Special places
Southern Culture and Aggravated Assault: Exploring the Generality of the Southern Cultural Tolerance of Violence
Shaun Thomas, Drew Medaris & Cody Tuttle
Sociological Spectrum, forthcoming
Abstract:
Numerous studies have investigated the Southern culture of violence (SCOV). In particular, prior analyses have focused on white argument-based homicide in rural areas, a context in which the SCOV should be most prominent. Initial analyses examined dichotomous regional indicators (South/non-South) and often neglected to control for structural disadvantage. Recent research developed a summary based measure of Southern cultural influence that consolidates regional, ethnic, and religious characteristics. Unfortunately, a lack of available data on the underlying circumstances of different forms of violence has hindered our ability to assess the generality of the Southern cultural tolerance of violence. The current study addresses this limitation by using NIBRS data to assess the influence of a composite measure of Southern culture on variation in white argument-based aggravated assault. Analyses of county-level data support the generalizability of the Southern cultural influence to non-lethal forms of argument-based violence.
The shortest path to oneself leads around the world: Living abroad increases self-concept clarity
Hajo Adam et al.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, March 2018, Pages 16-29
Abstract:
The current research explores the relationship between living abroad and self-concept clarity. We conducted six studies (N = 1,874) using different populations (online panels and MBA students), mixed methods (correlational and experimental), and complementary measures of self-concept clarity (self-report and self-other congruence through 360-degree ratings). Our results indicate that living abroad leads to a clearer sense of self because it prompts self-discerning reflections on whether parts of their identity truly define who they are or merely reflect their cultural upbringing. Furthermore, it is the depth (the length of time lived abroad) rather than the breadth (the number of foreign countries lived in) of living abroad experiences that enhances self-concept clarity. Finally, our results highlight an important consequence of the link between living abroad and self-concept clarity: career decision-making clarity. Our research suggests that going far from home can lead one closer to the self, with implications for significant life decisions.
Counting Clicks: Quantification and Variation in Web Journalism in the United States and France
Angèle Christin
American Journal of Sociology, March 2018, Pages 1382-1415
Abstract:
Sociological studies often emphasize the role of metrics in broader processes of convergence and homogenization. Yet numbers can take on different meanings depending on their contexts. This article focuses on the case of journalism, a field transformed by quantification in the form of “clicks.” Drawing on ethnographic material gathered at two news websites — one in New York, the other in Paris — it documents important differences in the uses and meanings assigned to audience metrics in the United States and France. At the U.S. website, editors make significant decisions based on metrics, but staff journalists are relatively unconcerned by them. At the French website, however, editors are conflicted about metrics, but staff writers fixate on them. To understand these differences, this article analyzes how the trajectories of the U.S. and French journalistic fields affect newsroom dynamics. It shows how cultural differences can be reproduced at a time of technological convergence.
Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences
Anke Becker, Benjamin Enke & Armin Falk
NBER Working Paper, February 2018
Abstract:
Variation in economic preferences is systematically related to both individual and aggregate economic outcomes, yet little is known about the origins of the worldwide preference variation. This paper uses globally representative data on risk aversion, time preference, altruism, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, and trust to uncover that contemporary preference heterogeneity has its roots in the structure of the temporally distant migration patterns of our very early ancestors: In dyadic regressions, differences in preferences between populations are significantly increasing in the length of time elapsed since the ancestors of the respective groups broke apart from each other. To document this pattern, we link genetic and linguistic distance measures to population-level preference differences (i) in a wide range of cross-country regressions, (ii) in within-country analyses across groups of migrants, and (iii) in analyses that leverage variation across linguistic groups. While temporal distance drives differences in all preferences, the patterns are strongest for risk aversion and prosocial traits.
Diversity of historical ancestry and personality traits across 56 cultures
Ilan Shrira, Arnaud Wisman & Kenji Noguchi
Personality and Individual Differences, 1 July 2018, Pages 44-48
Abstract:
Prior research has found that the diversity of a culture's ancestry over the previous 500 years — its historical heterogeneity — has an impact on existing cultural differences in social behavior in adaptive ways. The present paper examined whether historical heterogeneity, which reflects the degree to which a culture's population has a long-term legacy of interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds, would be related to individual personality traits in that culture. Using a large sample of respondents from a variety of world cultures, the results found that historical heterogeneity was associated with greater openness to experience. The findings suggest that openness to experience may have been socialized more strongly in diverse societies because this trait promotes tolerance of differences and facilitates cooperation. These results highlight the importance of considering social–historical factors in understanding the origin of cultural traits.
