No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Justice beliefs and cultural values predict support for COVID-19 vaccination and quarantine behavioral mandates: a multilevel cross-national study
Abstract
Understanding how individual beliefs and societal values influence support for measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission is vital to developing and implementing effective prevention policies. Using both Just World Theory and Cultural Dimensions Theory, the present study considered how individual-level justice beliefs and country-level social values predict support for vaccination and quarantine policy mandates to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Data from an international survey of adults from 46 countries (N = 6424) were used to evaluate how individual-level beliefs about justice for self and others, as well as national values—that is, power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence—influence support for vaccination and quarantine behavioral mandates. Multilevel modeling revealed that support for vaccination and quarantine mandates were positively associated with individual-level beliefs about justice for self, and negatively associated with country-level uncertainty avoidance. Significant cross-level interactions revealed that beliefs about justice for self were associated more strongly with support for mandatory vaccination in countries high in individualism, whereas beliefs about justice for others were more strongly associated with support for vaccination and quarantine mandates in countries high in long-term orientation. Beliefs about justice and cultural values can independently and also interactively influence support for evidence-based practices to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as vaccination and quarantine. Understanding these multilevel influences may inform efforts to develop and implement effective prevention policies in varied national contexts.
... However, a statewise study in the US (60) and another multi-country study (63) both found the same results as our EU findings, when considering vaccination with at least one dose (our Y1) around the same time we measured it-individualism was a positive influence on vaccination rate, at least at the beginning of the campaign. On this individualism-collectivism divide, the literature provides less surprising evidence (especially from the first few months of the pandemic) when it comes to compliance with and support for protective measures, where higher national level individualism was found to be negatively related (64) and higher collectivism-positively (65,66). Following logically, in terms of other COVID-19 outcomes such as cases and deaths, more individualistic cultures were found to have higher numbers of both (67, 68). ...
... Our results certainly tell this story for EU countries, and, to a lesser degree for all 61 relatively wealthy nations we included in the analysis (however, this index was not a significant factor for OECD vaccination). There is some support in the literature to our finding of a positive influence of uncertainty avoidance on vaccine uptake (63), while its relation to other COVID-19 outcomes and NPIs is less clear (64,70,71). Furthermore, the long-term orientation covariate provided another set of surprising results, as one would think countries high on this national culture trait are invested in ensuring the future wellbeing of the nation and its people. ...
... Although the effect in our results was quite small, in relative terms, we see a definite negative relation between this index and vaccination. This counter-intuitive finding though goes hand in hand with existing evidence that long-term orientation is associated with lower support for NPIs and higher COVID-19 cases and deaths (64,69,70). Power distance, or the acceptance of the unequal distribution of power, showed a somewhat consistent negative effect throughout the vaccination effort, especially noticeable in the EU-only part of the analysis. ...
Introduction
In relatively wealthy countries, substantial between-country variability in COVID-19 vaccination coverage occurred. We aimed to identify influential national-level determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake at different COVID-19 pandemic stages in such countries.
Methods
We considered over 50 macro-level demographic, healthcare resource, disease burden, political, socio-economic, labor, cultural, life-style indicators as explanatory factors and coverage with at least one dose by June 2021, completed initial vaccination protocols by December 2021, and booster doses by June 2022 as outcomes. Overall, we included 61 European or Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. We performed 100 multiple imputations correcting for missing data and partial least squares regression for each imputed dataset. Regression estimates for the original covariates were pooled over the 100 results obtained for each outcome. Specific analyses focusing only on European Union (EU) or OECD countries were also conducted.
Results
Higher stringency of countermeasures, and proportionately more older adults, female and urban area residents, were each strongly and consistently associated with higher vaccination rates. Surprisingly, socio-economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), democracy, and education had limited explanatory power. Overall and in the OECD, greater perceived corruption related strongly to lower vaccine uptake. In the OECD, social media played a noticeable positive role. In the EU, right-wing government ideology exhibited a consistently negative association, while cultural differences had strong overall influence.
Conclusion
Relationships between country-level factors and COVID-19 vaccination uptake depended on immunization stage and country reference group. Important determinants include stringency, population age, gender and urbanization, corruption, government ideology and cultural context.
