Culture Shocks
Shifts in Residential Mobility Predict Shifts in Culture
Nicholas Buttrick, Youngjae Cha & Shigehiro Oishi
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does residential mobility change cultures, or is it merely a downstream indicator for other forces? Using large-scale surveys of citizens of 18 industrialized nations, we find that increased rates of residential mobility predict living in a more dynamic society at least 10 years in the future: one in which residents are more satisfied with their lives, have greater optimism, endorse more individualistic concepts, are more open to new ideas, have a greater sense of freedom of action, feel able to make friends more easily, express a more cosmopolitan identity, believe that their society rewards merit, and hold their community to a higher standard for treatment of minorities. These findings are echoed in the experience of Americans who have themselves recently moved, where we find that having successfully moved predicts a future sense of personal thriving, optimism, and a belief that merit is rewarded.
Television and family demography: Evidence from a natural experiment in East Germany
Sven Hartmann
Labour Economics, December 2024
Abstract:
This paper examines the causal effects of television exposure on individual decisions regarding marriage, divorce, and family planning by utilizing a natural experiment in the German Democratic Republic during the period of German division. I exploit the fact that individuals in some East German areas could not receive Western television due to their place of residence before reunification in 1990. By analyzing survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, my results reveal that exposure to Western TV significantly reduced the likelihood of marriage and childbirth while increasing the probability of divorce among East Germans. Analyzing administrative data at the county level supports these findings. In addition, survey data from the late 1980s indicates that the observed effects are primarily due to changes in attitudes towards relationships and family life, particularly among women.
The Misery of Diversity
Resul Cesur & Sadullah Yıldırım
NBER Working Paper, November 2024
Abstract:
Evolutionary accounts assert that while diversity may lower subjective well-being (SWB) by creating an evolutionary mismatch between evolved psychological tendencies and the current social environment, human societies can adapt to diversity via intergroup contact under appropriate conditions. Exploiting a novel natural experiment in history, we examine the impact of the social environment, captured by population diversity, on SWB. We find that diversity lowers cognitive and hedonic measures of SWB. Diversity-induced deteriorations in the quality of the macrosocial environment, captured by reduced social cohesion, retarded state capacity, and increased inequality in economic opportunities, emerge as mechanisms explaining our findings. The analysis of first- and second-generation immigrants in Europe and the USA reveals that the misery of home country diversity persists even after neutralizing the role of the social environment. However, these effects diminish among the second generation, suggesting that long-term improvements in the social environment can alleviate the burden of diversity. Finally, in exploring whether human societies can adapt to diversity, we show evidence that diversity causes adopting cultural traits (such as establishing stronger family ties, assigning greater importance to friendships, and adopting a positive attitude towards competition) that can mitigate the misery of diversity. These results survive an exhaustive set of robustness checks.
The Child Penalty Atlas
Henrik Kleven, Camille Landais & Gabriel Leite-Mariante
Review of Economic Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper builds a world atlas of child penalties in employment based on micro data from 134 countries. The estimation of child penalties is based on pseudo-event studies of first child birth using cross-sectional data. The pseudo-event studies are validated against true event studies using panel data for a subset of countries. Most countries display clear and sizable child penalties: men and women follow parallel trends before parenthood, but diverge sharply and persistently after parenthood. While this pattern is pervasive, there is enormous variation in the magnitude of the effects across different regions of the world. The fraction of gender inequality explained by child penalties varies systematically with economic development and proxies for structural transformation. At low levels of development, child penalties represent a minuscule fraction of gender inequality. But as economies develop -- incomes rise and the labor market transitions from subsistence agriculture to salaried work in industry and services -- child penalties take over as the dominant driver of gender inequality. The relationship between child penalties and development is validated using historical data from current high-income countries, back to the 1700s for some countries. Finally, because parenthood is often tied to marriage, we also investigate the existence of marriage penalties in female employment. In general, women experience both marriage and child penalties, but their relative importance depends on the level of development. The development process is associated with a substitution from marriage penalties to child penalties, with the former gradually converging to zero.
