Although the novel coronavirus that has resulted in more than 3 million deaths and 140 million cases of infection worldwide has wreaked havoc globally, some nations were more successful than others in curbing growth in their number of cases, thereby saving lives. In this research note, we integrate insights from cross-cultural research with inquiry in social psychology and public health literatures to advance a theoretically grounded and culturally derived explanation of cross-national variance in the growth rate of COVID-19. Our multi-level analyses, based on longitudinal time series data from 107 nations, and focused on the first 91 days of this pandemic in different nations, illustrate the direct and interactive effects of culture. Specifically, we find that individualism and uncertainty avoidance have a positive impact, while power distance and masculinity have a negative impact, on the growth rate of COVID-19 cases. Three-way interaction analyses between time, government stringency, and culture indicate that early government stringency attenuated pandemic growth, and this attenuation effect was more significant in collectivistic than in individualistic nations, and in high rather than low power distance nations. Our findings provide evidence that can enable policymakers and organizations to develop strategies that not only conform to science but that also consider the cultural orientation of nations.

尽管已导致全球超过 300 万人死亡和 1.4 亿例感染的新型冠状病毒在全球范围内造成严重破坏，但一些国家比其他国家更成功地遏制了病例数量的增长，从而挽救了生命。在本研究报告中，我们将跨文化研究的见解与对社会心理学和公共卫生文献的调查相结合，以推进对 COVID-19 增长率的跨国差异的理论基础和文化衍生的解释。我们的多层次分析基于来自 107 个国家的纵向时间序列数据，并侧重于不同国家大流行的前 91 天，说明了文化的直接和互动影响。具体来说，我们发现个人主义和避免不确定性具有积极影响，而权力距离和阳刚之气对 COVID-19 病例的增长率有负面影响。时间、政府严格度和文化之间的三向交互分析表明，早期的政府严格度减弱了大流行的增长，这种减弱效应在集体主义国家比在个人主义国家更显着，在权力距离高的国家而不是低权力距离的国家中更为显着。我们的研究结果提供了证据，使政策制定者和组织能够制定不仅符合科学而且还考虑国家文化取向的战略。这种衰减效应在集体主义国家比在个人主义国家更显着，在高权力距离国家而不是低权力距离国家。我们的研究结果提供了证据，使政策制定者和组织能够制定不仅符合科学而且还考虑国家文化取向的战略。这种衰减效应在集体主义国家比在个人主义国家更显着，在高权力距离国家而不是低权力距离国家。我们的研究结果提供了证据，使政策制定者和组织能够制定不仅符合科学而且还考虑国家文化取向的战略。