1. First, you will read an article by Gelfand et al. (2021) downloadon the relationship between cultural “tightness” or “looseness” and COVID-19 infection and death rates in different countries. This is an example of cross-cultural research. Do NOT worry about the statistics! You do not even need to read them to complete this assignment. Read the Summary on p. e135 and the Research in Context on p. e136 (both are overviews of the study). Then read the Introduction and Discussion sections. I encourage you to go back and read the Methods and Results sections after that if you wish, but all I am asking you to understand is the researchers’ hypothesis, why they had it, and what they found (in English, not statistical, terms).
2. After you read the article you will write a 2 page, double-spaced essay that addresses the following issues:
Based on your reading of the article, describe the cultural dimension of the looseness-tightness of social norms and give examples of how cultures might vary if they are more loose or more tight on that spectrum. Explain why the researchers thought this cultural dimension might have a relationship to COVID-19 infection and mortality rates. (doubles as your essay introduction; about 1 paragraph to 1/2 page)
Explain the results of the study or what the researchers found (in words, not in terms of statistics). Be very specific, but information you learn from the Discussion section should be enough (i.e., you don’t need to pull stats from the Results section). Be sure to also describe why these results are important and what implications they could have for the future. (about 1 paragraph to 1/2 page)
Finally, I want you to apply the findings to a real-world scenario. Vaccine rates against COVID-19 are not as high in the U.S. as scientists believe we need to achieve “herd immunity” (estimate we need about 80% vaccinated and are at about 50% nationally). Based on the article you read, first discuss what would need to happen to cultural norms to potentially increase those vaccination rates in the U.S., and why. Then, pretend that as a college student you have been asked to provide a specific strategy or two that might work in Wisconsin to increase vaccine compliance by changing the state on the dimension of cultural looseness-tightness when it comes to social norms related to COVID-19. You can make up whatever strategy you wish (don’t worry about cost) as long as you can explain how it would change looseness-tightness and possibly increase vaccination rates. You do not need a formal conclusion to the paper after you respond to these issues. (at least 3/4 page and up to 1 page)
Ground Rules:
1. The article I assigned should be your only source for this essay.
2. You do not need title or reference pages.
3. You do not need to use citations in the body of your paper or use APA Style. I know your source.
4. You may not use any partial or complete quotes from the article. Everything in the paper must be entirely in your own words. The exception to that is that you can use specific terms, such as cultural tightness. You can’t make up new words for those. However, any definition you provide of specific terms like cultural tightness should be totally in your own words. I need to know that you are understanding what you are reading, and if you simply define or explain things by using a sentence or even 3-4 words strung together from the article, I can’t assess your understanding.
5. Your paper should be a minimum of 1.5 pages and no more than 2 pages, double-spaced and in 12-point font with 1-inch margins. I know that’s very specific, but I want everyone to be on a level playing field so I am not comparing a four page paper to one that is a page and a half.
