When and where
Pathogen prevalence is associated with cultural changes in gender equality
Michael Varnum & Igor Grossmann
Nature Human Behaviour, forthcoming
Abstract:
Gender equality has varied across time, with dramatic shifts in countries such as the United States in the past several decades. Although differences across societies and changes within societies in gender equality have been well documented, the causes of these changes remain poorly understood. Scholars have posited that such shifts have been driven by specific events (such as Title IX and Roe versus Wade), broader social movements (such as feminism and women's liberation) or general levels of social development (for example, modernization theory). Although these factors are likely to have been partly responsible for temporal variations in gender equality, they provide fairly intermediate explanations void of a comprehensive framework. Here, we use an ecological framework to explore the role of key ecological dimensions on change in gender equality over time. We focus on four key types of ecological threats/affordances that have previously been linked to cultural variations in human behaviour as potential explanations for cultural change in gender equality: infectious disease, resource scarcity, warfare and climatic stress. We show that decreases in pathogen prevalence in the United States over six decades (1951-2013) are linked to reductions in gender inequality and that such shifts in rates of infectious disease precede shifts in gender inequality. Results were robust, holding when we controlled for other ecological dimensions and for collectivism and conservative ideological identification (indicators of more broadly traditional cultural norms and attitudes). Furthermore, the effects were partially mediated by reduced teenage birth rates (a sign that people are adopting slower life history strategies), suggesting that life history strategies statistically account for the relationship between pathogen prevalence and gender inequality over time. Finally, we replicated our key effects in a different society, using comparable data from the United Kingdom over a period of seven decades (1945-2014).
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Joshua Tybur et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1 November 2016, Pages 12408-12413
Abstract:
People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogen-neutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members. Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the intragroup account than with the intergroup account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (SDO; an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to SDO within the 30 nations.
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Trust and In-Group Favoritism in a Culture of Crime
Stephan Meier et al.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, December 2016, Pages 78-92
Abstract:
We use experiments in high schools in two neighborhoods in the metropolitan area of Palermo, Italy to experimentally support the argument that the historical informal institution of organized crime can undermine current institutions, even in religiously and ethnically homogeneous populations. Using trust and prisoner's dilemma games, we found that students in a neighborhood with high Mafia involvement exhibit lower generalized trust and trustworthiness, but higher in-group favoritism, with punishment norms failing to resolve these deficits. Our study suggests that a culture of organized crime can affect adolescent norms and attitudes that might support a vicious cycle of in-group favoritism and crime that in turn hinders economic development.
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Brides for Sale: Cross-Border Marriages and Female Immigration
Daiji Kawaguchi & Soohyung Lee
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
Developed East Asian countries import a large number of women from abroad as brides every year, although such cross-border marriages virtually did not exist 20 years ago. With a theoretical framework and empirical evidence, we argue that developed Asian countries' demand for foreign brides is the consequence of improvement in women's economic status and gender-discriminative household arrangements that insufficiently incorporate women's improved status in marriage. We offer sets of empirical evidence in line with our argument, using various macro- and microlevel datasets.
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Hyeyoung Shin & John Dovidio
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigated cultural differences in the role of economic competitiveness in prejudice toward immigrants and foreign workers between Northern European-heritage and East Asian cultures. Because economic competitiveness and achievement are associated with core cultural values in Northern European-heritage cultures, we hypothesized that economic competitiveness would be associated with prejudice toward immigrants and foreign workers more strongly in Northern European-heritage than in East Asian cultures. Results based on nationally representative samples drawn from the World Values Survey revealed that prejudice toward immigrants and foreign workers was generally higher in East Asian (South Korea and China) than in Northern European-heritage (Norway and the United States) cultures. However, as predicted, a stronger association was found between economic competitiveness and prejudice toward immigrants and foreign workers in Northern European-heritage than East Asian cultures, controlling for sociodemographic backgrounds of participants (gender, age, education, and income), ecological diversity of each country, values of uniqueness and conformity, attitude toward ethnic diversity, and racism. These findings support the hypothesis that the central values of a culture shape the nature of prejudice within it, including prejudice toward immigrants and foreign workers, and highlight the importance of understanding the cultural dynamics of prejudice.
