What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger: the COVID-19 pandemic transforms anonymous citizens into devoted actors ( Lo que no nos mata nos hace más fuertes: la pandemia de COVID-19 transforma a los ciudadanos anónimos en actores devotos )
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online October, 2020
What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger: the COVID-19 pandemic transforms anonymous citizens into devoted actors ( Lo que no nos mata nos hace más fuertes: la pandemia de COVID-19 transforma a los ciudadanos anónimos en actores devotos )
COVID-19 is transforming our lives. We could frame this illness by surrendering to disaster or striving to get over it. We suggest that the pandemic is converting ‘some’ citizens into devoted actors, individuals viscerally connected — fused — to a group who share a sacred value. Since devoted actors are willing to make costly self-sacrifices for their peers and convictions, the virus, instead of ‘killing us’, could well make us stronger.
GómezA.ChinchillaJ.VázquezA.López-RodríguezL.ParedesB.MartínezM. (2020). Recent advances, misconceptions, untested assumptions and future research agenda for identity fusion theory. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. doi:10.1111/spc3.12531
3.
GómezA.López-RodríguezL.SheikhH.GingesJ.WilsonL.WaziriH.AtranS. (2017). The devoted actor´s will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict. Nature Human Behavior, 1, 673–679. doi:10.1038/s41562-017-0193-3
4.
GómezÁ.López-RodríguezL.VázquezA.ParedesB.MartínezM. (2016). Morir y matar por un grupo o unos valores. Estrategias para evitar, reducir y/o erradicar el comportamiento grupal extremista. Anuario de Psicología Jurídica, 26, 122–129. doi:10.1016/j.apj.2016.04.001
5.
HornseyM. (2008). Social identity theory and self-categorization theory: A historical review. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 204–222. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00066.x
6.
KavanaghC. M.JongJ.McKayR.WhitehouseH. (2018). Positive experiences of high arousal martial arts rituals are linked to identity fusion and costly pro-group actions. European Journal of Social Psychology, 49, 461–481. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2514
7.
SheikhH.GómezA.AtranS. (2016). Empirical evidence for the devoted actor model. Current Anthropology, 57(S13), S204–S209. doi:10.1086/686221
8.
SwannW. B.Jr.BuhrmesterM. D.GómezA.JettenJ.BastianB.VázquezA.ZhangA. (2014). What makes a group worth dying for? Identity fusion fosters perception of familial ties, promoting self-sacrifice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106, 912–926. doi:10.1037/a0036089
9.
ThomsenL.FiskeA. P. (2018). Communal sharing/identity fusion does not require reflection on episodic memory of shared experience, or trauma - and usually generates kindness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41. doi:10.1017/S0140525X18001784
10.
VázquezA.López-RodríguezL.MartínezM.AtranS.GómezÁ. (2020). Threat enhances aggressive inclinations among devoted actors via increase in their relative physical formidability. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1–15. doi:10.1177%2F0146167220907466
11.
WhitehouseH.JongJ.BuhrmesterM. D.GómezA.BastianB.KavanaghC. M.GavriletsS. (2017). The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 44292. doi:10.1038/srep44292
