So the general rules of a loose or tight culture may not be consistently applied to all populations. Freakonomics Essay. HOFSTEDE: I like this question a lot. So looking decisive, muscular, active or if youre a woman, sexy that makes you more status-worthy. All rights reserved. Insight, for the authors (economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner) is all about explaining behaviour in terms of the incentives and dis-incentives (rewards and penalties) that drive it. This suggests that every time a social scientist runs an experiment whose research subjects are WEIRD thats capital-letter WEIRD the results of that experiment may be meaningful in the U.S. and some other places, but quite likely not in others. GELFAND: In Germany and in Japan, the clocks are really synchronized. That would be very beneficial because now you might be going down the path of civil war, really. On many Freakonomics Radio episodes, well hear about some idea or policy that works well elsewhere in the world but hasnt taken root in the U.S. Groups that tend to have threat tend to develop stricter rules to coordinate. HOFSTEDE: In a cultural sense, no, I dont think so. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Heres how he describes himself these days. And: In present-day Scandinavia levels of individualism would thus have been significantly higher had emigration not occurred.. They can freely float about. In a large power-distant society, you have autocracy. GELFAND: All cultures have social norms, these unwritten rules that guide our behavior on a daily basis. DUBNER: So does all the data come from workplace interviews essentially of white-collar and pink-collar workers, or does it go broader than that? You could argue that treating your own children as if theyre special may make it harder to care as much about other peoples children. The second player is given a choice between accepting or rejecting. During the Cold War. An expert doesn't so much argue the various sides of an issue as plant his flag firmly on one side. 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. She argues that both styles have their upsides and their downsides. . GELFAND: Classic things like the Mller-Lyer Illusion, which is these two lines where one looks longer than the other. GELFAND: Were fiercely interdisciplinary. Or more human-made threats, like how many times has your nation been invaded over the last 100 years? GELFAND: They were trained to ask for help in city streets and in stores. So, again, if you want to talk about Americans, youre okay. We put in a bunch of other checks and controls. They can freely float about. Gelfand says the countries that were most aggressive in trying to contain Covid tended to be tighter countries. And there are other inconsistencies, especially in a country as large and diverse as the U.S. For instance, where you live. And this dynamic leads to a lot of fighting for the sake of fighting. So he left I.B.M. HOFSTEDE: So youre asking about cultural convergence. Innovation requires coming up with a lot of ideas. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism (Ep. Heres another example: HENRICH: People from more individualistic societies tend to focus on central objects. HOFSTEDE: You have a democracy. And life is an adventure. This would never happen in a society of large power distance. But then she took a semester abroad, to London. Its very, very hard to do. After all, they were the data set. Joe Henrich again: HENRICH: In some societies, people really attend to scent, and they have a complex set of language terms that have the equivalent of basic color categories for scents. And how are we defining culture? Documentary. 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. No difference, that is, between tight and loose cultures. How do racial and ethnic minorities fit into the American looseness? And I was like, This is every day in America! Theyre what we call tight cultures. HENRICH: And this can include motivations, heuristics, biases, beliefs. HOFSTEDE: He did social psychological work on what it is to be a manager. DUBNER: You sound very grateful that you were not born an American. Culture is about, if you are a part of a society, youre like one drop in the Mississippi River. In Germany, for instance, labor unions often have a representative on company boards, which can radically change the dynamic between companies and employees. The sixth dimension is called indulgence vs. restraint.. DUBNER: Where is the loosest place in America? I know that wasnt your intention. 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. 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. Later on, fast forward, Pertti Pelto, whos an anthropologist. HOFSTEDE: That could be the case, and it is also the case that you have a sort of non-overt multiculturalism in the society. 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. Its all the levels in the organization. Industrialized. The Ultimatum game is famous among social scientists. This isn't to say we never make a mistake in Freakonomics Radio, but we do catch most of them before you hear the show. (Part 1 of "Freakonomics Radio Takes to the Skies.") 