Dataveillant collectivism and the coronavirus in Korea: Values, biases, and socio-cultural foundations of containment efforts
Abstract
COVID-19 is as much a social as a biological problem and securing mass compliance with public health directives is a necessary condition of suppressing the pandemic. South Korea’s containment has been characterized by high levels of such compliance We contend that Korea's neo-Confucian traditions, ongoing exposure to diverse existential threats, and technology-driven development inform a set of biases and social practices that facilitate positive containment outcomes. Utilizing an advanced dataveillance infrastructure, Korea has benefited from the extant biases of conformity, convenience, and risk aversion in its containment effort, as many of the prescriptions for containment are consistent with the cultural norms of collectivism. We suggest that an understanding of the idiosyncratic and historically grounded factors of Korea's coronavirus response can contribute to a realistic evaluation of its applicability for other contexts.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches
Suchman, M. C. (1995) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/258788 · Cited by 19,903 · see citing works
Individualism and Collectivism
Hayek, F. A. (1976) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203991718-8 · Cited by 6,080 · see citing works
Individualism and collectivism
OETZEL, J. G. (1996) · International Journal of Intercultural Relations · doi:10.1016/0147-1767(96)83678-9 · Cited by 3,808 · see citing works
Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study
Gelfand, M. J., Raver, J. L., Nishii, L., Leslie, L. M., Lun, J., Lim, B. C., Duan, L., Almaliach, A., Ang, S., Arnadottir, J., et al. (2011) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1197754 · Cited by 3,252 · see citing works
Moon, M. J. (2020) · Public Administration Review · doi:10.1111/puar.13214 · Cited by 423 · see citing works
Lee, M., & You, M. (2020) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph17092977 · Cited by 314 · see citing works
The Future of the Commons - Beyond Market Failure and Government RegulationPreprint
Elinor Ostrom, B., Chang, C. Y., Pennington, M., & Tarko, V. (2013) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2267381 · Cited by 170 · see citing works
An, B., & Tang, S.-Y. (2020) · The American Review of Public Administration · doi:10.1177/0275074020943707 · Cited by 160 · see citing works
Confucius and the Moral Basis of Bureaucracy
Frederickson, H. G. (2002) · Administration & Society · doi:10.1177/0095399702336002 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
South Korea is reporting intimate details of COVID-19 cases: has it helped?
Zastrow, M. (2020) · Nature · doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00740-y · Cited by 127 · see citing works
REVISITING CONFUCIAN BUREAUCRACY: ROOTS OF THE KOREAN GOVERNMENT'S CULTURE AND COMPETITIVENESS
Im, T., Campbell, J. W., & Cha, S. (2013) · Public Administration and Development · doi:10.1002/pad.1656 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Self-citationKim, P. S. (2020) · Public Management Review · doi:10.1080/14719037.2020.1766266 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Confucianism and democratization in East Asia
(2012) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.50-0522 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Self-Transformation and Civil Society: Lockean vs. Confucian
Sungmoon, K. (2009) · Dao · doi:10.1007/s11712-009-9136-7 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Bureaucracy in Three Different Worlds: The Assumptions of Failed Public Sector Reforms in Korea
Im, T. (2013) · Public Organization Review · doi:10.1007/s11115-013-0246-7 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Public Reason Confucianism: A Construction
Kim, S. (2015) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055414000653 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
The influence of culture on Koreans’ risk perception
Yang, J. (2014) · Journal of Risk Research · doi:10.1080/13669877.2013.879490 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
CONFUCIAN CITIZENSHIP? AGAINST TWO GREEK MODELS
Kim, S. (2010) · Journal of Chinese Philosophy · doi:10.1111/j.1540-6253.2010.01595.x · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Structure and enforcement of data privacy law in South Korea
Ko, H., Leitner, J., Kim, E., & Jeong, J. (2017) · International Data Privacy Law · doi:10.1093/idpl/ipx004 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Kim, D., & Campbell, J. W. (2014) · Public Organization Review · doi:10.1007/s11115-014-0288-5 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Self-citation1 Confucianism and Democratization in East Asia
Fetzer, J. S., & Soper, J. C. (2012) · Lexington Books · doi:10.5771/9780739173015-1 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Do Koreans like being nudged? Survey evidence for the contextuality of behavioral public policy
Kasdan, D. O. (2020) · Rationality and Society · doi:10.1177/1043463120937832 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citationStability and Change in Korean Values
Lee, A. (2003) · Social Indicators Research · doi:10.1023/a:1022636931969 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Stability and Change in Korean Values
Lee, A. (2003) · Social indicators research series · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-0281-2_6 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
The Administration of Ubiquity: Governance, Dataveillance, and the Smart City
DAVID, O. K. (2019) · 국정관리연구 · doi:10.16973/jgs.2019.14.1.005 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Public Support for COVID-19 Responses: Cultural Cognition, Risk Perception, and Emotions
Liu, Z., & Yang, J. Z. (2021) · Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10410236.2021.1965710 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Social data governance: Towards a definition and model
