The relationship between cultural tightness–looseness and COVID-19 cases and deaths: a global analysis
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis, yet certain countries have had far more success in limiting COVID-19 cases and deaths. We suggest that collective threats require a tremendous amount of coordination, and that strict adherence to social norms is a key mechanism that enables groups to do so. Here we examine how the strength of social norms-or cultural tightness-looseness-was associated with countries' success in limiting cases and deaths by October, 2020. We expected that tight cultures, which have strict norms and punishments for deviance, would have fewer cases and deaths per million as compared with loose cultures, which have weaker norms and are more permissive. METHODS: We estimated the relationship between cultural tightness-looseness and COVID-19 case and mortality rates as of Oct 16, 2020, using ordinary least squares regression. We fit a series of stepwise models to capture whether cultural tightness-looseness explained variation in case and death rates controlling for under-reporting, demographics, geopolitical factors, other cultural dimensions, and climate. FINDINGS: The results indicated that, compared with nations with high levels of cultural tightness, nations with high levels of cultural looseness are estimated to have had 4·99 times the number of cases (7132 per million vs 1428 per million, respectively) and 8·71 times the number of deaths (183 per million vs 21 per million, respectively), taking into account a number of controls. A formal evolutionary game theoretic model suggested that tight groups cooperate much faster under threat and have higher survival rates than loose groups. The results suggest that tightening social norms might confer an evolutionary advantage in times of collective threat. INTERPRETATION: Nations that are tight and abide by strict norms have had more success than those that are looser as of the October, 2020. New interventions are needed to help countries tighten social norms as they continue to battle COVID-19 and other collective threats. FUNDING: Office of Naval Research, US Navy.
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Cultural psychologists distinguish tight cultures with strong adherence to norms and loose cultures with lax adherence.
“Cultural psychologists, for example, have distinguished between so-called tight and loose cultures, with tight cultures characterised by strong public adherence to social norms and loose cultures by lax adherence.”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [256]
Differences in national cultures shape national responses to the pandemic.
“Differences in national cultures also shape national responses.”
From The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as [256]
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The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
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- Authors
- Gelfand, M. J., Jackson, J. C., Pan, X., Nau, D., Pieper, D., Denison, E., Dagher, M., Van Lange, P. A. M., Chiu, C.-Y., & Wang, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- University of Florida (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gelfand, Michele J
- Wang, Mo
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Lancet Planetary Health
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-03
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e135-e144
- ISSN
- 2542-5196 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7946418
- OpenAlex
- W3127063713
- Cited by
- 526
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 77 · 2024: 83 · 2023: 102 · 2022: 127 · 2021: 102 · 2020: 5 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 101.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Lancet Planetary Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- Office of Naval Research (N000141912407)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › COVID-19 Prevention and Impact
- Keywords
- cultural tightness-looseness, COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 mortality, social norms, group threat, cooperation, evolutionary game theory, cross-national comparison, pandemic response, cultural dimensions
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Humans, Social Norms
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