Confucian culture and crisis governance in East Asia: Evidence from COVID-19 policy attitudes

This study examines how Confucian cultural orientations shape public support for crisis governance in East Asia. Using Asian Barometer Survey Wave 6 data from Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam, it models familialism, collectivism, harmony, and hierarchism as latent traits via item response theory and relates them to COVID-19 policy attitudes using fixed-effects ordinal regression. Confucian orientations are strongest in Vietnam and Singapore. Collectivism and hierarchism are associated with greater trust in government pandemic information, more favorable evaluations of crisis management, and stronger support for emergency measures. Harmony is associated only with support for emergency measures; familialism shows no significant association. The findings suggest that Confucian culture does not operate as a unified orientation toward authority; relational obligation and morally grounded deference are the principal cultural channels shaping public responses to state action during crises.