But we tried to address that. HENRICH: And the case I make is its been highly unsuccessful to just pick up institutions that evolved in Western societies and transport them to drop them in Africa or the Middle East or places like that, because there needs to be a fit between how people think about the world, their values, worldviews, motivations, and the affordances of the institution. This would never happen in a society of large power distance. Someone raised in an Eastern culture might focus more on the image as a whole and less on the central object. And we did find a number of learned people who had data to back up the hypothesis. John OLIVER: When was that moment that America became the most American America it could possibly be? Tightness and compliance would seem to go hand-in-hand. So if you ask people to judge the absolute lengths of two lines, people in more individualistic societies tend to get that right. Its all the levels in the organization. Were always losing time. They make sure that there is no violation of any ritual. And democratic. Whereas we usually describe a scent by saying something that it smells like.. In a multitude of ways, large and small. In restrained societies, people tend to suppress bodily gratification, and birth rates are often lower; theres also less interest in things like foreign films and music. And other cultures are more loose. Later on, fast forward, Pertti Pelto, whos an anthropologist. But Im Dutch, of course. So the scientific discipline of psychology is dominated by Americans. You have to pronounce it right. Downloads: 18. We may not be the very loosest culture; but we are No. You can think about it at the household level. Once you begin looking for evidence, you see an almost infinite array of examples. So, they would offer a mean of about 25, 26 percent. Did you know there is an entire academic field called cross-cultural psychology? The snob effect occurs when an individual's demand for a specific product increases when the number of units of that product other people purchase increases. Historically, politically, and yes culturally. Well go through the other five dimensions, much faster, I promise. HENRICH: Two players divide a sum of money. HOFSTEDE: For the U.S.A., the world is like a market. ERNIE: Oh, gee. Why Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million? I hate to call out Michele Gelfand, but even in the loosest of cultures, dogs dont have unfettered access to food. We just need to do it. In 1990, when Gelfand was a graduate student, she followed the news as Iraq invaded Kuwait. And heres one of the people who created the WEIRD designation. HOFSTEDE: This is a very American question, Stephen. HOFSTEDE: High individualism is correlated with trying new stuff. You're stuck in a metal tube with hundreds of strangers (and strange smells), defying gravity and racing through the sky. HOFSTEDE: You could say these six dimensions of culture, they are perimeters to our sociality. You might think that these relatively minor differences dont add up to much. Henrichs next example is more behavioral than physiological. Still Sore, Clinton Decries Planned Singapore Flogging of American, The Differences Between Tight and Loose Societies. Freakonomics Quotes. Fortune, by the Hitchhikers; the rest of the music this week was composed byLuis Guerra. DUBNER: When youre inclined to look at the U.S. in a positive light, do you find uncertainty avoidance to be largely a force for the good in terms of creating and building a strong society, or do you think its more ? How much time have you spent thinking about what makes America, America? We look at how these traits affect our daily lives and why we couldn . Wed rather think about solutions temporarily rather than as, this might take some time. It means that we need to attract different types of people to an organization. And this led to this project where we did in lots of places hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, Africa, Papua New Guinea. The correct answer of the given question above would be the second option. HENRICH: We have a kind of religiosity equivalent to somewhere like Kuwait. At the time, opinion surveys were relatively new; it was especially unusual for a company to survey its own employees. You may decide to go another way, but that doesnt make the river change. You realize, you want a black or white value judgment. So he read about factor analysis, which had become a little bit fashionable at the time. These are stereotypical names. Better Essays. According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we're also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on "uncertainty avoidance," if that makes you feel better). GELFAND: Classic things like the Mller-Lyer Illusion, which is these two lines where one looks longer than the other. This really contrasts with lots of places where there are legitimate traditional authorities and people tend to defer to those authorities. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism (Replay) According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we're also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on "uncertainty avoidance," if that makes you feel better). Really? I do think that today they are living through difficult times, but so are we. But even a loose country will tighten up when a threat arises. Most white Americans have an entirely different ancestral history. HOFSTEDE: In an individualistic society, a person is like an atom in a gas. One of the defining features of Americanism is our so-called rugged individualism. You might even call it wild individualism. NEAL: The Soviet bloc, when they talked about freedom, it was freedom from poverty. It's an unnatural activity that has become normal. Chinese, in that respect, are very like the Americans. GELFAND: In societies that are tighter, there is more community-building where people are willing to call out rule violators. Europe has very strong gradients between very individualistic Nordic and Anglo and Germanic countries; Germanic is a little bit more collectivistic. Published: 31 October 2020. Hence the term, the changing same. I think there are historical moments that are transcendent. The first ten amendments to the Constitution (collectively known as the Bill of Rights), for example, are all about protecting individual rights from government power. We often look to other countries for smart policies on education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. Go out there and make it happen. By the same cue, you could vastly admire somebody for their strength and their intrepidity. In Germany, for instance, labor unions often have a representative on company boards, which can radically change the dynamic between companies and employees. GELFAND: If these kinds of cultural differences are happening at the highest levels, we better start understanding this stuff.. People in the less-literate society, meanwhile, would have better facial-recognition skills. The legendary bestseller that made millions look at the world in a radically different way returns in a new edition, now including an exclusive discussion between the authors and bestselling professor of psychology Angela Duckworth. 469). HENRICH: Im a researcher who tries to apply evolutionary theory to understand human behavior and human psychology and particularly culture. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like The Freakonomics podcast "Is the American Dream really dead?", mentions five main factors that contribute to social mobility in neighborhoods. A recent paper by a Harvard postdoc named Anne Sofie Beck Knudsen analyzed Scandinavian emigration from 1850 to 1920, when roughly 25 percent of the Scandinavian population left their countries, a great many coming to the U.S. People of an individualistic mindset were more prone to migrate than their collectivistic neighbors, she writes. And that happens a lot. Open Document. And there are other inconsistencies, especially in a country as large and diverse as the U.S. For instance, where you live. Greeks are very strong on that. How do racial and ethnic minorities fit into the American looseness? DUBNER: I remember once, years and years ago, when I was reading this research that you were doing, speaking with Francisco Gil-White, who was then at Penn, and he told me that when he was running this Ultimatum experiment, I dont remember where I want to say Mongolia. GELFAND: I also teach negotiation. According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; were also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on uncertainty avoidance, if that makes you feel better). Industrialized. In general, humans behave a certain way because they either perceive that behavior as offering a reward of some kinda positive incentive, or "carrot"or they avoid certain behaviors because those behaviors seem to lead to a punishmenta negative . No difference, that is, between tight and loose cultures. DUBNER: Im curious for advice on how we should balance weve become an economic powerhouse, and we recognize that there is a lot of benefit to that. According to the Pew Research Center, 80 percent of Americans claim to believe in God, 55 percent pray at least daily, and 36 percent attend a religious service at least once a week. And the whole point about negotiation is you figure out what is your highest priority in the situation, what domain is so important for you in terms of your tightness or your looseness, and then negotiate accordingly. Everything in economics can be viewed from the point of incentives. Neal is a professor of African and African-American studies. Individualism encompasses a value system, a theory of human nature, and a belief in certain political, economic, social, and religious arrangements. HENRICH: So places like New York and London, people are blazing down the sidewalks. The next dimension is what the Hofstedes call uncertainty avoidance.. The U.S. comes in on the indulgent side, at 68. It is still the case that you did have the summer of love. In the meantime, take care of yourself and, if you can, someone else too. Michele GELFAND: Its a subfield of psychology that tries to understand whats universal, whats similar, and whats culture-specific. Neal sees a strong connection between U.S. masculinity and our appetite for work. SuperFreakonomics was the follow-up in 2009. Thats my idea. And thats because the vast majority of the research subjects are WEIRD. The negotiations didnt work out. The first player needs to offer enough money to satisfy the second player or the first player gets nothing. GELFAND: Sometimes people actually revert back into their cultural chambers. And it drives us crazy. This interest goes back to those negotiations between Jim Baker and Tariq Aziz. GELFAND: Groups that are of lower status tend to live in tighter worlds. And then you see how often the subject wants to go along with the other people, as opposed to give the answer they would give if they were by themselves. When you have teenagers, youre tight, at least for me. 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