Place and time
The loosening of American culture over 200 years is associated with a creativity-order trade-off
Joshua Conrad Jackson et al.
Nature Human Behaviour, March 2019, Pages 244–250
Abstract:
For many years, scientists have studied culture by comparing societies, regions or social groups within a single point in time. However, culture is always changing, and this change affects the evolution of cognitive processes and behavioural practices across and within societies. Studies have now documented historical changes in sexism, individualism, language use and music preferences within the United States and around the world. Here we build on these efforts by examining changes in cultural tightness–looseness (the strength of cultural norms and tolerance for deviance) over time, using the United States as a case study. We first develop a new linguistic measure to measure historical changes in tightness–looseness. Analyses show that America grew progressively less tight (i.e., looser) from 1800 to 2000. We next examine how changes in tightness–looseness relate to four indicators of societal order: debt (adjusted for inflation), adolescent pregnancies and crime, and high school attendance, as well as four indicators of creative output: registered patents, trademarks, feature films produced, and baby-naming conformity. We find that cultural tightness correlates negatively with each measure of creativity, and correlates positively with three out of four measures of societal order (fewer adolescent pregnancies, less debt and higher levels of school attendance). These findings imply that the historical loosening of American culture was associated with a trade-off between higher creativity but lower order.
Exploring the legend of a “nation of joiners”: A research note
Adam Chamberlain, Alixandra Yanus & Nicholas Pyeatt
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
The promise of the USA as a “nation of joiners” has long motivated scholars, especially those studying voluntary associations. We reexamine this idea using evidence from three voluntary associations of the 19th century, the Sons of Temperance, the Knights of Labor, and the Grand Army of the Republic. Our analyses reveal that while each organization’s state-level branches were able to recruit new members, participation was often fleeting. Membership losses had to be counterbalanced by a steady stream of new and returning members; this persistent turnover far exceeds what previous scholarship would lead us to expect. Moreover, associations’ difficulties retaining members likely compromised their members’ political voice and participation, which may have limited groups’ abilities to build social capital. This pattern, thus, suggests that the “nation of joiners” may more appropriately be described as a “nation of temporary joiners.”
The impact of two different economic systems on dishonesty
Dan Ariely et al.
European Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using an artefactual field experiment, this paper tests the long-term implications of living in a specific economic system on individual dishonesty. By comparing cheating behaviour across individuals from the former socialist East with those of the capitalist West of Germany, we examine behavioural differences within a single country. We find long-term implications of living in a specific economic system for individual dishonesty when social interactions are possible: participants with an East German background cheat significantly more on an abstract die-rolling task than those with a West German background, but only when exposed to the enduring system of former West Germany. Moreover, our results indicate that the longer individuals had experienced socialist East Germany, the more likely they were to cheat on the behavioural task.
The effect of culture on home‐ownership
Miriam Marcén & Marina Morales
Journal of Regional Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper, we analyze the role of culture in determining whether, or not, an individual is a homeowner. We use data on first‐generation immigrants who arrived in the United States under 6 years old. Following the epidemiological approach, any dissimilarity in the proportion of homeowners by country of origin may be interpreted as a consequence of cultural differences. Our estimates indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the cultural proxy and the immigrants’ choice of home‐ownership. Additionally, we present evidence of different mechanisms of transmission of culture, which reinforces our results on the cultural effect.
The link between intuitive thinking and social conservatism is stronger in WEIRD societies
Onurcan Yilmaz & Sinan Alper
Judgment and Decision Making, March 2019, Pages 156–169
Abstract:
While previous studies reveal mixed findings on the relationship between analytic cognitive style (ACS) and right-wing (conservative) political orientation, the correlation is generally negative. However, most of these studies are based on Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies, and it is not clear whether this relationship is a cross-culturally stable phenomenon. In order to test cross-cultural generalizability of this finding, we re-analyzed the data collected by the Many Labs 2 Project from 30 politically diverse societies (N = 7,263). Social conservatism is measured with the binding foundations scale, comprising of loyalty (patriotism), authority (respect for traditions), and sanctity (respect for the sacred), as proposed by the moral foundations theory, while ACS is measured by the three-item modified cognitive reflection task. The level of WEIRDness of each country was calculated by scoring how much a culture is Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. Although social conservatism is negatively associated with ACS in the aggregate, analysis indicates that the relationship is significantly stronger among WEIRD and remains negligible among non-WEIRD cultures. These findings show the cross-cultural variability of this relationship and emphasize the limitations of studying only WEIRD cultures.
Mapping cultural tightness and its links to innovation, urbanization, and happiness across 31 provinces in China
Roy Chua, Kenneth Huang & Mengzi Jin
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2 April 2019, Pages 6720-6725
Abstract:
We conduct a 3-y study involving 11,662 respondents to map cultural tightness—the degree to which a society is characterized by rules and norms and the extent to which people are punished or sanctioned when they deviate from these rules and norms—across 31 provinces in China. Consistent with prior research, we find that culturally tight provinces are associated with increased governmental control, constraints in daily life, religious practices, and exposure to threats. Departing from previous findings that tighter states are more rural, conservative, less creative, and less happy, cultural tightness in China is associated with urbanization, economic growth, better health, greater tolerance toward the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community, and gender equality. Further, analyzing about 3.85 million granted patents in China (1990–2013), we find that provinces with tighter cultures have lower rates of substantive/radical innovations yet higher rates of incremental innovations; individuals from culturally tighter provinces reported higher levels of experienced happiness.
