Culture
A system of shared attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and symbols transmitted across generations, providing a framework for interpreting the world (Matsumoto, 2007).
- Adaptive mechanism: Culture evolves in response to physical, environmental, and social challenges, serving as an adaptive mechanism for survival.
- Cultural norms: Shared expectations about appropriate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a society.
- Socialization: Internalizing societal norms through observation and interaction.
- Cultural transmission: The process of passing cultural knowledge from one generation to another.
Culture and Behaviour
- Cultural norms influence behavioral patterns, such as conformity, aggression, and cooperation.
- Studies like Hofstede's cultural dimensions reveal differences between collectivist and individualist cultures, illustrating how societal values shape decision-making, interpersonal relations, and emotional expression.
Cohen et al. (1996)
Aim: To investigate how cultural norms of honor influence responses to insults.
Participants:
148 white male college students:
- Half from the Southern USA, a culture of honor.
- Half from the Northern USA, without a culture of honor emphasis.
Method: Experiment using a staged insult scenario.
Procedure:
- Participants completed a personality questionnaire.
- They were bumped into by a confederate in a hallway and called an offensive name.
- Later, participants walked towards a larger confederate in a narrow hallway, testing their proximity before "chickening out."
Results:
- Southern participants reacted with more hostility, coming closer to the confederate (0.94m) compared to Northerners (2.74m).
- Testosterone and cortisol levels in Southerners spiked significantly more after the insult.
Conclusion: Southern males were more likely to exhibit aggression, consistent with honor culture norms.
Evaluation:
- High internal validity as the controlled experiment allowed researchers to isolate the effect of the insult.
- Measured hormonal levels provide objective biological evidence.
- The staged insult scenario simulated a real-life provocation which increases ecological validity.
- There was sample bias as the study only included white male USA college students, limiting generalizability.
- The experiment does not capture how participants would react to insults in long-term situations, limiting external validity.
Culture and Cognition
Culture influences cognitive processes such as perception, memory, and decision-making. Cognitive styles differ across cultures due to varying socialization practices and environmental contexts. Culture plays a role in the creation of our schema, which in turn, affect our cognitive processes. In particular, what and how we remember.
Chiu (1972)
Aim: To compare cognitive styles between Chinese and American students.
Participants:
- 221 Chinese students from rural areas.
- 316 American students from comparable rural communities.
Method: Cognitive-style test with 28 items.
Procedure:
Participants grouped three objects (e.g., cow, chicken, grass) based on perceived relationships.
Results:
- Chinese students preferred contextual categorization (e.g., grouping "cow" and "grass" because cows eat grass).
- American students showed analytic categorization (e.g., grouping "cow" and "chicken" because they are animals).
Conclusion:
Cultural differences in socialization influence cognitive processing. Chinese students demonstrated holistic thinking, emphasizing relationships, while American students focused on categories and components.
Evaluation:
- With 537 participants, the study has a large sample. This reduces the likelihood of random variation and increasing reliability.
- The study highlights cultural differences in cognition.
- Only rural students were tested, meaning results may not apply to other populations.
- The study does not explore why these differences exist (e.g. educational systems, language structure, or parenting styles).
- The categorization task may oversimplify cognition, as real-world thinking is more complex than grouping objects.
Briley, Morris, and Simonson (2005)
Aim: To investigate how language influences decision-making in bilingual individuals.
Participants:
Chinese undergraduates fluent in Cantonese and English.
Method: Two experiments manipulating language (English vs. Cantonese).
Procedure:
- Experiment 1: Participants chose between two restaurants with pros and cons or deferred the decision ("choice deferral").
- Experiment 2: Participants selected among three cameras, including a compromise option.
Results:
- Choice deferral was more frequent in the Cantonese condition (44%) compared to English (29%).
- Compromise choices were higher in the Cantonese condition (77%) than in English (53%).
Conclusion:
Language primes cultural schemas, influencing decision-making. Cantonese participants leaned towards decisions aligning with traditional Chinese values, while English prompted Western decision styles.
Evaluation:
- Bilingual individuals frequently switch languages in daily life, making the findings applicable to cross-cultural behaviors.
- The results align with research on cultural priming.
- The study replicated findings across two different tasks, increasing reliability.
- The study focused only on Chinese undergraduates, making it unclear if findings generalize to other populations.
- The experimental setting might have influenced how participants responded to language cues.
- Differences in thinking styles may be influenced by education or personality traits, not just language. This means no cause-and-effect relationship can be established.
Critical Thinking
Methodological Considerations
- Cultural Bias: A significant limitation in cultural research is the reliance on WEIRD samples (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic), which represent a small fraction of global populations.
- This restricts the generalizability of findings to other cultural contexts. To improve inclusivity, future studies should incorporate diverse cultural groups, ensuring a broader understanding of human behavior across varying societies.
- Ecological Validity: Many studies are conducted in controlled laboratory settings, which may not reflect real-life cultural behaviors.
- For example, experiments simulating insults or decision-making scenarios might fail to capture the nuanced dynamics of how people respond in their natural environments. Addressing this limitation requires designing studies with greater real-world applicability.
Alternative Explanations
- Biological Factors: Cultural behaviors, such as aggression, may be influenced by hormonal factors like testosterone, as suggested by Cohen et al.’s research on testosterone spikes following insults.
- This highlights the interaction between biological mechanisms and cultural contexts, suggesting that culture alone may not fully explain observed behaviors.
- Cognitive Factors: Differences in thinking styles, such as holistic cognition in Eastern cultures and analytic cognition in Western cultures, may shape decision-making and perception independently of cultural norms.
- These cognitive patterns could influence behavior in ways not directly tied to cultural expectations, offering alternative pathways for explaining variability in actions across societies.
Ethical Considerations
- Psychological Harm: Experiments that involve insults or other distressing scenarios risk causing emotional discomfort to participants.
- Ensuring ethical integrity requires obtaining informed consent, providing comprehensive debriefing, and minimizing potential harm wherever possible.
- Cultural Stereotyping: Generalizing research findings to entire cultural groups risks reinforcing stereotypes, such as attributing specific behaviors solely to particular cultures.
- Researchers must exercise caution in their interpretations and emphasize the diversity within cultures to avoid perpetuating oversimplified narratives.
