This is the dimension based on data from the World Values Survey. HOFSTEDE: You are on the masculine side not at the very end, but more on the masculine side. But no. And in one condition, I had them wearing these fake facial warts. And they were finding that people in Africa were not falling victim to this illusion. He has written several books about what music and other pop culture has to say about the broader culture. Neal is making a couple of compelling points here. In a multitude of ways, large and small. This paper examines the production of race on the Internet by examining the elements that make up the weblog Freakonomics: the topic, the environment, the medium, and the users. Because when youre living inside a culture well, thats the culture you know; it is what it is. We need to change our practices. For some Americans, at least, working hard is a badge of honor. to let him focus even more on this data. What is culture? Thats Joe Henrich, a professor of evolutionary biology. BERT: Ernie Ernie, dont eat those cookies while youre in your bed, huh? You could ask people, What do you like to eat? The more collectivistic they are, the more likely they are to talk about their grandmother and what she made, and theyre less likely to start entirely on their own diet. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers. Culturally maybe more than anything! Michele Gelfand is one of the premier practitioners of cross-cultural psychology. The individual agents/brokers only take a $150 hit after their costs/fees. The sixth and, for now, final dimension was added to the model in 2010. HENRICH: So, Francisco is a good pal of mine and hes also a very charming fellow. Paperback - April 22, 2020. In the U.S., it was freedom to do whatever the hell that you wanted to. HENRICH: So places like New York and London, people are blazing down the sidewalks. Thats my idea. That is something that fundamentally many whites dont understand, right? DUBNER: What does an institution like the Navy see as the upsides of more looseness? So the picture that emerges from these findings is that Americans are less likely to conform in the name of social harmony; and we also treasure being consistent, expressing our true selves, regardless of the context. The fourth original dimension was called uncertainty avoidance. This has to do with how comfortable people are with ambiguity. The country that ranks highest in long-term orientation is Japan; also high on this scale are China and Russia. DUBNER: Where is the loosest place in America? Citation styles for Freakonomics How to cite Freakonomics for your reference list or bibliography: select your referencing style from the list below and hit 'copy' to generate a citation. 6 Pages. We see them as individuals with whom we are in competition. There, its really important to maintain that humility, to be focused on your privacy, but not trying to one-up other people. Not just regular weird. One hallmark of short-term thinking: a tendency toward black and white moral distinctions versus shades of gray. Groups that tend to have threat tend to develop stricter rules to coordinate. Shes not very disciplined. Then you can have something very good happening. And this led to this project where we did in lots of places hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, Africa, Papua New Guinea. He considered a rate between 80 and 90 percent . Culturally maybe more than anything! HENRICH: And Americans have this probably worse than anybody. Stay up-to-date on all our shows. You look at parents and how they treat their kids art. And the Machiguenga were much closer to the predictions of Homo economicus, where youd make low offers and never reject. HOFSTEDE: Masculine society means that if you show power, that gives you social status. So how it is that we acquire ideas, beliefs, and values from other people, and how this has shaped human genetic evolution. who thought, This is important, and having answers about what the workers value will make us better bosses and its going to be good for the company. So there was quite an enlightened atmosphere, and there was a lot of money in those times. The future could be bright. HOFSTEDE: Okay, no, I was just being naughty. This leads to less obesity, less addiction, and theres less crime in tighter cultures. The United States, you may not be surprised to learn, is on the loose end of the spectrum although not in the top five. 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. Scholars in this realm have a general agreement on what culture is and what its not. In case you missed it, thats Western. And things worked out well for them for a bit. Better Essays. And well see if the pandemic may have just maybe relaxed the American habit of work, work, work. We owe much of our freedom to that influence. When you have teenagers, youre tight, at least for me. The average U.S. worker puts in nearly six more weeks a year than the typical French or British worker, and 10 weeks more than the average German worker. GELFAND: Having more adaptability, more innovation. So the general rules of a loose or tight culture may not be consistently applied to all populations. And he said the reason was that he was a young postdoc, and he had holes in his jeans. DUBNER: When I look at the loosest country in the data, I see Ukraine. Well go through the other five dimensions, much faster, I promise. HENRICH: This probably wouldnt be in a psych textbook, but something like the Ultimatum game. Season 10, Episode 49. Im a professor of artificial sociality at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. 