... Nudelman et al. (2021) found that BJW-self was negatively associated with depression across three countries. Lucas et al. (2022) in a study comprising participants from 46 countries found that BJW-self is more strongly associated with support for mandatory vaccination in countries that value individualism, whereas BJW-other is more strongly associated with support for mandatory vaccination in countries high on the national value of long-term orientation. Ours is the first study to test time-sensitive effects of BJW on mental health and well-being variables, while also accounting for potential cross-national variability in BJW and in health and well-being outcomes. ...
... persi stent Id= doi: 10. 34894/ PX5IVZ. Note that the BJW measures reported for this study at T1 were also employed inLucas et al. (2022).Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved. ...
Belief in a just world (BJW) is well established as a coping resource, particularly for those times when the world is experienced as uncertain, unpredictable, and uncontrollable. The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was such a time, and therefore provided an opportunity to test the boundary conditions of BJW theorizing. Here, we make a new methodological contribution, testing (a) cross-lagged panel effects of BJW on mental health and well-being variables and (b) whether these effects generalized cross-nationally. Drawing from data collected in early-mid 2020 by the PsyCorona Project (N = 2574 from 30 countries), BJW-self and BJW-other longitudinally predicted positive social/mental health, well-being, and hope, and these findings generalized across countries. We discuss the theoretical and applied implications of BJW as a coping resource in a time of crisis.
... In a survey study in Italy, libertarian morality (valuing individual freedom) decreased support for a COVID-19 vaccination mandate 207 . Another survey study across 46 countries revealed that attitudes toward mandatory vaccination relate to justice and cultural values 208 . Support for mandatory vaccination can change over time; for instance, by adapting to new information about the burden of disease or vaccine effectiveness. ...
... The complex interactions of variables merit study in assessing vaccine hesitancy and other prevention policies. (Lucas et al. 2022). ...
COVID-19 presents a variety of ethical challenges in a set of arenas, arenas not always considered in past pandemics. These challenges include issues related to autonomy, distributive ethics, and the establishment of policies of equity and justice. Methods are a literature review based on regular editing of an online textbook during the COVID-19 outbreak and a literature review using key ethical terms. Patients are confronted with new issues related to autonomy. Providers need to expand their concepts of ethical issues to include decisions based on proportionality and public health ethics. The public health sector needs to assess the beneficence of alternative modes of disease control. The research community needs to redefine the concept of informed consent in emergent conditions. All elements of the medical spectrum—physicians, scientists, and the community-at-large including the pharmaceutical industry—need to consider the multifaceted methods for preventing future pandemics. This will require giving particular emphasis to public health funding and ending the documented discrimination that exists in the provision of proven therapies. The developing world is especially at risk for most of the ethical issues, especially those related to equity and justice. The ethical issues associated with the COVID-19 outbreak are not unique but provide a diverse set of issues that apply to patients, providers, social groups, and investigators. The further study of such issues can help with preventing future outbreaks.
... Anchoring on the game theory, they expounded on the idea that tight groups cooperate much faster when under threat and therefore have higher survival rates than loose groups [36]. Atalay and Solmazer [37] found that cultural values orientation predicted mobility reduction in retail and recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Lucas et al. [38] found that cultural values were associated with support for vaccination and quarantine prevention policies. ...
... In the context of group living, values give the group members an intersubjective understanding of the social world and what matters in life, as they supply the standards that help evaluate different social situations and make one's experiences meaningful (Chiu et al., 2010). As recent research has shown, values priorities of the normative culture were associated with the degree of endorsement of vaccination, the extent of effectiveness of quarantine measures and the overall tendencies in spread and mortality from COVID-19 in different societies during the pandemic (Endress, 2022;Lucas et al., 2022). Societal values have also recently been linked to the economic evidence to explain the role of cultural factors in variations in economic performance (Beugelsdijk & Maseland, 2010;Shostya et al., 2023). ...
