Chinese University Students’ Perceptions of Implicit Altruism in a Time of COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Drawing on the Associative Propositional Evaluation Model (APE), this study examined the influencing factors of Chinese university students' altruism and voluntary behaviors against the backdrop of global pandemic. A sample of 2172 Chinese university students answered the Self-developed University Students Implicit Altruism Situational Judgment Test (USIA-SJT) and The Self-report Altruism Scale (SRAS). Results show that gender, single child, years of enrollment, political status, parental education, personal/parental experiences and parental participation have statistically significant effects on the participants’ implicit and explicit altruism, which substantially impact their voluntary behaviors during the coronavirus crisis. Both EFA and CFA indicated the sound psychometric property of the Self-developed USIA-SJT, with the construction of the SIX C model, rendering it a robust measure to gauge Chinese university students’ implicit altruism as well as to predict their voluntary behaviors under serious public emergencies.