Social distance regulations have been widely adopted during the global COVID-19 pandemic. From an evolutionary perspective, social connection and money are interchangeable subsistence resources for human survival. The substitutability principle of human motivation posits that scarcity in one domain (e.g., social connection) could motivate people to acquire or maintain resources in another domain (e.g., money). Two experiments were conducted to test the possibility that COVID-19 social distancing enhances the desire for money. Results showed that compared with controls, participants receiving social distancing primes (via recollection of experiences of social distancing or a Chinese glossary-search task) offered less money in the dictator game, showed lower willingness towards charitable donation (Experiment 1; N = 102), donated less money to a student fund, and rated money as having more importance (Experiment 2; N = 140). Our findings have far-reaching implications for financial decisions, charitable donations, and prosociality during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

中文翻译：

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社交距离规定的意外后果：COVID-19 社交距离助长了对金钱的渴望

在全球 COVID-19 大流行期间，社交距离规定已被广泛采用。从进化的角度来看，社会联系和金钱是人类生存的可互换的生存资源。人类动机的可替代性原则假定一个领域（例如，社会联系）的稀缺性可以激励人们在另一个领域（例如，金钱）获得或维持资源。进行了两项实验来测试 COVID-19 社会疏离增强对金钱的渴望的可能性。结果表明，与对照组相比，接受社会疏远素数（通过回忆社会疏远经历或中文词汇搜索任务）的参与者在独裁者游戏中提供的资金较少，对慈善捐赠的意愿较低（实验 1；N = 102），向学生基金捐赠的钱更少，并且认为钱更重要（实验 2；N  = 140）。我们的研究结果对 COVID-19 大流行期间和之后的财务决策、慈善捐赠和亲社会具有深远的影响。