A value is an important concept for social scientists due to values’ links to behavior, emotion, motivation, and identity. This domain is one of the best-researched and methodologically diverse fields in cognitive anthropology, psychology and sociology. Studying entities such as values is also important for understanding the role of culture in the macro-level dynamics of human societies. Armed conflict is one striking instance that casts into a sharper relief the aspects of values’ engagement in identity processes that ordinarily are less visible. Carrying threats of impending death and destruction, war conditions modify social ecologies of groups and affect individual perception, cognition and behavior. Within the Terror Management theoretical framework, the concept of sacred values is often mentioned in the discussion of a response to life threats or death salience. In our study we focus on exploration of personal values, cultural values, and sacred values to investigate their connections with perceived similarity with the group, identity fusion, and the likelihood of group-serving behavior during the war in Ukraine. The results of the quantitative study conducted in Spring 2023 provide evidence that the sacred values are strongly connected to identity fusion and their endorsement increases the likelihood of engaging in self-sacrificial behavior. We show that during the war, the Ukrainian values priorities highlight freedom and sovereignty of Ukraine on both individual and collective levels. This study intends to contribute to the larger literature on the sacred values and seeks to provide deeper understanding of social behavior and social perception in war-time context.
... Sekar et al. (2022) also argue that the national cultural dimension explains about 66% of the variance in the initiative and found that low power distance, low masculinity, and high uncertainty avoidance were associated with the increased initiative against the pandemic. Lucas et al. (2022) found that cultural values were associated with support for vaccination and quarantine prevention policies, and they observed a relationship between beliefs in justice and national values (i.e., power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence), illustrating that the impact of belief in justice on mandates supporting COVID-19 behavior may depend on national context. For example, in countries with high levels of uncertainty avoidance, people will naturally avoid social gatherings, suggesting that coercive policies may be unnecessary. ...
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the mediational path of the influence of cultural orientation on the COVID-19 pandemic outcome at the national level and find out whether some culture-related factors can have a moderating effect on the influence of culture.
Methodology
Cultural dimension theory of Hofstede is used to quantify the degree of each dimension of culture orientation. The cross-section regression model is adopted to test if culture orientations affect the pandemic outcome, controlling for democracy, economy, education, population, age, and time. Then, a mediational analysis is conducted to examine if policy response is the mediator that culture makes an impact on the pandemic outcome. Finally, a moderation analysis is carried out to determine how each control variable has moderated the influence.
Findings
The cross-section regression results showed that culture orientation influences the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic at the 99% confidence level and that among the six cultural dimensions, collectivism-individualism has the most significant impact. It has also been found that policy response is the mediator of cultural influence, and culture-related factors can moderate the influence.
Contribution
The contribution of this research lies in developing the assertion that culture influences pandemic outcomes. Our findings indicate that collectivism-individualism culture orientation affects the effectiveness of epidemic controls the most among the six culture dimensions. Additionally, our research is the first to study the mediating effect of policy responses and the moderating effect of culture-related factors on the influence of cultural orientation on the pandemic outcome.
Measurement is important for research practices in social sciences and is part and parcel of an efficient investigation in any social context. Measuring abstract cognitive entities such as social knowledge and beliefs that characterize the collective culture has its nuances. In this chapter I address the issue of measuring shared collective knowledge and belief systems. I begin by outlining the theoretical assumptions behind measuring collective constructs in cognitive anthropology and go over the principles of computing inter-informant agreement (consensus) present in the ethnographic data. I then transition to the discussion of cultural models as an instantiation of intersubjectively shared collective beliefs. Finally, I lay out several strategies that can be useful for field researchers to extract and explore cultural models by means of quantitative methods.
Belief in a just world (BJW) may influence cooperation, but it is unclear whether general and personal BJW (GBJW and PBJW) have the same impact on cooperativeness in collectivistic cultures as it does in individualistic ones. The present study explored the relationships between GBJW, PBJW, cooperativeness, gratitude, and forgiveness to determine the effect of BJW on cooperativeness and explore possible mediating mechanisms. Data was obtained from self-report questionnaires completed by Chinese university students. The structural equation model with 574 effective questionnaires showed that GBJW positively and PBJW negatively predicted cooperativeness, and gratitude partially mediated these relationships. The results imply that the functions of GBJW and PBJW of Chinese people are different from those in Western cultures. These might indicate the discrepancies in collectivistic and individualistic cultures. The current study adds substantially to our understanding of the adaptive functions of GBJW and PBJW and emphasises the importance of distinguishing between both functions in different cultures.
