Then you can have something very good happening. Heres how he puts it in his latest book: You cant separate culture from psychology or psychology from biology, because culture physically rewires our brains and thereby shapes how we think. One example he gives is literacy. Historically, politically, and yes culturally. It means you really want to know and youre not satisfied until you know. DUBNER: I like those rules. Documentary. Relatedly: Americans place a high value on being consistent across different situations. Europe has a strong influence from Germany, also from France. Lets flip it for a moment. People get less interested. Whereas in countries that are bogged down in cronyism and corruption, it doesnt happen. Episode 470 The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. Im a professor of artificial sociality at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands. GELFAND: In cross-cultural psychology, we study how ecological and historical factors cause the evolution of differences. HOFSTEDE: If I had been born in America, I would have liked it, probably, because I would have been used to it. GELFAND: We have a lot of work to do, theres no question. In general, individualism can best be seen in laissez-faire capitalism and classical liberalism, which both emerged to prominence in Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th centuries. So this is not about, Is world peace important?, HOFSTEDE: For instance, Is it important for you to have a good working relationship with your boss? Or Is it a good idea for people to maybe have more than one boss?. And he said the reason was that he was a young postdoc, and he had holes in his jeans. . So, lets try to measure this., Gelfand and several colleagues undertook a massive research project, interviewing some 7,000 people from 33 countries on five continents. So you see these eye movements that are very different. Freakonomics is a registered service mark of Renbud Radio, LLC. Latin countries tend to be more collectivistic, especially Spain and Portugal not so much Italy and France. Heres the dean of the National University of Singapores school of public health: YIK-YING TEO: We have a tradition of having national campaigns to galvanize people to proceed in a common direction. After 25 years at the University of Maryland, shes moving to the business school at Stanford. His ideas, along with others, are credited with . She says these are merely visible indicators of a countrys tightness or looseness and its what you dont necessarily see that shapes a given countrys culture. I do think that humanity as a whole is sort of evolving to being more reflective. Self-centered so if you give them tasks and have them list traits about themselves, theyll tend to list their attributes and characteristics rather than their relationships. How much should we attribute that success to these very same factors that create chaos on other dimensions? And it was like, This stuff is really lousy. This does not mean that no one in a loose culture, like the U.S., is stigmatized or mistreated. Baker was Bushs secretary of state; Aziz was Husseins deputy prime minister. So he read about factor analysis, which had become a little bit fashionable at the time. And they pass another fish, who says, Hey, boys, hows the water? And theyre like, What the heck is water?. Shes not very disciplined. HENRICH: You want to be the same self, regardless of who youre talking to or what context youre in, whereas in other places it seems to be okay to morph and shift your personality, depending on your context. He veers tighter. Joe Henrich points out that even our religions are competitive. And it should stay there. Culture is about, if you are a part of a society, youre like one drop in the Mississippi River. By this time, Hofstede the Elder had already gotten a Ph.D. in social science. Not just regular weird. We met him earlier, but just briefly; heres a proper introduction. But its not only compliance. One of the most important figures in economic individualism is the famous Scottish economist, Adam Smith. 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. This failure leads to confusion at the very least, but quite possibly deeper misunderstandings, perhaps all the way up to hatred and violent conflict. If you dont feel that, then you will be an unhappy person. GELFAND: Exactly. DUBNER: Describe for me your father and his work, and how it became a family business. This man has proof of our individualism. 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 . And in a collectivistic society, a person is like an atom in a crystal. Each week, Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn't) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything. Heres another example: HENRICH: People from more individualistic societies tend to focus on central objects. And we can see a strong trend that looseness has increased over the last 200 years. So why did someone succeed? This individualism has produced tremendous forward progress and entrepreneurial energy. GELFAND: Well, we can look back to Herodotus. Always check that your browser shows a closed lock icon and . GELFAND: In Germany and in Japan, the clocks are really synchronized. Scholars in this realm have a general agreement on what culture is and what its not. Is that a yes? For instance, the rhythm of vaccination in the U.S.A. is very fast. NEAL: We realized that the grind is unsustainable. GELFAND: My own sweet Portuguese water dog, Pepper, I mean, that dog is just gigantic. So Hofstede the Elder began to amass a huge data set about the workplace experiences and preferences of tens of thousands of I.B.M. The U.S. patent database goes back into the 18th century and what a number of studies in economics as well as work in my lab has shown is that openness to other people so, trust in strangers, an inclination towards individualism, a desire to stand out, to be the smartest guy in the room fosters more rapid innovation because people are more likely to exchange ideas, theyre more interested in distinguishing themselves. I mean, youve got your quota, as have we all, but youre not. In the beginning, Feldman left behind an open basket for the cash, but too often the money vanished. Paperback - April 22, 2020. We promise no spam. