[Published March 9, 2020]
Yesterday, I stood and stared at two grocery bags in my basement. Four boxes of spaghetti. Two bottles of children’s Tylenol. One large bottle of antibacterial soap. Then I looked back to my phone and re-read the text from my neighbor. The doctors diagnosed her with Stage 4 lung cancer, right as a viral respiratory epidemic spreads. My mind races. Who is really at risk now? What is the best way to prepare? I feel confused as it dawns on me that I may be going about this all in the wrong way, and it may have a lot to do with my culture as a U.S. American.
For weeks, the headlines have demanded, “Are you ready? Is your family safe?” For some people, the spread of the coronavirus will be a nuisance. For others, including the elderly and immuno-compromised like my neighbor, it could be very serious. Each day stressful statistics and uncertainties about this virus circulate in the media. I admit that despite my best attempts to filter alarmist news, my protective instincts are on high alert. I feel compelled to do everything in my power to protect my family. With everything feeling so out of control, buying extra pasta is a way to have control again.
Yet amidst the anxiety and confusion, there seems to be a consensus that containment requires a coordinated community response. I think, A coordinated community-wide response. What will that look like? I realize this is new territory. This could be a reflection of my privilege of living in a safe, affluent town. Or could it be connected to the fact I live in the world’s most individualistic country? Individualism is at the core of my cultural programming. My idea of survival has to do with protecting myself and my nuclear family, not necessarily my whole community. My bags of groceries attest to this. We hear this in the constant messaging of “protect yourself by washing your hands.” This is saying, you need to rely on yourself. Only you can keep yourself safe. While this message seems wise, it is also individualistic.
The challenge today is calling us to orient to our communities. At the opposite end of the cultural spectrum from individualism is collectivism, a term used to describe cultures where people believe if they take care of the community, the individuals will be safe. In more collectivistic cultures like China or Korea, there is a strong value of group harmony and coordination. This manifests through cultural beliefs that children should take care of their aging parents and the earned wisdom of elders is to be held with respect. In the US, we value self-sufficiency and consider it completely normal when kids move away from their family after college (when I write “we” I mean people who identify with individualism). We praise people who “pick themselves up by their bootstraps.” Domestically, we find pockets of collectivism, like in many southern states, in the fire service and it is also emerging in the climate change movement. But generally, most U.S. Americans orient towards individualism. This orientation informs the behaviors, communication systems, and ethical patterns we see in U.S. Americans.
There are other US cultural patterns that have a direct effect on the spread of the coronavirus. In the last week, I have read reports of people simply not listening to doctors’ advice to stay at home and self-quarantine. This too has a possible cultural basis. In collectivistic cultures like Japan, you often see “high power distance,” which describes cultures where there is a large inequity of power in society. When this is coupled with the collectivistic preference for harmony and respect for elders, we find people are less likely to question authority. The US has very low power distance. When I was growing up, I wore a “question authority” pin on my Salvation Army bag. But when I studied abroad in Shanghai, I quickly learned from my Chinese teachers that questioning authority was not a celebrated act in the classroom. My assessment is that in a crisis like this epidemic, the cultural preference to not question authority will be a good thing. (If you are interested in learning how your country compares to the US in terms of individualism/collectivism or high/low power distance, use this link to explore https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/). It’s time for those of us who are normally praised for thinking out of the box to follow the plan laid forth.
Finally, fear has a particular influence on how those cultural values are expressed. In the U.S., the constant onslaught of news has whipped up a frenzy of confusion and anxiety. Questions about the validity and transparency of the messages we are getting is making anxiety worse for many. Fear is relevant to any conversation about culture as fear makes us more rigid with our unconscious cultural beliefs. If you ever started sounding like your parents when you were fighting with someone, you know this is true. So without us noticing, we may have become more individualistic and less likely to listen to authority in this stressful climate related to this virus.
As an anthropologist, I am always looking at things through a cultural lens and I am seeing an opportunity to learn from other cultures right now. It is a good time for US Americans to ask the following questions:
Are our unconscious cultural beliefs hindering our ability to respond appropriately to the coronavirus?
Am I assuming the immuno-comprised are self-reliant and cared for, when in fact they might not be?
What could it look like to put the community needs ahead of the individual needs, or at least on par?
Is there an opportunity to explore what strong community ties actually feel like?
Can we extend credibility to experts and rally behind a common goal?
Can this shared vulnerability be the catalyst that brings us together in this divisive election year?
This virus is creating an amazing opportunity to learn from the collectivistic mindset, and culture is just one of many layers making coordinating community responses challenging. We are seeing the impact of leadership, economics and inequities as well. For example, The question of who has access to testing and care is already emerging as an important issue. Yet, holding this complexity in mind, we can move ahead, not by rejecting what feels natural and normal to us individualists, but by expanding what is possible. It is not either/or, it is both/and. We can start by tuning into credible and alternative media from collectivistic countries to learn from their successes. We can also explore adjusting our thinking to help us swing away from exaggerated individualism brought on by fear.
We need to find the “us” in the U.S.
In the field of Intercultural Communication, we try to practice a lot of reframing— shifting how we see things. If we intentionally reframe some of our questions it will serve to protect the most vulnerable. Let me offer two reframes that can lead you towards the mindset needed for effective community response.
Reframe #1
Move from How do I get all the medicine my family might possibly need and store it away? to How do we get resources to the people who need it the most?
As the coronavirus hits your community, explore how to ensure that the people who are sick have the hand sanitizer, healthy food and medicine they need. This might mean online social coordination or local neighborhood organization on your street. Now is a great time to learn who near you or in your network is at risk and how to take all measures to protect them. This may mean limiting playdates with grandparents or proactively urging certain (or all) employees to stay at home. We also need to support people who are taking care of themselves by staying quarantined. Do they have enough food? Fresh fruits and vegetables? We need to ask, How do we take care of our community?
Reframe #2
If/when schools are closed or business is impacted, move from What am I going to do? This is a total hassle! to It is empowering to know what experts have deemed important and I can protect my community by listening.
Now is the time to listen more attentively to doctors and community leaders so we can coordinate this effort. Every year we accept that daylight savings time happens and we all change our clocks. If we listen to authorities, we should have the capacity to coordinate similarly now that the stakes are so high. Community containment works if everyone is onboard. So, reframe the thoughts from individual impact to community support.
After this virus passes, we will likely see some fascinating information emerge about how culture affected coronavirus responses in different counties. At the moment, I don’t plan on donating my food stock, and I do plan on making my own hand sanitizer as we can’t find any in stores. I think it is important to anticipate a possible quarantine and have food ready. I plan on following directives from local and state governments regarding precautions. And, I plan on using this virus as an opportunity to learn from more community-minded cultures right now, not after this has passed. If we pay attention, we can hold both the individual and community needs at the same time. I want to see us rise to this challenge and show up for one another. If we do this, we can use the vulnerability that has been created by this crisis to open up to different worldviews and bring us closer to our community. It might just help us feel the safety we are craving.
So, my new question for myself is, “Are we ready? Are we safe? Do I know what my community needs to weather this storm?”
