Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Italy, Rome, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2024 Mar 18;14(1):6502. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-33155-6.
Did cultures change shortly after, and in response to, the COVID-19 outbreak? If so, then in what way? We study these questions for a set of macro-cultural dimensions: collectivism/individualism, duty/joy, traditionalism/autonomy, and pro-fertility/individual-choice norms. We also study specific perceptions and norms like perceived threats to society (e.g. immigration) and hygiene norms. We draw on Evolutionary Modernization Theory, Parasite Stress Theory, and the Behavioural Immune System, and existing evidence, to make an overarching prediction: the COVID-19 pandemic should increase collectivism, duty, traditionalism, conformity (i.e. pro-fertility), and outgroup prejudice. We derive specific hypotheses from this prediction and use survey data from 29,761 respondents, in 55 cities and 43 countries, collected before (April-December 2019) and recently after the emergence of COVID-19 (April-June 2020) to test them. We exploit variation in disease intensity across regions to test potential mechanisms behind any changes. The macro-cultural dimensions remained stable. In contrast, specific perceptions and norms related to the pandemic changed: norms of hygiene substantially increased as did perceived threats related to disease. Taken together, our findings imply that macro-cultural dimensions are primarily stable while specific perceptions and norms, particularly those related to the pandemic, can change rapidly. Our findings provide new evidence for theories of cultural change and have implications for policy, public health, daily life, and future trajectories of our societies.
文化是否在 COVID-19 爆发后不久发生了变化？如果是，那么变化的方式是什么？我们研究了一系列宏观文化维度：集体主义/个人主义、责任/快乐、传统主义/自主性以及亲生育/个人选择规范。我们还研究了特定的观念和规范，如对社会的感知威胁（如移民）和卫生规范。我们借鉴了进化现代化理论、寄生虫压力理论和行为免疫系统以及现有证据，提出了一个总体预测：COVID-19 大流行应该会增加集体主义、责任感、传统主义、从众性（即亲生育）和对外群体的偏见。我们从这个预测中得出了具体的假设，并使用了来自 29761 名受访者的调查数据，这些受访者来自 55 个城市和 43 个国家，收集时间分别在 COVID-19 爆发前（2019 年 4 月至 12 月）和最近（2020 年 4 月至 6 月），以检验这些假设。我们利用疾病在不同地区的严重程度差异来检验任何变化背后的潜在机制。宏观文化维度保持稳定。相比之下，与大流行相关的特定观念和规范发生了变化：卫生规范大幅增加，与疾病相关的感知威胁也有所增加。总的来说，我们的发现意味着宏观文化维度主要是稳定的，而特定的观念和规范，特别是与大流行相关的观念和规范，可能会迅速变化。我们的发现为文化变化理论提供了新的证据，并对政策、公共卫生、日常生活以及我们社会的未来轨迹产生了影响。
