The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has taken a massive toll on human life worldwide. The case of the United States—the world's largest economy—is particularly noteworthy, since the country suffered a disproportionately larger number of deaths than all other countries during the first year of the pandemic. A careful analysis may shed new light on the multifaceted processes contributing to this failure and help us prepare ourselves not to repeat the same mistakes in the future. Cultural psychology offers unique insights by highlighting mutually reinforcing interactions across collective, cultural, and psychological factors. Here, we review extant evidence and argue that various factors at these disparate levels converged to foster an independent mode of action, which, in turn, undermined effective coping with the infectious disease. The lack of effective political leadership exacerbated the resulting dire state of the country. Drawing on this analysis, we discuss several policy recommendations at collective, cultural, and psychological levels.

中文翻译：

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文化与 COVID-19 大流行：多种机制和政策含义

2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行给全世界的人类生活造成了巨大损失。美国——世界上最大的经济体——的案例尤其值得注意，因为在大流行的第一年，该国的死亡人数比所有其他国家都要多得多。仔细分析可能会为导致这种失败的多方面过程提供新的线索，并帮助我们做好准备，以免将来重蹈覆辙。文化心理学通过强调集体、文化和心理因素之间相互促进的相互作用，提供了独特的见解。在这里，我们回顾了现有的证据，并认为这些不同层面的各种因素汇聚在一起，形成了一种独立的行动模式，这反过来又破坏了对传染病的有效应对。缺乏有效的政治领导加剧了该国由此产生的可怕状况。基于这一分析，我们在集体、文化和心理层面讨论了几项政策建议。