COVID-19 A Cultural Analysis to Understand Variance in Infection Rate across Nations

We integrate insights from cross-cultural research with inquiry in social psychology to develop a theoretically grounded and culturally derived explanation of the cross-national variance in COVID-19 infections. Specifically, we draw on Hofstede's (1984) and Schwartz' (1999) cultural value frameworks to elucidate how dimensions resulting from these explain differences in individual’s behavior in response to social distancing and social restriction guidelines, thereby mitigating the infection rate of COVID-19 cross-nationally. Our analysis, based on cross-national data, and after controlling for differences in government effectiveness, GDP per capita and population density, suggest that while individualism, indulgence, autonomy, and egalitarianism positively predicted COVID-19 cases across nations, power distance negatively predicted the number of COVID-19 cases cross nationally.