Culture, Region, and Cross-National Violent Crime
Katie Corcoran & Rodney Stark
Sociological Forum, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past cross-national crime research has focused on structural factors with considerably less attention paid to cultural predictors. We extend the culture of honor thesis by identifying the importance of cultural gender inequality and test a direct measure of it on cross-national violent crime rates. While prior research typically uses regional variables as proxies for culture, by using a direct cultural measure we are also able to identify whether culture contributes to explaining the regional associations found previously. Based on national surveys of 153 nations and more than a million respondents, this study is able to explore cultural, structural, and regional predictors of violent crime rates cross-nationally. Two regions, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, are far above the rest of the world in terms of violent crime rates. It turns out that most of the standard structural variables found to be important in previous cross-national studies no longer have significant effects when controls for these two regions are imposed. On the other hand, we find that our measure of cultural gender inequality has one of the largest associations with violent crime rates, net of region, and also explains portions of both regional associations.
Freedom and responsibility go together: Personality, experimental, and cultural demonstrations
Kennon Sheldon et al.
Journal of Research in Personality, April 2018, Pages 63-74
Abstract:
In three cross-cultural studies we tested the premise that psychological freedom (aka autonomy) and personal responsibility are complementary rather than conflicting, and the further premise that freedom causes responsibility, rather than vice versa. In all studies, (a) supporting autonomy in an experimental context increased responsibility-taking after failure, whereas emphasizing responsibility did not; (b) measures of dispositional autonomy and dispositional responsibility were positively correlated; (c) and responsibility-taking was slightly lower in Russia, a country typically ranked lower in world freedom indices. Supporting a control sensitivity explanation of the socio-cultural differences, the last study found that Russians were inclined to take more responsibility than Americans, but only when it was requested (not demanded) by family/friends (but not by authorities or by strangers).
The effect of Western TV on crime: Evidence from East Germany
Tim Friehe, Helge Müller & Florian Neumeier
European Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper explores the potential causal influence of Western television programming on crime rates. We exploit a natural experiment involving access to West German TV within the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in which only geography and topography determined the allocation of individuals to treatment and control groups. Focusing on violent and property crime (as these domains were most likely to be affected by the marked differences in TV content), we find that in the post-reunification decade in which TV content was harmonized, regions that had access to Western TV broadcasts prior to the reunification experienced lower rates of violent crime, sex crime, and theft, but more fraud.
Differences and Similarities Between Koreans and Americans in Lying and Truth-Telling
Hee Sun Park et al.
Journal of Language and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Cultures may differ in descriptive and injunctive norms about lying and telling the truth and also in terms of the extent to which individuals intend to tell a lie or the truth when a friend is in trouble. Study 1 (N = 460) showed that Koreans had stronger intentions to lie for a friend and weaker intentions to tell the truth than Americans. For lying, Americans indicated stronger perceptions of descriptive norms (e.g., many others would lie in this situation) than did Koreans. For truth-telling, Americans perceived stronger injunctive norms (i.e., people approve of truth-telling in this situation) than did Koreans. Study 2 (N = 207) showed that compared to Koreans, Americans had more favorable impressions about a person who told the truth. Implications of this study’s findings are discussed.
The Cultural Boundaries of Perspective-Taking: When and Why Perspective-Taking Reduces Stereotyping
Cynthia Wang et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research conducted in Western cultures indicates that perspective-taking is an effective social strategy for reducing stereotyping. The current article explores whether and why the effects of perspective-taking on stereotyping differ across cultures. Studies 1 and 2 established that perspective-taking reduces stereotyping in Western but not in East Asian cultures. Using a socioecological framework, Studies 2 and 3 found that relational mobility, that is, the extent to which individuals’ social environments provide them opportunities to choose new relationships and terminate old ones, explained our effect: Perspective-taking was negatively associated with stereotyping in relationally mobile (Western) but not in relationally stable (East Asian) environments. Finally, Study 4 examined the proximal psychological mechanism underlying the socioecological effect: Individuals in relationally mobile environments are more motivated to develop new relationships than those in relationally stable environments. Subsequently, when this motivation is high, perspective-taking increases self-target group overlap, which then decreases stereotyping.
Sustainability of minority culture when inter-ethnic interaction is profitable
John Bunce & Richard McElreath
Nature Human Behaviour, March 2018, Pages 205–212
Abstract:
Members of some ethnic minorities are interested in the sustainability of certain cultural traits typical of their group. However, theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that sustaining such cultural variation can be difficult, given inter-ethnic interactions between groups differing in size, prestige and power. Here we examine the dynamics of cultural norms by constructing a model of interaction between members of minority and majority ethnic groups. We incorporate asymmetric coordination benefits to represent ethnic asymmetries in resource control and bargaining power. In the absence of other processes, we find that sustainability of minority cultural norms may be enhanced by establishing a group boundary that minority members can cross freely, but members of a powerful majority cannot. We show how model predictions can complement empirical studies of cultural change, and demonstrate the model’s relevance to our understanding of norm dynamics in an indigenous Amazonian population.