure enhanced bias against threatening social categories through increased threat-sensitivity. Our results have implications for understanding how warfare shapes altruism and welfare tradeoffs in light of cross-cutting social categories and for policies promoting post-conflict cooperation.

How Consumers Spend and Distribute Money Tainted by Anger

Purpose: Anger has become one of the dominantly experienced emotions in recent years, particularly under the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the critical role that anger plays in consumers’ lives, the present research examines how feeling angry about money influences consumers’ spending and money distribution decisions. Research design and methodology. Three experiments were conducted using different emotion induction methods (i.e., dictator game, autobiographical recall, and scenario). Results. Feeling angry about money decreased pro-social spending (i.e., less money distribution to the others), but it did not affect virtuous or utilitarian spending for the self—unlike past finding on negative feelings that increased utilitarian spending. Furthermore, whereas anger-tainted money decreased pro-social spending of that money, guilt-tainted money increased pro-social spending. However, the effects of guilt versus anger were not completely symmetrical. The antagonistic effect of anger was diffusive across spending on distant and close others, whereas the pro-social effect of guilt was limited to distant others. Conclusions: These findings help policy makers and financial institutions forecast how money will be distributed or circulated when it is likely to be dampened by anger under the pandemic. They also highlight the importance of examining the effects of discrete emotions (e.g., anger vs. guilt) beyond valence. © The Author(s)