Liu, J. (2022) · Big Data & Society · doi:10.1177/20539517221111352 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Lee, C., Kanji, R., Wang, A. H., Mamuji, A. A., Rozdilsky, J. L., & Chu, T. (2021) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-021-11928-w · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Mo, Y., & Park, H. S. (2021) · Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10410236.2021.1993532 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Red Tape, Rule Legitimacy, and Public Service Motivation: Experimental Evidence From Korean Citizens
Ahn, Y., & Campbell, J. W. (2022) · Administration & Society · doi:10.1177/00953997211069046 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citationCampbell, J. W., & Ahn, Y. (2023) · Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration · doi:10.1080/23276665.2023.2228435 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Self-citationHyun, W. I., Son, Y. H., & Jung, S. O. (2022) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-022-13755-z · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Ahn, Y., & Campbell, J. W. (2022) · Public Performance & Management Review · doi:10.1080/15309576.2022.2124296 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Self-citationPublic Branding and Marketing: Theoretical and Practical Developments
Zavattaro, S. M., Marland, A., & Eshuis, J. (2021) · Public Administration Review · doi:10.1111/puar.13372 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Characteristics of victim blaming related to COVID-19 in South Korea
Chung, J., Yeon, D., & Kim, M. (2023) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115668 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Im, T., & Campbell, J. W. (2020) · The Korean Journal of Policy Studies · doi:10.52372/kjps35306 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Self-citationREPRESENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY, IMMIGRANTS, AND TRUST IN GOVERNMENT: A CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY
Кэмпбелл, Д. (2021) · Public Administration Issues · doi:10.17323/1999-5431-2021-0-6-7-23 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Yan, Q. Y., Shen, H. J., & Ye, B. H. (2022) · Journal of Sustainable Tourism · doi:10.1080/09669582.2022.2136190 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Dealing with COVID-19 in South Korea: reflections on state theories
Jang, J., Han, C., & Kim, S. (2021) · Journal of Asian Public Policy · doi:10.1080/17516234.2021.1966864 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Social media-based social–psychological community resilience analysis of five countries on COVID-19
Valinejad, J., Guo, Z. Y., Cho, J.-H., & Chen, I.-R. (2023) · Journal of Computational Social Science · doi:10.1007/s42001-023-00220-z · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Identifying the Public’s Psychological Concerns in Response to COVID-19 Risk Messages in Singapore
Chen, X. K., Ang, A., Lee, J. Y., Wong, J., Neo, L. S., Ong, G., & Khader, M. (2021) · Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research · doi:10.30658/jicrcr.4.2.5 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Sya’bandari, Y., Fadillah, S. M., Rusmana, A. N., Aini, R. Q., & Ha, M. (2022) · Asia-Pacific Science Education · doi:10.1163/23641177-bja10045 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Noh, J., Lee, W.-R., Kim, L.-H., Cheon, J., Kwon, Y. D., & Yoo, K.-B. (2023) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph20042808 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
COVID-19 crisis and crisis management in South Korea, 2020–2021
Kim, K.-P. (2022) · Globalizations · doi:10.1080/14747731.2022.2135945 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Figueirôa-Ferreira, V. G., Borchers, T., Ribeiro, R. A., & Fernandes, R. A. S. (2023) · Acta Scientiarum. Technology/Acta scientiarum. Technology · doi:10.4025/actascitechnol.v45i1.61329 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Kim, E., Oh, Y., & Kennett, P. (2025) · Social Policy and Society · doi:10.1017/s1474746425000144 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Liu, J. (2021) · Lecture notes on data engineering and communications technologies · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-79197-1_91 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Smart City Technologies implemented in public transport in a post-COVID-19 pandemic scenario
Figueirôa-Ferreira, V. G., Borchers, T., & Fernandes, R. A. S. (2021) · Periódico Eletrônico Fórum Ambiental da Alta Paulista · doi:10.17271/1980082717120212839 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Ro, G. Y., Shin, Y., Mah, S., Min, Y., Park, H., & Jeong, S. (2021) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-400738/v1
Lee, C. T., Kanji, R., Wang, A. H., Mamuji, A. A., Rozdilsky, J. L., & Chu, T. (2021) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.16835086
Lee, C. T., Kanji, R., Wang, A. H., Mamuji, A. A., Rozdilsky, J. L., & Chu, T. (2021) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.16835083
- Authors
- Kasdan, D. O., & Campbell, J. W.
- Affiliations
- Sungkyunkwan University (KR)
- Incheon National University (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Campbell, Jesse W.
- Venue
- Administrative Theory & Praxis
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-08-12
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 604-613
- ISSN
- 1084-1806 (ISSN-L)
- 1949-0461
- OpenAlex
- W3048412599
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 5.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Administrative Theory & Praxis (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › COVID-19 Prevention and Impact
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Keywords
- COVID-19 containment, dataveillance, collectivism, South Korea, public health compliance, Neo-Confucianism, cultural values, risk aversion, conformity, existential risk, technology-driven development, pandemic response
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review