서강대학교

초록/요약

Previous research shows that what people value and the way they function varies by culture. I examined whether this characteristic can be extended to the field of countermeasures of the pandemic- namely, COVID-19(Corona Virus 2019). I predicted that although Westerners and East Asians have same countermeasures against the COVID-19(buying and wearing mask), their underlying reasons for following the measures vary. Specifically, I hypothesized that people in individualistic culture (US) buy and wear mask because of reasons that are related to self, whereas people in collectivistic culture (Korea) buy and wear mask because of reasons that are related to others, amid the COVID-19 outbreak. In support of this prediction, among three reasons when buying mask, it was reasons about self that impacted Americans the most, and it was reasons about others that impacted Koreans the most (Study 1). Also, when wearing mask, Americans reported a higher proportion on reasons about self, whereas Koreans reported a higher proportion on reasons about others (Study 2). Furthermore, in Study 2, I explored what the specific reasons are within each category, and cultural difference on intention to wear mask which cannot function as a mask was fully mediated by reasons about others. Specifically, Koreans were more affected by reasons about others than Americans, which in turn led to higher intention to wear a mask that cannot function as a mask, in public places. Limitations, implications, and directions of future research are discussed.