469). GELFAND: In cross-cultural psychology, we study how ecological and historical factors cause the evolution of differences. 1424 Words. The other point is a reminder: Its good to be humble about our ability our inability, actually to predict how a given culture will change. But that makes sense. We are acronymically WEIRD. Steven D. Levitt, the self-described "Rogue Economist" of the title, uses this tool to analyze a random assortment of . HENRICH: It chafes us when we get ordered around. Thats Joe Henrich, a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard; hes also a scholar of psychology, economics, and anthropology. Follow. Those should be the new words to your national anthem. Its trying to include all the stuff that we acquire as a consequence of growing up in different environments, and contrast that with things like our sex drive, which doesnt seem to be acquired by observing others. This failure leads to confusion at the very least, but quite possibly deeper misunderstandings, perhaps all the way up to hatred and violent conflict. And thats different than in Scandinavia and in New Zealand and Australia, which has much more horizontal individualism. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. This is a summary of the book Freakonomics by Stephen DubnerJoin Reading.FM now: https://fourminutebooks.com/go/readingfm/register/Read more summaries: http. For instance, the rhythm of vaccination in the U.S.A. is very fast. HENRICH: I was doing research in the Peruvian Amazon. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. Always check that your browser shows a closed lock icon and . Truth be told, I veer somewhat loose. Once you begin looking for evidence, you see an almost infinite array of examples. When Hofstede the Elder went to work for I.B.M., he got involved with these surveys. HENRICH: You want to be the same self, regardless of who youre talking to or what context youre in. HOFSTEDE: Yes, of course. By the way, Gelfand doesnt really take a position on whether loose or tight is superior. You can even see the evidence in the clocks that appear on city streets. HOFSTEDE: This is actually a little bit of an unfortunate name. And by the way, in that sense, the U.S.A. is also a huge laboratory of society formation, hopefully, which is by no means finished. HOFSTEDE: My name is Gert Jan Hofstede. So keep your ears open for all that. Download. Remember what he said earlier: HENRICH: So how it is that we acquire ideas, beliefs, and values from other people and how this has shaped human genetic evolution. In a large power-distant society, you have autocracy. DUBNER: I find that people who dont load dishwashers carefully are usually pretty loose with the planning. Australia and Brazil are also loose. They make sure that there is no violation of any ritual. HENRICH: But if you want to talk about humans, then you have a problem. This is a pretty interesting result: one stranger giving away roughly half their money to another stranger when, theoretically, 10 or 20 percent would keep the second player from rejecting the offer. Whereas uncertainty avoidance means you have lots of etiquette and ritual. Still, Gelfands horizons were suddenly expanded; and her curiosity was triggered. And then theres the big C, the stuff that we have these big conversations about, that we do these incredible studies about, which is really about the worldview of groups of people coming together, in a community, in a nation, in a family, right? People get less interested. If you just look at Americans, its 70 percent American. In a society in which 95 percent of adults are highly literate, he writes, people have a thicker corpus callosum than a society in which only 5 percent of people are highly literate. The corpus callosum is the bunch of nerve fibers that unites the two brain hemispheres. In 2016, Henrich published a book called The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. It could give you new occasions to gain status in an unexpected way. Sometimes incentives will be obvious, but often they will be hidden - and . If . GELFAND: In Germany and in Japan, the clocks are really synchronized. GADSBY: Have you ever noticed how Americans are not stupid? Gelfand would disagree. Freakonomics Revised and Expanded Edition. And that happens a lot. I mean, youve got your quota, as have we all, but youre not. Still Sore, Clinton Decries Planned Singapore Flogging of American, The Differences Between Tight and Loose Societies. GELFAND: My own sweet Portuguese water dog, Pepper, I mean, that dog is just gigantic. And if you get crumbs in your pajamas, theyll make you itch. Theres some D.N.A. 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 . Im a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. But, lets look at the pandemic from a different angle: which country produced the most effective Covid-19 vaccines? I personally expect at some point in the not very far future to have another wave of youthful optimism and find a way to say, Look, guys, we can do it, the future could be bright. GELFAND: I also teach negotiation. Its more about how individuals are acted upon by the people and institutions around them. HENRICH: This cashes out in an ability to make better abstract or absolute judgment. Ambiguity is good. NEAL: Were a country that presumes male leadership. making a claim about his individual experiences and looking for evidence. 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