Cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust among strangers in the provision of public goods may be key to understanding how societies are managing the COVID-19 pandemic We report a survey conducted across 41 societies between March and May 2020 (N?=?34,526), and test pre-registered hypotheses about how cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust relate to prosocial COVID-19 responses (e g , social distancing), stringency of policies, and support for behavioral regulations (e g , mandatory quarantine) We further tested whether cross-societal variation in institutions and ecologies theorized to impact cooperation were associated with prosocial COVID-19 responses, including institutional quality, religiosity, and historical prevalence of pathogens We found substantial variation across societies in prosocial COVID-19 responses, stringency of policies, and support for behavioral regulations However, we found no consistent evidence to support the idea that cross-societal variation in cooperation and trust among strangers is associated with these outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic These results were replicated with another independent cross-cultural COVID-19 dataset (N?=?112,136), and in both snowball and representative samples We discuss implications of our results, including challenging the assumption that managing the COVID-19 pandemic across societies is best modeled as a public goods dilemma
Cooperation and Trust Across Societies During the COVID-19 Pandemic