Trial reportPloS one2022
Using prosocial behavior to safeguard mental health and foster emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: A registered report of a randomized trial.
Trial report in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- The association between social support and prosocial behavior: A three-level meta-analysis.PsyCh journal · 2024Pooled it
- Prosocial Interventions and Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- How helping others helps us: neural mechanisms linking prosocial behavior to psychological and physical wellbeing.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Review
- Promoting prosocial behavior and well-being in adolescents through a gamified virtual reality intervention: A randomized controlled trial protocol.Internet interventions · 2025Article
- Mediating effects of positive self-beliefs, social emotions, and worry on childhood socioeconomic status and prosocial and antisocial rule-breaking.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Caring Too Much or Too Little? Relations Among Motivations for Social Withdrawal, Empathy, and Prosociality in Emerging Adulthood.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2025Article
- A Longitudinal Analysis of the Relationship Between Self-Determined Motivation and Prosocial Orientation of Volunteer Tourists: The Mediating Role of Identity Processing Styles in Young Adults.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Effects of self-acceptance on prosocial behavior: the mediating role of self-esteem.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The Role of Social Media in Building Pandemic Resilience in an Urban Community: A Qualitative Case Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Exposure to loneliness cues reduces prosocial behavior: Evidence from N400 and P300.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic, the accompanying lockdown measures, and their possible long-term effects have made mental health a pressing public health concern. Acts that focus on benefiting others-known as prosocial behaviors-offer one promising intervention that is both flexible and low cost. However, neither the range of emotional states prosocial acts impact nor the size of those effects is currently clear-both of which directly influence its attractiveness as a treatment option.
objectiveTo assess the effect of prosocial activity on emotional well-being (happiness, belief that one's life is valuable) and mental health (anxiety, depression).
methods1,234 respondents from the United States and Canada were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk and randomly assigned (by computer software) to perform prosocial (N = 411), self-focused (N = 423), or neutral (N = 400) behaviors three times a week for three weeks. A follow-up assessment was given two weeks after the intervention. Participants were blind to alternative conditions. Analyses were based on 1052 participants (Nprosocial = 347, Nself = 365, Nneutral = 340).
findingsThose in the prosocial condition did not differ on any outcome from those in the self-focused or neutral acts conditions during the intervention or at follow-up, nor did prosocial effects differ for those who had been negatively affected socially or economically by the pandemic (all p's > 0.05). Exploratory analyses that more tightly controlled for study compliance found that prosocial acts reduced anxiety relative to neutral acts control (β = -0.12 [95% CI: -0.22 to -0.02]) and increased the belief that one's life is valuable (β = 0.11 [95% CI: 0.03 to 0.19]). These effects persisted throughout the intervention and at follow-up.
conclusionProsocial acts may provide small, lasting benefits to emotional well-being and mental health. Future work should replicate these results using tighter, pre-registered controls on study compliance.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.