In this paper we explore whether countries led by women have fared better during the COVID-19 pandemic than those led by men. Media and public health officials have lauded the perceived gender-related influence on policies and strategies for reducing the deleterious effects of the pandemic. We examine this proposition by analyzing COVID-19-related deaths globally across countries led by men and women. While we find some limited support for lower reported fatality rates in countries led by women, they are not statistically significant. Country cultural values offer more substantive explanation for COVID-19 outcomes. We offer several potential explanations for the pervasive perception that countries led by women have fared better during the pandemic, including data selection bias and Western media bias that amplified the successes of women leaders in OECD countries.
Thinking about justice can enhance or impede forgiveness of others. In this study, we show that these effects crucially depend on tendencies to believe in justice. We assessed beliefs about distributive and procedural justice for self and others among university students from the Midwestern United States. We then primed participants to think about distributive or procedural justice, either for self or others. We measured general forgiveness attitudes, as well as motivations to forgive a past transgression. Among participants who strongly believed in distributive justice for others, forgiveness was attenuated by thinking about distributive justice for others (congruence-inhibition), but accentuated by thinking about distributive justice for self, or procedural justice for others (incongruence-facilitation). Among participants who strongly believed in procedural justice for others, forgiveness was accentuated by thinking about procedural justice for self or distributive justice for others (incongruence-facilitation). Results highlight contextualized rather than rote effects of justice on forgiveness.
Several coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are currently in human trials. In June 2020, we surveyed 13,426 people in 19 countries to determine potential acceptance rates and factors influencing acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Of these, 71.5% of participants reported that they would be very or somewhat likely to take a COVID-19 vaccine, and 61.4% reported that they would accept their employer’s recommendation to do so. Differences in acceptance rates ranged from almost 90% (in China) to less than 55% (in Russia). Respondents reporting higher levels of trust in information from government sources were more likely to accept a vaccine and take their employer’s advice to do so.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses an exceptional challenge for humanity. Because public behaviour is key to curbing the pandemic at an early stage, it is important for social psychological researchers to use their knowledge to promote behaviours that help manage the crisis. Here, we identify human values as particularly important in driving both behavioural compliance to government guidelines and promoting prosocial behaviours to alleviate the strains arising from a prolonged pandemic. Existing evidence demonstrates the importance of human values, and the extent to which they are shared by fellow citizens, for tackling the COVID-19 crisis. Individuals who attach higher importance to self-transcendence (e.g., responsibility) and conservation (e.g., security) values are likely to be more compliant with COVID-19 behavioural guidelines and to help others who are struggling with the crisis. Further, believing that fellow citizens share one's values has been found to elicit a sense of connectedness that may be crucial in promoting collective efforts to contain the pandemic. The abstract nature of values, and cross-cultural agreement on their importance, suggests that they are ideally suited to developing and tailoring effective, global interventions to combat this pandemic.
Background. The COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented and cascading threat to the health and economic prosperity of the world's population.
Objectives. To understand whether the institutional and cultural context influences the COVID-19 outbreak.
Methods. At the ecological level, regression coefficients are examined to figure out contextual variables influencing the pandemic's exponential growth rate across 96 countries.
Results. While a strong institutional context is negatively associated with the outbreak (B = -0.55 ... -0.64, p < 0.001), the pandemic's growth rate is steeper in countries with a quality education system (B = 0.33, p < 0.001). Countries with an older population are more affected (B = 0.46, p < 0.001). Societies with individualistic (rather than collectivistic) values experience a flatter rate of pathogen proliferation (B = -0.31, p < 0.001), similarly for higher levels of power distance (B = -0.32, p < 0.001). Hedonistic values, that is seeking indulgence and not enduring restraints, are positively related to the outbreak (B = 0.23, p = 0.001).
Conclusions. The results emphasize the need for public policy makers to pay close attention to the institutional and cultural context in their respective countries when instigating measures aimed at constricting the pandemic's growth.
Aims:
This work examined the role of cultural values in understanding people's satisfaction with health services across Europe.
