Minerva-funded researcher, Michele Gelfand (University of Maryland) discusses the loose culture of the United States in comparison to other countries who have a more “tight” society and how that affects the response to COVID-19. In a loose culture like the United States’s, people are simply not use to tightly coordinating their social action toward a common goal and, compared with other nations, we’re more ambivalent about sacrificing our freedom for strict rules that constrain our choices.
Link: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/13/opinion/survive-coronavirus-united-states-must-tighten-up/