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. Well find out what it means to be WEIRD although not weird in the way youre thinking. 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). The best thing you can become is yourself. Tight cultures, she writes, are usually found in South and East Asia, the Middle East, and in European countries of Nordic and Germanic origin.. Everything in economics can be viewed from the point of incentives. So then he really knew this is not an artifact of this particular company this is real. Published: 31 October 2020. HOFSTEDE: You are on the masculine side not at the very end, but more on the masculine side. The people that came to New York early on, in the early 1800s, they were from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds. A tight country like Germany tends to set strict limits on noise, with mandated quiet hours. New York City, meanwhile, has been called not just the city that never sleeps, but the city that never shuts up. Tight countries tend to have very little jaywalking, or littering or, God forbid, dog poop on the sidewalks. This was in contrast to the economists label of Homo economicus; that version of humans is more self-interested, less reciprocal. And not attending enough to contextual factorsopportunities that presented themselves, being in the right place at the right time. GELFAND: Its like that story of two fish where theyre swimming along. When you have teenagers, youre tight, at least for me. This individualism has produced tremendous forward progress and entrepreneurial energy. 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. The U.S. assembled a coalition of allies. The Ultimatum game is famous among social scientists. And they often dont even realize theyre being acted upon. Whereas if you have a state religion, it tends to get tired and old and boring. Its all the levels in the organization. Download. HOFSTEDE: Because its true: the very same dimensions under different circumstances, can work the other way. Thats my idea. HENRICH: If you go to other societies, people are much more willing to give the same wrong answer to go along with others. And it drives us crazy. Theyre threatened by that interdependence, and they want to assert their cultural identities. Im like, Were going to go to Singapore if you people dont behave.. Because for all the so-called globalization of the past half-century or so, the U.S. still differs from other countries in many ways. It is a small price to pay to punish the first player for being so stingy. The United States, you may not be surprised to learn, is on the loose end of the spectrum although not in the top five. Whereas people from less individualistic societies tend to be better at making relative-size judgments. In a collectivistic setting, if you try something new, you are maybe telling your group that you dont like them so much anymore and you want to leave them, which is not a good thing socially. And this led to this project where we did in lots of places hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, Africa, Papua New Guinea. The reason we reached out to Michele Gelfand is that I want to understand this stuff better, too. He takes on questions like: Why do kids with summer birthdays get the flu more often? The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, show that increasing socioeconomic development is an especially strong predictor of increasing individualistic practices and values . Both are long-term oriented, so they see a lot of context around things. Chronic threat meaning a country is prone to natural disasters, or disease, or hostile invaders. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. HENRICH: If they accept the offer, they get the amount of the offer. DUBNER: And what would you say is maybe a political ramification of low power distance? So, they would offer a mean of about 25, 26 percent. Freakonomics the film, like the book, is entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking. . And thats helped to produce the looseness that exists to this day. Ambiguity is good. This would never happen in a society of large power distance. Well hear about those dimensions soon enough. 47 min. BROADCASTER: On the third trial, something happens. Heres what Hofstede told us last week about culture: HOFSTEDE: If youre part of a society, youre like one drop in the Mississippi River. And we found the full spectrum of variation. Individualism, Modern Capitalism, and Dystopian Visions Introduction to Heritage and Multicultural American Identities: Contemporary Voices (1970-2000) Introduction to Contemporary Literature of the Twenty-First Century The Poetry of Physics RL.CCR.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. My uncles like, Hey, I have something to show you. My first day in America, he showed me the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. Stay up-to-date on all our shows. GELFAND: When we ask people, What does honor mean to you? in the U.S., a lot of people talk about work.