Methods:
We used multilevel linear regression analysis on the seventh round of the European Social Survey from 2014, including c. 40,000 respondents from 21 countries. Preliminary intraclass correlation analyses led us to believe that some explanations of variance in the dependent variable were to be found at the country level. In search of country level explanations, we attempted to account for the role of national culture in influencing citizens' attitudes towards health systems. This was done by using Hofstede's dimensions of power distance, individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, giving each country in the survey a mean aggregated score.
Results:
In our first model with individual level variables, being female, having low or medium education, experiencing financial strain, and reporting poor health and unmet medical needs were negatively associated with individual satisfaction with national healthcare systems, with the latter variable showing the strongest effect. After including Hofstede's cultural dimensions in our multilevel model, we found that the power distance index variable had a negative effect on the dependent variable, significant at the 0.1 level.
Conclusions:
Citizens are likely to evaluate their national health system more negatively in national cultures associated with autocracy and hierarchy.
In this chapter, we review past and current developments on individual differences in belief in a just world (BJW). Research focusing on measurement of BJW has led to critiques of the original Just World Scale (Rubin & Peplau, Journal of Social Issues, 29, 1973; Journal of Social Issues, 31, 1975) and a trend toward multiple scales assessing different forms of BJW; most notably, personal vs. general forms of BJW. The overall concept of BJW has been well validated by studies of correlates, including certain reactions to victims and ideological variables. With respect to the broader significance of BJW, though BJW is adaptive for the self, the implications of BJW for society are more ambiguous. The developmental foundations of BJW are also unclear, but possible sources include experience with justice and injustice, social learning, and so on. In future, researchers should integrate the forms of BJW into a coherent theoretical framework, further explore the adaptive and maladaptive correlates of BJW, and employ longitudinal designs to better address developmental processes.
Tendencies to believe in justice are multidimensional, and some justice beliefs enhance personal well-being. These features suggest a considerable but largely overlooked potential for similarities and differences in the structure, endorsement, and wellness-promoting functions of justice beliefs across cultures. In the current research, we evaluate a recently available four-factor conceptualization of justice beliefs in samples of university students from the United States, Canada, India, and China (total N = 922). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the proposed four-factor model was structurally invariant, suggesting that individuals from all four cultures could be characterized according to their beliefs about distributive and procedural justice for both self and others. Cross-cultural comparisons revealed no mean differences in beliefs about distributive justice for self, whereas beliefs about procedural justice for self were higher in Canada and China than in the United States or India. In parallel, beliefs about distributive and procedural justice for others were higher in Eastern than in Western cultures. In all four cultures, a belief in distributive justice for self was associated with greater life satisfaction, whereas a belief in procedural justice for self was additionally associated in Canada and China only. No associations between beliefs about justice for others and life satisfaction were observed in any culture. The current research provides initial support for the cross-cultural viability of a four-factor approach to measuring dispositional tendencies to believe in justice. We discuss implications and opportunities for the continued study of justice in cross-cultural research.
The human ability to envision the future, that is, to take a future perspective (FP), plays a key role in the justice motive and its function in transcending disadvantages and misfortunes. The present research investigated whether individual (Study 1) and situational (Study 2) differences in FP moderated the association of general belief in a just world (GBJW) with psychological resilience.
We investigated FP, GBJW, and resilience in sample of adolescents (n = 223) and disaster survivors (n = 218) in China. In Study 1, adolescents revealed stronger GBJW than PBJW, and GBJW uniquely predicted resilience in the daily lives of those with high FP (but not those with low FP). In Study 2, natural priming of FP (vs. no FP) facilitated the association of GBJW with resilience after disaster.
Supporting predictions, participants endorsed GBJW more strongly than PBJW. Further, GBJW interacted with FP in both studies, such that there was an association between GBJW and resilience at high but not low levels of FP. The results corroborate recent findings suggesting that GBJW may be more psychologically adaptive than PBJW among some populations. They also confirm that focusing on the future is an important aspect of the adaptive function of just-world beliefs.
