GELFAND: If youre in contexts where theres a lot of rules, you develop from a very early age that impulse control. 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 . Historically, politically, and yes culturally. Also, he uses some very bold examples (crime rates versus abortion, drug dealership, cheating teachers, etc) to make some very simple . . Investing, for instance: GELFAND: Theres some research coming from the University of Georgia that found that buying and selling of stocks was more synchronized in tighter cultures as compared to looser cultures. DUBNER: What problem was he, and later you, trying to solve by doing this work? The second one measures what's called "power distance." (Don't worry, we'll explain the name . Theyre not supposed to be the boss. HOFSTEDE: And it immediately yielded a four-dimensional model. It always was unsustainable, but was made even more acute to us. Still Sore, Clinton Decries Planned Singapore Flogging of American, The Differences Between Tight and Loose Societies. HOFSTEDE: Well, if you want an honest answer, I think mainly our own curiosity. And that is a status-worthy thing. GELFAND: Its like that story of two fish where theyre swimming along. HENRICH: One study of the journals in social psychology shows that 96 percent of all subjects in social psychology come from societies that are Western educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. 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. You look at parents and how they treat their kids art. Michele Gelfand is one of the premier practitioners of cross-cultural psychology. Later on, fast forward, Pertti Pelto, whos an anthropologist. So then he really knew this is not an artifact of this particular company this is real. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. And then in a third condition they were wearing just their face. Always check that your browser shows a closed lock icon and . The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism Freakonomics Radio. Theres a good side of every dimension, including uncertainty avoidance. And I think thats always going to be an ongoing tension this idea of America thats rooted in individualism, thats rooted in transactional practices. HENRICH: And this can include motivations, heuristics, biases, beliefs. 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. Weve interviewed dozens of academic researchers about lowering healthcare costs or improving access to childcare or building smarter infrastructure or creating a more equitable economy. (Part 1 of " Freakonomics Radio Takes to the Skies .") The U.S. is overall relatively loose. You Arent Alone as Most Cats and Dogs in the U.S. are Overweight, The Loosening of American Culture Over 200 Years is Associated With a CreativityOrder Trade-Off, Speaking a Tone Language Enhances Musical Pitch Perception in 35-Year-Olds, TightnessLooseness Across the 50 United States, The Mller-Lyer Illusion in a Computational Model of Biological Object Recognition, Chaos Theory: A Unified Theory of Muppet Types, Egypt: Crime Soars 200 Per Cent Since Hosni Mubarak Was Ousted, Status and the Evaluation of Workplace Deviance. We had a very tight social order. That is not just the most American thing thats ever happened. So, yes, the same attributes that can be a big problem can also be a big boost. And I could see there, a little bit similarly to the U.S., how the various ethnicities are trying to live together. DUBNER: But that the research subjects, they gave him a lot back and they thought it was going to him. GELFAND: I was watching this negotiation between Tariq Aziz and James Baker. And life is an adventure. HOFSTEDE: And his special methodological trick was not to do what is now called a pan-cultural analysis across all the respondents, but first to lump them into groups. In a large power-distant society, you have autocracy. This really contrasts with lots of places where there are legitimate traditional authorities and people tend to defer to those authorities. Anyway, in this episode of No Stupid Questions, we'll be talking about how our surroundings can make us smarter and maybe happier too. We just need to do it. And you could have a perfect storm in that direction. Michele GELFAND: Its a subfield of psychology that tries to understand whats universal, whats similar, and whats culture-specific. HOFSTEDE: Which doesnt mean egoism, but it could go that way. Where would you think the U.S. ranks among all the countries measured on this dimension? And this led to this project where we did in lots of places hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, Africa, Papua New Guinea. We should note that Bert and Ernie, despite their differences, are very dear friends! GELFAND: Were trained from a very early age not just to be independent, but to be better. She grew up in Tasmania. Controlling for a variety of other factors, they found that looser countries the U.S., Brazil, Italy, and Spain have had roughly five times the number of Covid cases and nearly nine times as many deaths as tighter countries. As an Amazon Associate, Freakonomics may earn commissions from qualifying purchases made through links on this site. Whereas in countries that are bogged down in cronyism and corruption, it doesnt happen. Rich. . El libro