Exposure to the Covid-19 pandemic and generosity in Spain

We report data from an online experiment, which allow us to study how generosity has changed during the initial explosive growth of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain. We have gathered data from over a six-day period in which Covid-19-associated deaths in Spain, one of the most affected countries in the corresponding period, increased fourfold. In our experiment, participants could donate a fraction of a €100 prize to a charity. Our data are particularly rich in the age distribution and we complement them with daily public information about the Covid-19-related deaths, infections, and hospital admissions. We find correlational evidence that donations decreased in the period under study and scale down with the public information about the life and health impact of the pandemic. The effect is particularly pronounced among older subjects. Our analysis of the mechanisms behind the detected decrease in solidarity suggests that subjects' expectations about others' behavior, perceived mortality risk, and (alarming) information in behavioral adaptation play a key—but independent—role.