Personal happiness and well-being are associated with a dispositional tendency to believe in the existence of justice. In addition, research suggests that links between justice beliefs and well-being are best revealed when utilizing distinctions between a belief in justice for one’s self versus others, and also a belief in procedural versus distributive justice. Using multilevel modeling, we examined whether individual-level links to personal well-being are moderated by higher-order (county-level) justice climates. Michigan (United States) residents (N = 497) were recruited through a statewide survey to complete measures of procedural and distributive justice beliefs for self and others, life satisfaction, and self-rated health. Individual-level beliefs in justice for both self and for others were more strongly associated with life satisfaction and health in climates where beliefs about justice for others were robust. In addition, an individual-level belief in distributive justice was more strongly linked to self-rated health in high distributive justice climates, and in low procedural justice climates. Taken together, these cross-level interactions suggest that higher-order justice climates may alter relationships between individual-level justice beliefs and personal well-being. We discuss implications for justice theory and directions for continued research on well-being and happiness.
‘Tailoring’ refers to any of a number of methods for creating communications individualized for their receivers, with the
expectation that this individualization will lead to larger intended effects of these communications. Results so far have
been generally positive but not consistently so, and this paper seeks to explicate tailoring to help focus future research.
Tailoring involves either or both of two classes of goals (enhancing cognitive preconditions for message processing and enhancing
message impact through modifying behavioral determinants of goal outcomes) and employs strategies of personalization, feedback
and content matching. These goals and strategies intersect in a 2 × 3 matrix in which some strategies and their component
tactics match better to some goals than to others. The paper illustrates how this framework can be systematically applied
in generating research questions and identifying appropriate study designs for tailoring research.
Antibiotics are widely-used medicines for which a more prudent use has been advocated to minimize development of resistance. There are considerable cross-national differences that can only partially be explained by epidemiological difference and variations in health care structure. The aim of this study was to explore whether cross-national differences in use of antibiotics (prescribed and non-prescribed) are associated with differences between national cultures as described in Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions (Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance and Long-Term Orientation).
Country-level data of prescribed antibiotic use and self-medication with antibiotics were correlated to country-specific scores of cultural dimensions obtained from Hofstede. Data on use of antibiotics were provided by three European studies, based on different methods and/or countries: Self-medication with Antibiotics and Resistance in Europe (SAR), based on a survey in 2003 on reported use of antibiotics in 19 countries, the European Surveillance on Antimicrobial Consumption, based on distribution and reimbursement of antibiotics in ambulatory care (1997-2002), and the 2002 interview-based Eurobarometer study, asking whether respondents had taken antibiotics in the previous 12 months. These studies provided data on antibiotics use for 27 European countries in total, for which scores of cultural dimensions were also available. The SAR-study differentiated between prescribed antibiotics and self-medication with antibiotics.
Significant positive correlations were found for Power Distance Index with use of prescribed antibiotics in the three studies (rho between 0.59 and 0.62) and with self-medication (rho = 0.54) in the SAR study. Positive significant correlations were found for the Uncertainty Avoidance Index with the use of antibiotics as reported in two studies (rho between 0.57 and 0.59; for the SAR study the correlations were insignificant). Masculinity was not significantly correlated, except in one study after controlling for GDP (r = 0.81). For Individualism and Long-Term Orientation no significant correlations were found.
Power Distance is a cultural aspect associated with antibiotic use, suggesting that the culture-specific way people deal with authority is an important factor in explaining cross-national differences in antibiotic use. There are indications that Uncertainty Avoidance also plays a role but further research is needed to better understand the complex effect of cultural dimensions.
In recent years, countries have been fighting with increasing momentum against outbreaks. This struggle requires the effective implementation of several measures that are required in medical science. However, the cultural characteristics of each society prevent these measures from being applied in the same way globally. One area in which social scientists have not applied much effort is observing the impact of countries' cultural characteristics in the fight against outbreaks. Therefore, this study aims to determine whether cultural differences among countries have an impact on their fight against outbreaks. This study uses the COVID-19 pandemic’s total cases and selected European countries’ cultural dimension scores as data. Due to the differences in the measurement units of cultural and outbreak variables, a stepwise multiple logarithmic regression analysis is preferred to select the proper regression model. The results have shown that power distance has a significant and negative effect on the increase rate of the total COVID-19 cases per million (IRTCCPM). In addition, the results have demonstrated that both individualism and indulgence have significant and positive effects on IRTCCPM, at the 95% confidence level. However, the hypotheses concerning the impacts of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation on the IRTCCPM are rejected at the α = 0.05 level. In light of the findings of this study, it can be asserted that countries act in harmony with their cultural characteristics in the formal or informal practices of their fight against outbreaks. The contributions of the study can be discussed in academic and practical fields.
