The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought into sharp focus the urgency of tackling the question of how globalized humanity responds to a global societal threat, which can adversely affect a large portion of the human population. Changing geospatial distribution of COVID-19 morbidity paints a gloomy picture of cross-national differences in human vulnerabilities across the globe. We describe the dynamic nexus among societal – particularly pathogen – threat, social institutions, and culture, and discuss collectivism (ingroup favouritism and outgroup avoidance) and tightness (narrow prescription of behaviours and severe punishment of norm violations) as potential cultural adaptations to prevalent pathogen threats. We then sketch out a theoretical framework for cultural dynamics of collective adaptation to pathogen threats, outline a large number of theory- and policy-relevant research questions and what answers we have at present, and end with a call for renewed efforts to investigate collective human responses to societal threats.

COVID-19全球大流行已成为解决全球人类如何应对全球社会威胁的迫在眉睫的问题，全球社会威胁可能对很大一部分人口造成不利影响。不断变化的COVID-19发病率地理空间分布描绘了全球范围内全球人类脆弱性差异的阴霾。我们描述了社会（尤其是病原体）的威胁，社会制度和文化之间的动态联系，并讨论了集体主义（群体内偏爱和群体外回避）和紧绷性（行为的狭义规定以及对违反规范的严厉惩罚）是对流行病原体的潜在文化适应威胁。然后，我们为集体适应病原体威胁的文化动力勾勒出一个理论框架，