Who Are Hypocrites in Following COVID-19 Rules? There Is a Cultural Difference

For many people, it has been almost two full years of coping with COVID-19. With the emergence of new variants, governments continue to introduce new preventative measures, repeatedly urging their citizens to avoid non-essential travel, wear masks, and stay home when feeling under the weather.

But how do people see these rules when it comes to their own choices? Would people think of others who post travel pictures as irresponsible, while buying themselves tickets to a tropical island? Though it seems hypocritical to condemn others while doing the same thing, such behaviors are rather common.

The right or wrong can be simple and obvious when people judge others. They refer to the law, code of conduct, or simply what most others think of as right or wrong. As a result, people can easily impose strict standards on others.

But when it comes to themselves, people often have reasons to justify their circumstances as unique and their misdeeds as understandable. “I have not traveled for so long…I have followed all other COVID-19 rules better than most people…I deserve a decent break after the crazy hard work…” Then people click the button to confirm the flight because the vacation plan now feels much more reasonable than the frivolous, dangerous trips other people are taking.

In this example, people show what social psychologists call self-interest bias, meaning that people believe breaking rules is less wrong when they are the ones benefiting from it.

Would self-interest bias play a role in the spread of the coronavirus disease? The United States, as well as many other Western countries, has been experiencing a high rate of death and infections. At the same time, rates of death and infections are so low in East Asia that they are encouraging people to get back to “normal.”

Do People in China and the United States Have the Same Self-Interest Bias?

We could not help wondering: Besides the apparent differences in how governments have handled the coronavirus, do people from these two cultures interpret their social rules differently? In particular, do East Asians treat themselves as strictly as they treat others when facing temptations to break COVID-19 rules? Could this help explain why East Asian rates have been so much lower?

People from East Asia are known for their collectivism and interdependent self-concept. Compared to Westerners, East Asians are more likely to achieve their self-worth through being part of a group and through collective actions. They feel positive about themselves more often when defending their group rather than their individual stances. In making moral decisions, they also put more emphasis on the extent to which the behaviors jeopardize interpersonal harmony, social order, and public welfare. The coronavirus has certainly been a public health issue, where individual behavior can help or hinder the spread of disease. To see if there was a cultural difference on self-interest bias, my colleagues and I conducted two studies with both Chinese and American people.

We asked participants from the two countries to imagine some COVID-19-related scenarios. They either imagined themselves acting selfishly, or an unknown other person acting the same way. For example, people read a scenario about having a party with friends when social gathering was prohibited by the local government. They then rated the acceptability of various excuses, like “The opportunity is rare…The circumstance is exceptional…”

More Self-Interest Bias Among American than Chinese People

Americans found the excuses more acceptable when imagining their own rather than others’ wrongdoings. However, Chinese participants did not judge their own COVID-19-related self-serving acts more leniently than identical deeds of others. In some cases, Chinese participants even judged their own self-serving acts more harshly than the same behaviors of others. For example, they found it more unacceptable if they themselves rather than someone else sneeze in public places without covering the mouth.   

The long battle with the coronavirus keeps challenging our patience and self-discipline. When facing the temptations to break the norms, it may be worth asking ourselves: Would it be okay if someone else did it? How would my behavior impact others? This kind of collectivistic thinking does not only exist in collectivistic countries. Everyone has the potential to think collectivistically. It can be prompted by a bit of nudging or self-reminder. It can benefit all to contain the further spread of the coronavirus.

For Further Reading

Dong, M., Spadaro, G., Yuan, S., Song, Y., Ye, Z., & Ren, X. (2021). Self-interest bias in the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-cultural comparison between the United States and China. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 52(7), 663-679. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221211025739

Bocian, K., & Wojciszke, B. (2014). Self-interest bias in moral judgments of others’ actions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(7), 898–909. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214529800
 

Mengchen Dong is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and studies social norms and morality in different social and cultural contexts.