Measuring and mapping cultures Part 1 What

Measuring and mapping cultures (Part 1)

What do “cultural differences” mean? • “Culture is the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from others” (G. Hofstede) • Cultural dimensions are value constructs, which can be used to describe a specific culture. • Values are a “desirable transsituational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or other social entity” (S. Schwartz)

Objective Elements of Culture The objective elements of culture involve objective, explicit elements that are physical. These would include architecture, clothes, foods, art, eating utensils, and the like. In today’s world, advertising, texts, architecture, art, mass media, television, music, the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter are all physical, tangible, and important artifacts of culture (Lamoreaux & Morling, in press; Morling & Lamoreaux, 2008). A recent study actually analyzed millions of digitized books—about 4% of all books ever printed—to investigate cultural trends over time (Michel et al. , 2011) and demonstrated changes in vocabularies, grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology.

Subjective Elements of Culture The subjective elements of culture include all those parts of a culture that do not survive people as physical artifacts (psychological processes such as attitudes, values, and beliefs, as well as behaviors).

Elementary forms of social behavior (Fiske, 1990, 1992) • Communal Sharing (CS) – sharing by all those who belong to the group according to need • Authority ranking (AR) – paying attention to status and divide according to rank • Equality matching (EM) – accent is on equality and equal sharing • Market pricing (MP) – proportionality between you give and receive

How to “measure” culture? Harry C. Triandis Ronald F. Inglehart Geert Hofstede Shalom H. Schwartz

Cultural Syndromes (H. Triandis) 1. Cultural complexity 2. Tight versus Loose cultures (T-L) 3. Individualism - Collectivism

Cultural Complexity • The ecology and history of a society determine its complexity: • societies that subsist on hunting, fishing, and food gathering tend to be simple; • agricultural societies tend to be somewhat complex; • industrial societies tend to be more complex; • informational societies are the most complex. • Associated with higher complexity are: • settlement size, level of political integration, population density, complex social stratification; a lot of different occupations; much of expressive realm of culture (art, music, dance, games, religion), value of time etc.

Individualism Collectivism Priority to personal goals, Priority to in-group goals Self is defined in terms of even if they conflict membership in in-groups which with group goals influence social behavior Collectivists tend to : 1) Be concerned about the results of their actions on in-group 2) Share resources with in-group 3) Feel interdependent 4) Feel involved in the lives of ingroup

Individualism - Collectivism Horizontal Interdependence and oneness Vertical Serving the group Those two aspects of collectivism are correlated (. 3 -. 4)

Antecedents of Individualism (IND) • Affluence: financial independece leads to social independence • But extreme economic deprivation also associates with IND • Migrations • Social mobility • Urban residence • The more complex the culture the more IND it is

Contrasting attributes of people in collectivist and individualistic cultures 1. FOCUS ON • Groups as basic units of • Individuals as the basic social perception units of social perceptions • The individual is the • Relationships are the figure; relationships are figure; the individual is in the background

Collectivist vs. Individualst 2. ATTRIBUTIONS • Behavior explained as reflecting norms • Success is attributed to help from others • Failure is attributed to external factors • Behavior explained by reference to personality, traits, principles, attitudes. • Success is attributed to ability. • Failure is attributed to lack of effort

Collectivist vs. Individualst 3. SELF • Defined in terms of ingroups, relationships • Change the self to fit the situation • Know more about others than about self • Have few self-linked memories • Self includes achievement for the group • Defined as an independent entity • Change the situation to fit the self • Know more about self than about others • Have many self-related memories • Self includes achievement for self-glore

Collectivist vs. Individualst 4. GOALS Role-relevant goals are greatly values • Clearly articulated goals are greatly values Of long duration • Of short duration

Collectivist vs. Individualst 5. EMOTIONS • Tend to be most frequently otherfocused (empathy) • Tend to be most frequently self-focused (anger)

Collectivist vs. Individualst 6. COGNITIONS Focus on the needs of my in-group (obligations) • Focus on my needs, rights, capacity (contracts) Cognitions are context dependent • Cognitions are context independent.

Collectivist vs. Individualst 7. ATTITUDES Favor belifs that reflect interdependence Favor beliefs that reflect independence, emotional detachment from in-group 8. NORMS Favor embededness in ingroup Favor independence from in-group

Collectivist vs. Individualst 9. VALUES Security, obedience, duty, in-group harmony, personolized relationships. Concern for «virtuous action» Persistence Pleasure, achievement, competition, freedom, autonomy, fair, exchange. Concern for «the truth» vs «action consistent with important principles» 10. MAJOR CALAMITY Ostracism Dependence on others

Collectivist vs. Individualst 11. IN-GROUPS Few, but relationships to them Many; relationships are casual, is close, with much concern little emotional involvement for their integrity. Small families, static Large families; rapid population growth Less willingness to self. Self-sacrifice for groups is sacrifice for in-group «natural» In-group perceived as more heterogenious that outhomogenious than outgroup Debate, confrontation are In-group harmony is required accepted Conflict with out-group is expected accepted but not desired

Collectivist vs. Individualst 12. SOCIAL BEHAVIOR • Very different when the • Only somewhat other person belongs to different when the an in-group vs outother person belongs to group in- vs out-group • Most behavior occurs in • Much behavior occurs small groups when individual is alone or in couples • Most interaction is between an individual • Most interaction is and groups between an individual and one other individual

Relations between cultural syndromes

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions 1. Power Distance (different solutions of the basic problem of human inequality); 2. Uncertainty Avoidance (level of stress in a society in the face of an unknown future); 3. Individualism versus Collectivism (integration of individuals into primary groups); 4. Masculinity versus Femininity (division of emotional roles between women and men); 5. Long Term versus Short Term Orientation (focus for people's efforts: the future or the present and past); 6. Indulgence versus Restraint (gratification vs control of basic human desires related to enjoying life).

Ten Differences Between Small- and Large- Power Distance Societies

Power Distance Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally

Ten Differences Between Collectivist and Individualist Societies

Individualism The degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.

Ten Differences Between Feminine and Masculine Societies

Masculinity A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success. A low score (feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (masculine) or liking what you do (feminine).

Ten Differences Between Weak- and Strong- Uncertainty Avoidance Societies

Uncertainty Avoidance The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the Uncertainty Avoidance score

Ten Differences Between Short- and Long-Term. Oriented Societies

Ten Differences between Indulgent and Restrained Societies

Indulgence The extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses. Relatively weak control is called “indulgence” and relatively strong control is called “restraint”.

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Hofstede’s model of values (cont’d) • Based on large-scale study (N > 100, 000) of ‘HERMES’ employees • Country-level analyses (values as characteristics of nations) • Country scores are available on the Internet: – http: //spectrum. troy. edu/~vorism/hofstede. htm – (see also http: //www. geert-hofstede. com/) 43

Issues in Use Ecological fallacy often observed – Country level characteristics indiscriminately ascribed to all members of the population – Countries are multicultural – Stability of country differences sometimes questioned – IND/COL and PDI often show strong, negative correlations 44