An Integrative Analysis: What Cultural Factors Protect Us Against the COVID-19 Indeed?

The outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic has been for more than two years around the world, as well as there were substantial regional differences in the infection cases and deaths per million. Plenty of studies in psychology and behavioral science in the past two years showed that cultural factors might influence individual cognitions and behaviors, and then change collective responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic. However, few studies are conducted to discern the effects of these cultural factors on the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic situation simultaneously and identify what cultural variables are valid indeed for us preventing Covid-19. Thus, the present study aimed to examine the effects of the major cultural variables together, e.g., individualism-collectivism, tightness-looseness, authoritarianism, emancipative moral judgments, and national identity, on the epidemic situations during the several stages of the Pandemic. The results suggested that, in the early stages of the epidemic, the countries with higher parochialism had fewer cases and deaths per million; meanwhile the countries with higher uncertainty avoidance had more cases and deaths per million. Across the whole epidemic periods so far, the countries with tighter cultures had fewer cases and deaths per million, as well as more individual autonomy countries, had higher deaths per million. The integrative analysis of the multiple cultural factors in the present study provided theoretical insights and empirical evidence for a better understanding of how culture affects individual and collective responses to the Pandemic, making efficient policies for Covid-19 control, and coping with potential epidemics in the future.