Cultural comparison of the pandemic: what a strong we and our proud self achieve

It is certainly too early to declare the corona pandemic over.

But it's not too early to explore national differences in fighting the pandemic during its early stages.

How could the large differences in death rates during this period be explained?

With the climate?

The population structure?

The social inequality?

Or was the timing of government countermeasures crucial?

So far nothing has been convincing.

Japan and the USA, for example, are both developed democracies, but both countries took completely different paths in their corona policy.

China and Japan, on the other hand, differ significantly socially, governmentally and economically, but are similar in the political measures to contain the pandemic in its early phase.

So what other factor could have played a role?

Maybe the culture?

In order to be able to examine this, one must be able to compare societies in terms of their cultures.

50 years ago, the Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede developed the (since heavily disputed) theory that cultures or the states shaped by them can be distinguished on the basis of certain dimensions on a simple scale.

Jianghong Li, Plamen Akaliyski, Jan Paul Heisig, Simon Löbl, and Michael Minkov, further developing Hofstede's approach, have now hypothesized that the different Covid mortality rates in the first phase of the pandemic (before the start of vaccinations) are at least partly due to the distinction between to explain "monumental" and "flexible" societies:

Culturally flexible societies got through the initial phase of the pandemic better and had fewer deaths than more "monumental" cultures.

What could be the reason?

More corona deaths in "monumental" societies

Culture is expressed in culture-typical personality types.

In raising children, flexible societies primarily focused on self-control and desire control, especially in conflict with overarching societal goals.

They favored skills such as strong 'emotional management', adaptability and a willingness to self-improve.

In contrast, in "monumental" societies, which prevailed in Latin America, Europe and the USA, the self is something of a "proud and immutable monument".

Something unique, almost absolute.

There, parents educate children to gratify rather than suppress their desires, to express their emotions, and to "just be themselves" rather than to align themselves with those who possess superior knowledge: elders, teachers,

The findings of the study confirm this: The highest Covid mortality among the 37 countries examined was found in the “monumental” societies of Latin America, followed by countries such as the USA, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

The lowest mortality rates in the investigated early phase of the pandemic were reported by the culturally “flexible” countries of Southeast Asia such as China, Japan and Singapore.

Of course, the objection is appropriate as to whether other massive differences in these countries, such as in terms of gross domestic product or the number of available intensive care beds, played a much bigger role in this first year of the pandemic than cultural differences.

Why, then, must be the counter-question, did a country like Vietnam have the world's lowest death rate,

Culture is not a very strict feature of a society.

Their manifestation in typical personality traits raises the question of how dominant such traits are in increasingly heterogeneous migration societies.

More remarkable than such obvious limitations is the authors' conclusion that their findings may help us to be "better prepared" for possible pandemics in the future.

Should "we" with our "monumental" culture first learn from Southeast Asian societies how to educate children to be "flexible" personalities?

Perhaps that would also be a contribution to combating the consequences of climate change, insofar as this is also about

putting aside personal desires in favor of the higher interests of the collective?

In addition, the "flexible" cultures were characterized by a particularly high level of education among the population and very low crime rates.

So there is still a lot to learn here.