Cultural values predict national COVID-19 death rates

National responses to a pandemic require populations to comply through personal behaviors that occur in a cultural context. Here we show that aggregated cultural values of nations, derived from World Values Survey data, have been at least as important as top-down government actions in predicting the impact of COVID-19. Whereas trust in institutions predicts lower COVID-19 deaths per capita, secular-rationalism and cosmopolitanism each predict more deaths. The effects of these cultural values register more strongly than government efficiency. This suggests that open democracies may face greater challenges in limiting a pandemic, and that all nations should consider their cultural values as actionable parameters in their future preparations.