revela por qu nuestro modo de tomar decisiones suele ser irracional, por qu las opiniones generalizadas a menudo se equivocan, y cmo y por qu se nos incentiva a hacer lo que hacemos. Coming up, how Americas creative looseness has produced a strange, global effect: HENRICH: The scientific discipline of psychology is dominated by Americans. Individualism is thought to be on the rise in Western countries, but new research suggests that increasing individualism may actually be a global phenomenon. He started out as an anthropologist; but he started mixing and matching disciplines to suit his curiosity. thats always there. And it produces this illusion. And this paper was basically sitting in the shelves of libraries for many years. Whether this means something brings you financial, emotional, or even community benefit. GELFAND: All cultures have social norms, these unwritten rules that guide our behavior on a daily basis. HOFSTEDE: In the U.S.A., the boss needs to be a team player. Industrialized. 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. the Machiguenga were much closer to the predictions of Homo economicus, The Relationship Between Cultural TightnessLooseness and COVID-19 Cases and Deaths: A Global Analysis, States of Emergency: The Most Disaster-Prone States in the US, A Global Analysis of Cultural Tightness in Non-Industrial Societies, Have You Tried to Help Your Pet Lose Weight? Michael Fay wasnt a tourist; he was living in Singapore with his family, attending an American school. 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. Okay, lets get into the six dimensions. DUBNER: Name some of the highest and lowest countries on this dimension. They set out to explore the inner workings of a crack gang, the truth about real estate agents, the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan, and much more. Well hear about those dimensions soon enough. And the research subject explained to him that, Oh, I feel so bad for you that you cant afford pants without holes in them that I cant take the money from this poor American kid. And it struck me as a way in which this experiment could be perverted. And that also means that fighting is a good way to get what you want. The first one measures the level of individualism in a given culture, versus collectivism. I do think that humanity as a whole is sort of evolving to being more reflective. Australia and Brazil are also loose. Loose cultures tend to be found in English-speaking countries as well as Latin-American, Latin-European, and formerly Communist cultures. Stay up-to-date on all our shows. Ambiguity is good. to let him focus even more on this data. Twenty states rewarded individual schools for good test scores or dramatic improvement; thirty-two states sanctioned the schools that didn't do well. BUSH: Allied air forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait. Theres not going to be violent crime. Thats Joe Henrich, a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard; hes also a scholar of psychology, economics, and anthropology. Michele Gelfand again: GELFAND: De Tocqueville noticed this about Americans, that we are a time is money country. She was majoring in pre-med. So I have no doubt that his subjects really liked him. Youre going to be shut down. The correct answer of the given question above would be the second option. Freakonomics Essay. Individualism once . Here in the U.S., its actually a rule violation to call out people who are violating norms. And they often dont even realize theyre being acted upon. Culture can be quite an offensive concept, particularly to people who project it onto an individual characteristic, as if it was about an individual. It was: And your culture, your American culture, is very different. At this point, we should probably define terms. You could argue that Peppers owner is the one who isnt very disciplined. 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. And we can see a strong trend that looseness has increased over the last 200 years. Comprising four main documentary segments, each made by a different director -- including Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock, Taxi to the Dark Side's Alex Gibney, Why We Fight's Eugene Jarecki, and Jesus Camp's Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady-- the film examines . Everybody gets tickled until they laugh. Let me give a little background. HOFSTEDE: My name is Gert Jan Hofstede. The U.S. is just different from other places in a variety of ways that we often dont stop to think about. We promise no spam. There are plenty of looser people in tight countries and vice versa. Based on the bestselling book of the same name, FREAKONOMICS attempts to break down dense economic theories and data into digestible bits. These are stereotypical names. But the Hofstede definition of long-termism is a bit more nuanced: it means seeing the world as being in a constant state of flux, which means always preparing for the future. GELFAND: We have a lot of work to do, theres no question. For example, we asked bank managers some years ago to look through scenarios of people violating organizational rules, like coming to work late, staying on the phone too long, maybe checking their email. 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