This article used sub-national, historical and cross-country data to examine if exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV-R) could be a factor in the formation of individualism and collectivism. The study found support, across all data sets, that increased exposure to UV-R is associated to more collectivism within a culture. The authors theorized that UV-R exposure increases the likelihood of eye disease causing higher rates of blindness. With increased levels of blindness, the more emphasis there will be on close family relations and/or increased uncertainty avoidance from out-groups leading to more collectivism in a culture.

The authors propose that societies with a tradition of rice farming are less likely to develop a democracy than societies with a tradition of wheat farming. They base their predictions on the theory that wheat farming, as opposed to rice farming, does not require extensive community collaboration and promotes individualism, which then in turn promotes democracy. Their findings were robustly consistent with their predictions. The authors used multiple controls in their analyses, including religion, economic development, geography, and local democratic practices.

This research examines how national culture influences the speed of COVID-19 spread in different countries. Three studies were conducted, and five national cultural dimensions were found to be significantly related to the speed of COVID-19 spread in the initial stages of the pandemic. These dimensions are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, humane orientation, in-group collectivism, and cultural tightness. The research found that COVID-19 spreads faster in countries with small power distance and strong uncertainty avoidance, low humane orientation and high in-group collectivism, and slower in countries with high cultural tightness.