It's all connected: Collectivism, climate change, and COVID-19

Societal challenges like climate change and COVID-19 can be interrelated. The present research examines collectivism as a cultural value that is associated with the tendency to perceive such important interconnectedness. We further examine whether collectivism predicts perceiving interconnectedness specifically for scientifically valid relationships, or generally, regardless of their validity. Using an international sample (Study 1; N = 12,955) and another large U.S. sample (Study 2; N = 1006), we found that more collectivistic individuals perceive stronger interconnectedness between climate change and pandemics. However, collectivistic individuals also perceived stronger interconnectedness even for scientifically invalid ones, such as between the discovery of new constellations among stars and the emergence of new viruses. Exploratory analyses examined political orientation as a potential moderator, but the results were inconsistent, highlighting the need for more systematic future research. Together, these findings suggest that collectivistic individuals do not selectively perceive valid interconnectedness, but they tend to perceive stronger interrelations among phenomena in general, whether true or not, which presents both opportunities and challenges for addressing environmental and other social issues confronting humans today.