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Social Identity and Attitudes Toward Cultural Diversity: A Cultural Psychological Analysis
Takeshi Hamamura
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior research indicates that there may be a disharmonious relationship between positive attitudes toward ethnic and cultural diversity and social identity within a socially dominant group. Recent work in cultural psychology, however, has implied that this disharmonious relationship may be confined to a specific representation of social identity. This research examined this possibility. Study 1 (N = 51,238) found that the negative association between national identity and diversity attitudes found among participants from Western societies did not extend to participants from non-Western societies. Study 2 (N = 222) recruited American and Japanese participants, disentangled two distinct representations of their social identity - collective and relational social identity - and found their differential associations with positive attitudes toward multiculturalism. Implications are discussed.
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Can the Culture of Honor Lead to Inefficient Conventions? Experimental Evidence from India
Benjamin Brooks, Karla Hoff & Priyanka Pandey
World Bank Working Paper, September 2016
Abstract:
Experiments in the United States have found that pairs of individuals are generally able to form socially efficient conventions in coordination games of common interest in a remarkably short time. This paper shows that this ability is not universal. The paper reports the results of a field experiment in India in which pairs of men from high and low castes repeatedly played a coordination game of common interest. Low-caste pairs overwhelmingly coordinated on the efficient equilibrium, consistent with earlier findings. In contrast, high-caste pairs coordinated on the efficient equilibrium at a much lower rate, with only 47 percent in efficient coordination in the final period of the experiment. The study traces the divergence in outcomes to how an individual responds to the low payoff he obtains when he attempts efficient coordination but his partner does not. After this event, high-caste men are significantly less likely than low-caste men to continue trying for efficiency. The limited ability to form the efficient convention can be explained by the framing effect of the culture of honor among high-caste men, which may lead them to interpret this event as a challenge to their honor, which triggers a retaliatory response.
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Social Value Orientation and Capitalism in Societies
Shibly Shahrier, Koji Kotani & Makoto Kakinaka
PLoS ONE, October 2016
Abstract:
Cooperation and competition are core issues in various fields, since they are claimed to affect the evolution of human societies and ecological organizations. A long-standing debate has existed on how social behaviors and preferences are shaped with culture. Considering the economic environment as part of culture, this study examines whether the ongoing modernization of competitive societies, called "capitalism," affects the evolution of people's social preferences and behaviors. To test this argument, we implemented field experiments of social value orientation and surveys with 1002 respondents for three different areas of Bangladesh: (i) rural, (ii) transitional and (iii) capitalistic societies. The main result reveals that with the evolution from rural to capitalistic societies, people are likely to be less prosocial and more likely to be competitive. In a transitional society, there is a considerable proportion of "unidentified" people, neither proself nor prosocial, implying the potential existence of unstable states during a transformation period from rural to capitalistic societies. We also find that people become more proself with increasing age, education and number of children. These results suggest that important environmental, climate change or sustainability problems, which require cooperation rather than competition, will pose more danger as societies become capitalistic.
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Adolescent Misconduct Behaviors: A Cross-Cultural Perspective of Adolescents and Their Parents
Marie Tisak et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The primary goal of the current study was to examine cultural differences in Chinese and U.S. adolescents' and parents' perceptions and evaluations of adolescent misconduct behaviors. A total of 395 U.S. and Chinese adolescents (ages 11-19 years) and 255 parents participated in this study. Each participant generated adolescent misconduct behaviors and rated each misconduct behavior as to the degree of wrongness. The misconduct behaviors were coded into 10 categories across three themes (moral offenses, drugs, and conventions). Results revealed significant cultural differences in a number of adolescent misconduct behaviors. For example, the United States generated more misconduct behaviors in weapon offenses and drug use than did China. These cultural differences were further complicated by an interaction between culture and generation. Chinese adolescents were more likely than U.S. adolescents to use categories of school, home, and social conventional violations, and considered these adolescent misconduct behaviors to be more wrong. However, it was the U.S. parents who considered adolescent misconduct behaviors in these categories to be more wrong than did Chinese parents.
