Impact of cultural tightness on vaccination rate

Abstract

We find that cultural tightness, that is, the level of social punishment for violating norms, is associated with lower vaccination rates against COVID-19 across both states and counties in the United States. This is consistent with individuals in tighter cultures being more likely to base risk management decisions on social norms rather than on advice from experts and leaders. It is also consistent with our documentation of a social norm against COVID-19 vaccination. This implies that when a society depends on individual action to help manage society-wide risks, social norms can influence the degree to which individuals in tighter societies will engage in actions that minimize the overall risk to the society. | INTRODUCTIONThe World Economic Forum's, 2021 Global Risk Report lists "infectious diseases," "climate change inaction," "biodiversity loss," "natural resource loss," and "human environmental damage" as the top risks facing the world over the next 10 years (World Economic Forum, 2021). These risks all share a requirement for collective risk management actions from countries, states, communities, and individuals. Understanding how culture affects collective risk management is critical to mitigating these high-impact risks.One important aspect of culture that affects individual decision-making is cultural tightness (Pelto, 1968). Cultural tightness (looseness) is the strength of punishment and the degree of latitude (permissiveness) for violating social norms. From the perspective of RMI researchers, it can be used in a similar manner as the Hofstede cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 1984) and the Big Five Personality traits (Schmitt et al., 2007) concepts. Although these are very different

Explaining vaccine hesitancy: A COVID‐19 study of the United States

“…There is a small body of research that has emerged on vaccine hesitancy (Dror et al, 2020 ; Jones et al, 2022 ; Khubchandani et al, 2021 ; Norhayati et al, 2022 ; Sallam, 2021 ; Tan et al, 2022 ), focusing on different aspects. Relatedly, Goel and Jones ( 2022 ) consider the risks associated with vaccine passports.…”

“…Many influences, including economic, social, health, and political might come to bear upon the decisions to vaccinate and, conversely, to not vaccinate. For instance, Persad et al ( 2020 ) consider the role of race, Sylvester ( 2021 ) considers the influence of education, Goel and Nelson ( 2021a ) consider the role of the internet, Jones et al ( 2022 ) considers the role of cultural tightness, and Tan et al ( 2022 ) focus on the age issues. In addition, vaccination efforts around the world have become a politically‐charged issue and the United States is no different (see da Fonseca et al, 2021 ; Nayak et al, 2021 ).…”