Identification with humanity and health-related behaviors during COVID-19

This research takes a maximally inclusive social identity approach to COVID-19 and examines whether the “bond” and “concern” factors of identification with humanity: (1) explain additional variance in health-related behaviors—above and beyond relevant covariates; (2) are uniquely associated with health-related behaviors; and (3) were more strongly associated with health-related behaviors when COVID-19 cases were high. Results (N = 324) suggest the bond and concern factors explained significantly more variance in social distancing, social influencing, overbuying, and marginally more variance in mask wearing. Bond with all humanity uniquely predicted more mask wearing, more social influencing, less social distancing, and more overbuying, and concern for all humanity uniquely predicted more social distancing and less overbuying. However, COVID-19 cases did not consistently moderate associations with health-related behaviors. Overall, identification with humanity has an important role in—and the bond and concern factors have distinct associations with—health-related behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic.