ArticleThe Lancet. Planetary health2021
The relationship between cultural tightness-looseness and COVID-19 cases and deaths: a global analysis.
Article in The Lancet. Planetary health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 155 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
155 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Pooled it
- Experiences of Public Health Professionals Regarding Crisis Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Pooled it
- The relationship between risk perceptions and negative emotions in the COVID-19: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Acceptance of SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance Testing Among Patients Receiving Dialysis: A Cluster Randomized Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Interpersonal value regulates infection-risky social contact across 61 societies.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- From Reopening to the New Normal: The Impact of COVID-19 on Intergroup Conflict Behaviour.International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2026Article
- Machine Learning Culture: Cultural Membership Classification as an Exploratory Approach to Cross-Cultural Psychology.Personality & social psychology bulletin · 2026Article
- Implications of regional variations in climate change vulnerability and mitigation behaviour for social-climate dynamics.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Interdependence explains how and when crises impact social cohesion.Communications psychology · 2026Review
- Effects of fundamental social motives on environmental variation of compliance during pandemics.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026Article
- The association between smoking and COVID-19 symptoms, severity, and post-COVID-19 symptoms: a cross-sectional survey study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
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- Advancing the psychology of social class with large-scale replications in four countries.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- What We Think Others Think and Do About Climate Change: A Multicountry Test of Pluralistic Ignorance and Public-Consensus Messaging.Psychological science · 2025Article
- The Association Between Cultural Tightness and COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence From 28 Countries: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
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- Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space.Communications psychology · 2025Article
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- The role of interdependent self-construal in mitigating the effect of conspiratorial beliefs on vaccine acceptance.The British journal of social psychology · 2025Article
- Compliance with social norms in the face of risks: Delineating the roles of uncertainty about risk perceptions versus risk perceptions.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2025Article
95 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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10 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe 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.
methodsWe 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.
findingsThe 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.
interpretationNations 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.
fundingOffice of Naval Research, US Navy.
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