Scientific Reports (Apr 2023)
Greater traditionalism predicts COVID-19 precautionary behaviors across 27 societies
- Theodore Samore,
- Daniel M. T. Fessler,
- Adam Maxwell Sparks,
- Colin Holbrook,
- Lene Aarøe,
- Carmen Gloria Baeza,
- María Teresa Barbato,
- Pat Barclay,
- Renatas Berniūnas,
- Jorge Contreras-Garduño,
- Bernardo Costa-Neves,
- Maria del Pilar Grazioso,
- Pınar Elmas,
- Peter Fedor,
- Ana Maria Fernandez,
- Regina Fernández-Morales,
- Leonel Garcia-Marques,
- Paulina Giraldo-Perez,
- Pelin Gul,
- Fanny Habacht,
- Youssef Hasan,
- Earl John Hernandez,
- Tomasz Jarmakowski,
- Shanmukh Kamble,
- Tatsuya Kameda,
- Bia Kim,
- Tom R. Kupfer,
- Maho Kurita,
- Norman P. Li,
- Junsong Lu,
- Francesca R. Luberti,
- María Andrée Maegli,
- Marinés Mejia,
- Coby Morvinski,
- Aoi Naito,
- Alice Ng’ang’a,
- Angélica Nascimento de Oliveira,
- Daniel N. Posner,
- Pavol Prokop,
- Yaniv Shani,
- Walter Omar Paniagua Solorzano,
- Stefan Stieger,
- Angela Oktavia Suryani,
- Lynn K. L. Tan,
- Joshua M. Tybur,
- Hugo Viciana,
- Amandine Visine,
- Jin Wang,
- Xiao-Tian Wang
Affiliations
- Theodore Samore
- Department of Anthropology, Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California
- Daniel M. T. Fessler
- Department of Anthropology, Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, Bedari Kindness Institute, University of California
- Adam Maxwell Sparks
- Colin Holbrook
- Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California
- Lene Aarøe
- Department of Political Science, Aarhus University
- Carmen Gloria Baeza
- Laboratorio de Evolución y Relaciones Interpersonales, Universidad de Santiago de Chile
- María Teresa Barbato
- Laboratorio de Evolución y Relaciones Interpersonales, Universidad de Santiago de Chile
- Pat Barclay
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph
- Renatas Berniūnas
- Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University
- Jorge Contreras-Garduño
- Escuela Nacional de Estudio Superiores, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Unidad Morelia
- Bernardo Costa-Neves
- Lisbon Medical School, University of Lisbon
- Maria del Pilar Grazioso
- Centro Integral de Psicología Aplicada, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
- Pınar Elmas
- Department of Psychology, Adnan Menderes University
- Peter Fedor
- Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University
- Ana Maria Fernandez
- Laboratorio de Evolución y Relaciones Interpersonales, Universidad de Santiago de Chile
- Regina Fernández-Morales
- Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Rafael Landivár
- Leonel Garcia-Marques
- CICPsi Research Center for Psychological Science, Universidade de Lisboa
- Paulina Giraldo-Perez
- The School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland
- Pelin Gul
- Department of Sustainable Health, University of Groningen
- Fanny Habacht
- Division of Psychological Methodology, Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences
- Youssef Hasan
- Psychology Program, Department of Social Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University
- Earl John Hernandez
- College of Arts and Sciences, Partido State University
- Tomasz Jarmakowski
- Institute of Psychology, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
- Shanmukh Kamble
- Department of Psychology, Karnatak University
- Tatsuya Kameda
- Department of Social Psychology, The University of Tokyo
- Bia Kim
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University
- Tom R. Kupfer
- Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University
- Maho Kurita
- Department of Social Psychology, The University of Tokyo
- Norman P. Li
- School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University
- Junsong Lu
- School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)
- Francesca R. Luberti
- Department of Psychology, Nipissing University
- María Andrée Maegli
- Department of Psychology, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
- Marinés Mejia
- Proyecto Aiglé Guatemala
- Coby Morvinski
- Department of Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Aoi Naito
- Department of Social Psychology, The University of Tokyo
- Alice Ng’ang’a
- Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University
- Angélica Nascimento de Oliveira
- Department of Psychology, University of Guelph
- Daniel N. Posner
- Department of Political Science, University of California
- Pavol Prokop
- Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University
- Yaniv Shani
- Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University
- Walter Omar Paniagua Solorzano
- Department of Psychology, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
- Stefan Stieger
- Division of Psychological Methodology, Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences
- Angela Oktavia Suryani
- Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
- Lynn K. L. Tan
- School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University
- Joshua M. Tybur
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Hugo Viciana
- Departamento de Filosofía y Lógica y Filosofía de la Ciencia, Universidad de Sevilla
- Amandine Visine
- L’Institut Agro Montpellier
- Jin Wang
- School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)
- Xiao-Tian Wang
- School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29655-0
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 13,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 13
Abstract
Abstract People vary both in their embrace of their society’s traditions, and in their perception of hazards as salient and necessitating a response. Over evolutionary time, traditions have offered avenues for addressing hazards, plausibly resulting in linkages between orientations toward tradition and orientations toward danger. Emerging research documents connections between traditionalism and threat responsivity, including pathogen-avoidance motivations. Additionally, because hazard-mitigating behaviors can conflict with competing priorities, associations between traditionalism and pathogen avoidance may hinge on contextually contingent tradeoffs. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a real-world test of the posited relationship between traditionalism and hazard avoidance. Across 27 societies (N = 7844), we find that, in a majority of countries, individuals’ endorsement of tradition positively correlates with their adherence to costly COVID-19-avoidance behaviors; accounting for some of the conflicts that arise between public health precautions and other objectives further strengthens this evidence that traditionalism is associated with greater attention to hazards.