Industry and Identity: The Migration Linkage Between Economic and Cultural Change in 19th Century Britain
Vasiliki Fouka & Theo Serlin
NBER Working Paper, November 2024
Abstract:
How does economic modernization affect group identity? Modernization theory emphasizes how labor migration led to the adoption of common identities. Yet economic development may reduce incentives to emigrate, preserving local cultures. We study England and Wales during the Second Industrial Revolution, a period characterized by the development of new industries and declines in transportation and communication costs. Using microdata on individuals’ names and migration decisions, we quantify identity change and its variation across space. We develop and estimate a quantitative spatial model in which migration and cultural identities are inter-dependent. Different components of economic modernization had different effects on identity change. Falling migration costs homogenized peripheral regions. In contrast, industrial development led to heterogeneity, increasing the overall prevalence of the culture of London, while also creating local identity holdouts by reducing out-migration from industrializing peripheries. Modernization promotes both national identities and persistent local identities in peripheral regions that industrialize.
An Eastern Look at a Western Dilemma: Cross-Cultural Differences in Action-Balanced Trolley Dilemmas
Xinyi Xu et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Moral judgment has been extensively studied utilizing traditional trolley-like sacrificial dilemmas. However, by building on Western philosophies and relying on WEIRD samples, this approach has potentially introduced a Western-centric bias to our understanding of the morality of sacrificial harm, by (a) assuming an inherent opposition between utilitarian and deontological morality and (b) underestimating cultural differences on the moral value of inaction. To address this bias, our study examined cross-cultural differences in moral judgment using an adapted methodology that equally weighs action/inaction framing and considers utilitarian and deontological choices separately. The findings demonstrate that Chinese participants (n = 273) embraced a more holistic moral construct with utilitarian and deontological moral approaches being positively correlated, whereas American participants (n = 240) viewed them as opposing to each other. Moreover, we also found that Chinese participants were more, rather than less utilitarian than American participants in trolley-like dilemmas when balancing action and inaction.
Cultural Tightness is Linked to Higher Self-Objectification in Women (But Not Men): Multi-Method Evidence
Xijing Wang et al.
Sex Roles, October 2024, Pages 1366–1380
Abstract:
Self-objectification, defined as an excessive focus on one’s physical appearance over non-observable qualities, has attracted considerable attention from feminist scholars. In the current research, we hypothesized that cultural tightness (i.e., strong social norms and severe sanctions against norm-deviant behavior) predicts and increases self-objectification among women. This hypothesis was confirmed across four studies via a mixed-method approach, including archival and ecological data (Study 1), a large-scale survey (Study 2, N = 4,083), and two controlled experiments (Studies 3a and 3b, N = 858). Specifically, we found higher self-objectification among women living in China in provinces with tighter cultures as reflected by the search queries for cosmetic surgery terms online (Study 1), Chinese female college students who perceived tighter culture in daily life (Study 2), and both US Americans (Study 3a) and Chinese female participants (Study 3b) who were temporarily induced to support cultural tightness (vs. cultural looseness). Across the studies, the effect of cultural tightness on self-objectification was observed among women, but this effect was reduced (Study 2) or even absent (Studies 3a and 3b) among men. Collectively, these findings establish a relationship between cultural tightness and women’s tendency to self-objectify, and advance understanding of the cultural roots of self-objectification and potential targets for intervention.
East Asians’ lower satisfaction with homelife is plausibly related to lower attitude similarity within couples
Minjae Seo et al.
Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
World Values Survey respondents from East Asia (China and Japan) viewed themselves as less similar to their spouses on a variety of attitude domains, compared to respondents from Western and other non-Western cultures. Mediational analyses showed significant indirect effects from the East Asian variable through attitude dissimilarity to lower homelife satisfaction. In all regions, similarity with one’s spouse predicted homelife satisfaction. Unexpectedly, it was a relatively weaker predictor for Western European couples (vs. elsewhere). One puzzle is whether shared attitudes (a) are so important for Westerners that they self-select into relationships where remaining discrepancies are trivial or (b) are so unimportant for Westerners, who needlessly sort themselves on this basis.