What do you think? Success: Is it luck or is it hard work?
Joseph Daniels & Miao Wang
Applied Economics Letters, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper explores how individual characteristics and national-level variables affect perceptions toward whether individual success depends on luck and connections or hard work. Drawing on five waves of World Values Survey (WVS) data on more than 175,000 respondents in 85 countries, we find that demographic factors and socioeconomic variables such as age, gender, income, and employment status are strongly associated with an individual’s view on luck versus hard work. For example, women are more likely to view luck as the primary factor determining success in the long run. In addition, individuals in countries with better macroeconomic conditions measured by GDP per capita and its growth rate seem to associate success more with luck than with hard work compared to individuals in other countries. Our results from multilevel ordered logistic regressions also suggest that differences in personal traits account for approximately 90% of the variations in respondents’ perceptions observed in our sample. The remaining 10% is due to differences in various country-level traits other than our GDP controls.
Norm-based spontaneous categorization: Cultural norms shape meaning and memory
Namrata Goyal et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
When cultures have different norms for the same situation, does culture affect memory by influencing the weight individuals assign to information or also by affecting the meaning of information itself, influencing memory via categorization? We present 4 experiments showing that, in relying on contrasting cultural norms of reciprocity (Studies 1 and 2) and spiritual purity (Studies 3 and 4), Indians and Americans differ in their interpretation of and memory for identical information. Studies 1 (N = 123) and 3 (N = 78), utilizing cued-recall, and Studies 2 (N = 143) and 4 (N = 79), utilizing multiple-choice incidental-memory tests, show cultural differences in memory and categorization in culturally relevant normative domains. In Studies 1 and 2 Americans, applying their own culture-specific reciprocity norms, were more likely than Indians to interpret gifts given after receiving help as implying reciprocity. Hence, Americans (and not Indians) tended to categorize information about gifts in terms of whether it was norm-consistent or inconsistent, evidenced by memory that reflected greater within-category confusions. In Studies 3 and 4 Indians, applying their own culture-specific norms of purity, were more likely than Americans to interpret images of shoes on sacred objects as implying spiritual impurity. Thus, Indians (and not Americans) tended to categorize information about shoes in terms of whether it was norm-violating or nonviolating, evidenced by memory that reflected greater within-category confusions. Applying culturally variable norms to the same situation leads to different understandings of the same behavior, resulting in memory that reflects norm-based spontaneous categorization. We highlight the role that culture-specific norms play in cognitively predisposing individuals to organize information in the environment.
Culture and the development of views of agency: Perspectives from storybooks, parents, and children
Namrata Goyal et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present three-study investigation examined cultural influences on the internalization of social expectations. Testing the claim of self-determination theory that lesser internalization of social expectations is linked to socialization practices that portray social expectations as in conflict with autonomy, in Study 1 we undertook a content analysis of the views of social expectations portrayed in American and Indian storybooks. Results indicated that only American and not Indian storybooks more frequently portrayed characters as displaying negative emotions when behaviors were socially expected as compared with spontaneous. In Study 2 (n = 120), we undertook a vignette-based experiment, which showed that American parents viewed social expectations as incompatible with agency whereas Indian parents viewed them as compatible with agency. In Study 3 (n = 224), we undertook a related vignette based experiment among 7- and 10-year-old children in the United States and India. Results indicated that younger children shared a view of social expectations as compatible with agency, with qualitative developmental change occurring among American children who come to view social expectations as in conflict with autonomy with age, and quantitative developmental change occurring among Indian children who deepen their earlier understandings of social expectations with age. Our results point to the presence of early relational outlooks that young children use in assimilating cultural variable messages communicated in socialization practices. Challenging simple “fax” models of cultural learning, our results indicate that children do not passively absorb cultural messages but actively interpret them in integrating them with their emerging sense of self.
Does intelligence explain national score variance on graduate admissions exams?
Bryan Pesta et al.
Intelligence, March–April 2019, Pages 8-15
Abstract:
Mean scores on English-based graduate admissions exams vary strongly country by country. Here we test four hypotheses for this variance. The first is that samples of would-be graduate students are not representative of the countries from which they came. Second, English Language familiarity might account for cross-national variance on these exams. Third, national differences in well-being explain national differences in exam scores. Finally, variance in national IQ (NIQ) captures most of the variance in scores on admissions exams. We thus coded two extant measures of NIQ, and national scores on the following three admissions exams: The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT; n = 200 countries), Graduate Record Exam (GRE; n = 149), and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL; n = 175). Partial support was found for both the unrepresentative samples and language familiarity hypotheses. The well-being hypothesis was not supported because despite large correlations between it and exam scores, these effects were wiped out when NIQ also appeared in the regression equations. The NIQ hypothesis received the most support in that it strongly predicted admissions exam total scores (GMAT, r = 0.68 (N = 161); GRE, r = 0.71 (N = 141); TOEFL, r = 0.61 (N = 153). Moreover, these relationships (excluding those with the TOEFL) were robust to the controls of English familiarity and well-being. We end by discussing how our data also validate the existence of Rindermann's (2007) “Big G” nexus.