ABSTRACT
In a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, several countries implemented lockdown procedures to varying degrees. This article sought to examine the extent to which country-level strictness, as measured by the Government Response Stringency Index (2020), moderated the relationship between certain cultural dimensions and estimates of national innovation. Data on 84 countries were collated for Hofstede's cultural dimensions (2015), and from the Global Innovation Index (2020). Owing to the robust relationships between innovation and the dimensions of uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and individualism, these were used in moderation analyses. In general, power distance was inversely related to innovation, whereas individualism was directly related to it. Results indicated that collectivist and high power distance countries showed lower innovation, irrespective of levels of government stringency as a response to COVID-19. On the other hand, among individualistic and low power distance countries, lower innovation was associated with increased stringency (e.g., blanket restrictions on movement). Higher innovation was observed when such countries had a less severe government response. The dimension of uncertainty avoidance was not significantly associated with innovation at the country level. The implications of lockdowns on general innovation, its inputs, and outputs are discussed in the context of cultural dimensions and country-level policies.
ABSTRACT
The HBO show Game of Thrones is fascinating, because despite many of its plot points involving the elicitation of disgust, an emotion associated with avoidance behaviors, its viewership has only surged. We explore the relationship between disgust sensitivity and perception of scenes involving moral, sexual, and pathogen disgust in the show by providing participants with descriptions of such scenes. Participants included those who had never seen the show, those who had seen the show at least once, and those who had seen the show multiple times. We found that those who had watched the show once rated the scenes as less disgusting (overall and for moral and sexual disgust) than those who had not. We also investigated sex differences in disgust and found that women rated the scenes as more aversive than men, especially those involving moral and sexual disgust. Finally, those with more opposite sex siblings were more repulsed by the scenes, especially those involving sexual disgust. The present study adds to a long list of studies that analyses popular culture from an adaptive lens and adds to the notion that popular culture is a 'cultural remain' of the evolved human mind.
