A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19
Abstract While previous studies have emphasised several important factors associated with the spread of COVID-19 and strategies to reduce transmission, few studies have focused on the social and cultural factors that may influence its spread. This study analyses the spread of COVID-19 from a cross-c...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Nature
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02289-3 |
| _version_ | 1827764564407615488 |
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| author | Ming Liu Haomin Wu Bingxuan Lin Jingxia Zhang |
| author_facet | Ming Liu Haomin Wu Bingxuan Lin Jingxia Zhang |
| author_sort | Ming Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract While previous studies have emphasised several important factors associated with the spread of COVID-19 and strategies to reduce transmission, few studies have focused on the social and cultural factors that may influence its spread. This study analyses the spread of COVID-19 from a cross-country/region cultural perspective and finds that countries and regions with a collectivistic, Confucian or tight (restrictive) culture experience a lower spread rate of COVID-19. The results are robust to controlling for several factors, including population, age structure, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, previous SARS occurrence, smoking prevalence, and religion. A one standard deviation increase in the collectivism score is associated with a 1.38% reduction of the weekly growth rate of COVID-19 cases. More importantly, the effect of culture on the spread of COVID-19 becomes stronger during national or regional lockdowns. Corroborating these main results, supporting analyses find a significant effect of culture on national and regional COVID-19 death rates. These findings suggest that to manage the ongoing surges in COVID-19 outbreaks, governments should implement public health policies that emphasise the ideas of common interest, personal responsibility and strong cultural norms, and sense of community, as this pandemic has revealed that people all live together in a small global village. Why did Korea, Japan & Taiwan have so few deaths? I see face-covering and the Confucian idea of common good as key. –Michael Levitt, the Nobel Prize Laureate (2020) |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T11:06:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-356fb5313e4340a5ae6ce9d5d1bb922e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T11:06:19Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-356fb5313e4340a5ae6ce9d5d1bb922e2023-11-12T12:10:26ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922023-11-011011910.1057/s41599-023-02289-3A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19Ming Liu0Haomin Wu1Bingxuan Lin2Jingxia Zhang3School of Finance, Southwestern University of Finance and EconomicsSchool of Accounting, Yunnan University of Finance and EconomicsCollege of Business, University of Rhode IslandGraduate School of Economics, Shiga UniversityAbstract While previous studies have emphasised several important factors associated with the spread of COVID-19 and strategies to reduce transmission, few studies have focused on the social and cultural factors that may influence its spread. This study analyses the spread of COVID-19 from a cross-country/region cultural perspective and finds that countries and regions with a collectivistic, Confucian or tight (restrictive) culture experience a lower spread rate of COVID-19. The results are robust to controlling for several factors, including population, age structure, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, previous SARS occurrence, smoking prevalence, and religion. A one standard deviation increase in the collectivism score is associated with a 1.38% reduction of the weekly growth rate of COVID-19 cases. More importantly, the effect of culture on the spread of COVID-19 becomes stronger during national or regional lockdowns. Corroborating these main results, supporting analyses find a significant effect of culture on national and regional COVID-19 death rates. These findings suggest that to manage the ongoing surges in COVID-19 outbreaks, governments should implement public health policies that emphasise the ideas of common interest, personal responsibility and strong cultural norms, and sense of community, as this pandemic has revealed that people all live together in a small global village. Why did Korea, Japan & Taiwan have so few deaths? I see face-covering and the Confucian idea of common good as key. –Michael Levitt, the Nobel Prize Laureate (2020)https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02289-3 |
| spellingShingle | Ming Liu Haomin Wu Bingxuan Lin Jingxia Zhang A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19 Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19 |
| title_full | A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19 |
| title_fullStr | A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19 |
| title_short | A small global village: the effects of collectivist, tight and Confucian cultures on the spread of COVID-19 |
| title_sort | small global village the effects of collectivist tight and confucian cultures on the spread of covid 19 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02289-3 |
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