We assess the impact of national culture and government policies on social distancing to fight COVID-19 across major economies during the first wave of the pandemic. To do so, we regress government stringency index from Oxford COVID-19 government response tracker together with Hofstede’s national culture scores on social distancing data from Google mobility reports. We find that government stringency has a far larger impact on social distancing than national culture. Social distancing increases with government stringency. We find two cultural dimensions matter: social distancing decreases with ‘Long-term Orientation’; the opposite is true for ‘Indulgence’. Our results convey that policymakers must act decisively rather than blaming the culture.
Social justice is understood by many as the extent to which resources, opportunities, benefits, and burdens are allocated fairly across a society. In health and medical contexts, these allocations readily encompass access to healthcare goods and services, as well as the distribution of desirable and undesirable health outcomes across various social segments. Less appreciated is that social justice also embodies the subjective evaluations of fairness that occur as individuals react to everyday social exchange. This psychologically oriented notion of social justice underscores that in addition to its role in describing broader health inequity, social justice is also an important psychosocial determinant of health. Justice perceptions may be especially associated with cardiovascular health and mental well‐being, and these links may be transmitted by connections from justice cognitions to antecedent stress and health behavior pathways.
This paper is the first to examine the role of the cultural dimension in practising social distancing across the world. By drawing the data from the Google COVID-19 community mobility reports and the Hofstede cultural factors for 58 countries over the period from 16 February to 29 March 2020, we find that countries with higher ‘Uncertainty Avoidance Index’ predict the lower proportion of people gathering in public such as retail and recreation, grocery and pharmacy, parks, transit stations, workplaces. However, we do not find any predictive factor in having a relationship with the percentage of citizens staying in their residential areas. Our results are robust by adding the control variable as the wealth status, GDP per capita. Hence, this paper suggests some effective communications to contain the COVID-19 pandemic by emphasizing the role of uncertainties.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has produced the fear and disorder inevitably provoked by emerging pathogens. As such, it should also inspire consideration of our experience with HIV over the past 40 years. As with HIV, the road to reducing infections with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19), and attendant morbidity and mortality, requires medical and nonmedical strategies. The most important lesson learned from tackling HIV is to use a combination of prevention strategies.
Background:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly emerging disease that has been classified a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). To support WHO with their recommendations on quarantine, we conducted a rapid review on the effectiveness of quarantine during severe coronavirus outbreaks.
Objectives:
We conducted a rapid review to assess the effects of quarantine (alone or in combination with other measures) of individuals who had contact with confirmed cases of COVID-19, who travelled from countries with a declared outbreak, or who live in regions with high transmission of the disease.
Search methods:
An information specialist searched PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, WHO Global Index Medicus, Embase, and CINAHL on 12 February 2020 and updated the search on 12 March 2020. WHO provided records from daily searches in Chinese databases up to 16 March 2020.
Selection criteria:
Cohort studies, case-control-studies, case series, time series, interrupted time series, and mathematical modelling studies that assessed the effect of any type of quarantine to control COVID-19. We also included studies on SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) as indirect evidence for the current coronavirus outbreak.
Data collection and analysis:
Two review authors independently screened 30% of records; a single review author screened the remaining 70%. Two review authors screened all potentially relevant full-text publications independently. One review author extracted data and assessed evidence quality with GRADE and a second review author checked the assessment. We rated the certainty of evidence for the four primary outcomes: incidence, onward transmission, mortality, and resource use.
