Vietnam offers tough lessons for U.S. on
coronavirus
How South Korea Stopped COVID-19 Early
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/how-south-korea-stopped-covid19-early-by-myoung-hee-kim-2020-04
Experts say pandemic reactions highlight US-Asia
culture gap
“"A society like the U.S. is really not prepared
to come together collectively and prioritize the collective good over the
rights of the individual," Kanter continued. "We're just not built
for this."
Kanter said more collectivist cultures, including
Asian ones, appear to be better at handling a pandemic. He cited a 2008 study
published by London's Royal Society that suggested dealing with past disease
outbreaks may have helped shape collectivist cultures in the first place.”
Pathogen prevalence predicts human cross-cultural
variability in individualism/collectivism
Abstract
Pathogenic diseases impose selection pressures on the
social behaviour of host populations. In humans (Homo sapiens), many
psychological phenomena appear to serve an antipathogen defence function. One
broad implication is the existence of cross-cultural differences in human
cognition and behaviour contingent upon the relative presence of pathogens in
the local ecology. We focus specifically on one fundamental cultural variable:
differences in individualistic versus collectivist values. We suggest that
specific behavioural manifestations of collectivism (e.g. ethnocentrism,
conformity) can inhibit the transmission of pathogens; and so we hypothesize
that collectivism (compared with individualism) will more often characterize
cultures in regions that have historically had higher prevalence of pathogens.
Drawing on epidemiological data and the findings of worldwide cross-national
surveys of individualism/collectivism, our results support this hypothesis: the
regional prevalence of pathogens has a strong positive correlation with
cultural indicators of collectivism and a strong negative correlation with
individualism. The correlations remain significant even when controlling for
potential confounding variables. These results help to explain the origin of a
paradigmatic cross-cultural difference, and reveal previously undocumented
consequences of pathogenic diseases on the variable nature of human societies.