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The Influence of Culture on Goal Perception: Qatar Versus Denmark
Christina Lundsgaard Ottsen et al.
Applied Cognitive Psychology, November/December 2016, Pages 1030-1041
Abstract:
Expectations of control put forth by societal norms impose a constant influence on goal perception. To examine the influence of culture on perception of personal goals, 124 Middle Easterners and 128 Scandinavians rated their perceived locus of control, generated goals and evaluated goal characteristics. Findings show several cultural and gender differences, most notably in perceived locus of control, unhappiness despite goal achievement and adherence to cultural life script. Many differences were qualified by interactions, suggesting that Middle Eastern men deviate from Middle Eastern women and Scandinavians of both sexes. The Middle Eastern men demonstrated greater ambivalence regarding goal achievement, and contrary to previous findings from other cultural samples, they also showed a significant positive association between internal and external control. Furthermore, goals generated by Middle Easterners showed a greater overlap with their imagined future events, and were largely represented by life script events. These findings are consistent with the view that especially Middle Eastern men experience a greater responsibility for the fulfilment of culturally defined goals.
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Does the Body Survive Death? Cultural Variation in Beliefs About Life Everlasting
Rachel Watson-Jones et al.
Cognitive Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Mounting evidence suggests that endorsement of psychological continuity and the afterlife increases with age. This developmental change raises questions about the cognitive biases, social representations, and cultural input that may support afterlife beliefs. To what extent is there similarity versus diversity across cultures in how people reason about what happens after death? The objective of this study was to compare beliefs about the continuation of biological and psychological functions after death in Tanna, Vanuatu (a Melanesian archipelago), and the United States (Austin, Texas). Children, adolescents, and adults were primed with a story that contained either natural (non-theistic) or supernatural (theistic) cues. Participants were then asked whether or not different biological and psychological processes continue to function after death. We predicted that across cultures individuals would be more likely to endorse the continuation of psychological processes over biological processes (dualism) and that a theistic prime would increase continuation responses regarding both types of process. Results largely supported predictions; U.S. participants provided more continuation responses for psychological than biological processes following both the theistic and non-theistic primes. Participants in Vanuatu, however, provided more continuation responses for biological than psychological processes following the theistic prime. The data provide evidence for both cultural similarity and variability in afterlife beliefs and demonstrate that individuals use both natural and supernatural explanations to interpret the same events.
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Emotions Are Understood From Biological Motion Across Remote Cultures
Carolyn Parkinson et al.
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Patterns of bodily movement can be used to signal a wide variety of information, including emotional states. Are these signals reliant on culturally learned cues or are they intelligible across individuals lacking exposure to a common culture? To find out, we traveled to a remote Kreung village in Ratanakiri, Cambodia. First, we recorded Kreung portrayals of 5 emotions through bodily movement. These videos were later shown to American participants, who matched the videos with appropriate emotional labels with above chance accuracy (Study 1). The Kreung also viewed Western point-light displays of emotions. After each display, they were asked to either freely describe what was being expressed (Study 2) or choose from 5 predetermined response options (Study 3). Across these studies, Kreung participants recognized Western point-light displays of anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and pride with above chance accuracy. Kreung raters were not above chance in deciphering an American point-light display depicting love, suggesting that recognizing love may rely, at least in part, on culturally specific cues or modalities other than bodily movement. In addition, multidimensional scaling of the patterns of nonverbal behavior associated with each emotion in each culture suggested that similar patterns of nonverbal behavior are used to convey the same emotions across cultures. The considerable cross-cultural intelligibility observed across these studies suggests that the communication of emotion through movement is largely shaped by aspects of physiology and the environment shared by all humans, irrespective of differences in cultural context.