Main results:
We included 29 studies; 10 modelling studies on COVID-19, four observational studies and 15 modelling studies on SARS and MERS. Because of the diverse methods of measurement and analysis across the outcomes of interest, we could not conduct a meta-analysis and conducted a narrative synthesis. Due to the type of evidence found for this review, GRADE rates the certainty of the evidence as low to very low. Modeling studies consistently reported a benefit of the simulated quarantine measures, for example, quarantine of people exposed to confirmed or suspected cases averted 44% to 81% incident cases and 31% to 63% of deaths compared to no measures based on different scenarios (incident cases: 4 modelling studies on COVID-19, SARS; mortality: 2 modelling studies on COVID-19, SARS, low-certainty evidence). Very low-certainty evidence suggests that the earlier quarantine measures are implemented, the greater the cost savings (2 modelling studies on SARS). Very low-certainty evidence indicated that the effect of quarantine of travellers from a country with a declared outbreak on reducing incidence and deaths was small (2 modelling studies on SARS). When the models combined quarantine with other prevention and control measures, including school closures, travel restrictions and social distancing, the models demonstrated a larger effect on the reduction of new cases, transmissions and deaths than individual measures alone (incident cases: 4 modelling studies on COVID-19; onward transmission: 2 modelling studies on COVID-19; mortality: 2 modelling studies on COVID-19; low-certainty evidence). Studies on SARS and MERS were consistent with findings from the studies on COVID-19.
Authors' conclusions:
Current evidence for COVID-19 is limited to modelling studies that make parameter assumptions based on the current, fragmented knowledge. Findings consistently indicate that quarantine is important in reducing incidence and mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Early implementation of quarantine and combining quarantine with other public health measures is important to ensure effectiveness. In order to maintain the best possible balance of measures, decision makers must constantly monitor the outbreak situation and the impact of the measures implemented. Testing in representative samples in different settings could help assess the true prevalence of infection, and would reduce uncertainty of modelling assumptions. This review was commissioned by WHO and supported by Danube-University-Krems.
Over the past 50+ years researchers have dedicated considerable effort towards studying the belief in a just world (BJW). A significant development in the field was the introduction of the bidimensional model, which indicates differential outcomes for the belief in a just world for the self (BJW-self) when contrasted with the belief in a just world for others (BJW-general). Theorizing and research on BJW-general is well-established. However, the distinction between the two spheres, and specifically the unique characteristics and correlates of BJW-self, are not yet widely acknowledged by researchers. Therefore, we present a review of the BJW-self literature, in three parts. First, we outline the fundamental tenants of justice motive theory and the chronology of BJW-self research. Second, we discuss the notable relationships that have emerged from this literature, in particular the links between BJW-self and wellbeing, coping with negative life events, prosocial behaviours, and a positive future orientation. Finally, we suggest avenues for future research and theoretical advance.
The “belief in a just world” refers to those more or less articulated assumptions which underlie the way people orient themselves to their environment. These assumptions have a functional component which is tied to the image of a manageable and predictable world. These are central to the ability to engage in long-term goal-directed activity. In order to plan, work for, and obtain things they want, and avoid those which are frightening or painful, people must assume that there are manageable procedures which are effective in producing the desired end states (Erikson, 1950; Merton, 1957).
Simple slopes, regions of significance, and confidence bands are commonly used to evaluate interactions in multiple linear regression (MLR) models, and the use of these techniques has recently been extended to multilevel or hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and latent curve analysis (LCA). However, conducting these tests and plotting the conditional relations is often a tedious and error-prone task. This article provides an overview of methods used to probe interaction effects and describes a unified collection of freely available online resources that researchers can use to obtain significance tests for simple slopes, compute regions of significance, and obtain confidence bands for simple slopes across the range of the moderator in the MLR, HLM, and LCA contexts. Plotting capabilities are also provided.
the fundamental problem of cross-cultural psychology, I believe, is that it needs two paradigms: one for psychological processes, and one for the cultural environment in which these take place / the first operates at the level of individuals and groups; the second, at the level of societies or at least of social systems
as most of us will be sufficiently familiar with the individual-level paradigm, I will try to demonstrate what can be done with a social-system-level paradigm and will illustrate how cultural differences among societies can be expressed into cultural variables
available model for expressing cultural differences into variables / culture's consequences: differences in work-related values among national samples / four dimensions of national cultures / cultural biases in the researchers' mind: the Chinese Value Survey / Confucian Work Dynamism as a fifth dimension / the proof of the pudding (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Time frame and justice motive: future perspective moderates the adaptive function of general belief in a just world
- T Lucas
- CE Drolet
- P Strelan
- JC Karremans
- RM Sutton