58 min. You always have to win. HOFSTEDE: In an individualistic society, a person is like an atom in a gas. Factor analysis being a way to distill a large number of variables into an index, essentially a ranking. We see them as individuals with whom we are in competition. So yeah, the U.S. has that assignment ahead of it. But somehow, that diversity and that early celebration of permissiveness has overridden that. He came to consider a company "honest" if its payment rate was above 90 percent. 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. Potentially offensive or not, Hofstede really believes in the power of culture so much so that he remains the steward of a massive research project begun more than 50 years ago by his late father. Employees were asked to rate how much they agreed with statements like Competition among employees usually does more harm than good. And, Having interesting work is just as important to most people as having high earnings., HOFSTEDE: Simple questions about daily things that people understand. We met him earlier, but just briefly; heres a proper introduction. We just need to do it. And you could have a perfect storm in that direction. Joe Henrichs research into national psychologies led him to an even more fascinating conclusion. Michele Gelfand and several co-authors recently published a study in The Lancet about how Covid played out in loose versus tight cultures. I came back to Colgate. The five tightest countries are Pakistan, Malaysia, India, South Korea, and our old friend Singapore. Because $1 is more than zero, so the second player would still be better off. Can that possibly be trueour culture shapes our genetics? GELFAND: I was watching this negotiation between Tariq Aziz and James Baker. Whether this means something brings you financial, emotional, or even community benefit. And you need revolutions in order to change the government. Heres Mark Anthony Neal of Duke: NEAL: Historically, power has been obscure. And I could see there, a little bit similarly to the U.S., how the various ethnicities are trying to live together. Why have rules if you dont use them? Youre going to be shut down. There, its really important to maintain that humility, to be focused on your privacy, but not trying to one-up other people. Gelfand would disagree. Michael Fay wasnt a tourist; he was living in Singapore with his family, attending an American school. The first (and longest) chapter focuses on the role of incentives in human behavior. Well hear about those dimensions soon enough. (This is part of theFreakonomics RadioAmerican Culture series). Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like The Freakonomics podcast "Is the American Dream really dead?", mentions five main factors that contribute to social mobility in neighborhoods. (Part 1 of " Freakonomics Radio Takes to the Skies .") Our staff also includesAlison Craiglow,Greg Rippin,Joel Meyer,Tricia Bobeda,Mary Diduch, Zack Lapinski,Emma Tyrrell, Lyric Bowditch, Jasmin Klinger,andJacob Clemente. Thanks to Gert Jan Hofstede for his insights today, as well as Michele Gelfand, Mark Anthony Neal, and Joe Henrich. Gert Jan Hofstede - Freakonomics. The authors argue that humans usually make decisions based on the incentives for their actions. OLIVER: When was that moment when America became the most American America it could possibly be? . I do think that today they are living through difficult times, but so are we. But no. Part of it is that when you live in a world that has carpented environments like right angles, where we live in houses in the States makes us focus on those right angles. I was floored. So, what is it? Now, lets pull back and make an important point: labeling a given country tight or loose is an overall, aggregate measurement. GELFAND: Sometimes people actually revert back into their cultural chambers. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is the debut non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner.Published on April 12, 2005, by William Morrow, the book has been described as melding pop culture with economics. DUBNER: And Im guessing youre the spontaneous type. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Part of the Freakonomics Series) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J . When Hofstede the Elder went to work for I.B.M., he got involved with these surveys. on one axis and religiosity on the other axis, the U.S. is a clear and distinct outlier with high G.D.P and high religion. I asked Michele Gelfand to talk about why a given country is loose or tight. FREAKONOMICS is the highly anticipated film version of the phenomenally bestselling book about incentives-based thinking by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.. Long Island, New York, is thebirthplace of the American suburb. Some of the measurable differences were a bit odd. Hannah GADSBY: Have you ever noticed how Americans are not stupid? This failure leads to confusion at the very least, but quite possibly deeper misunderstandings, perhaps all the way up to hatred and violent conflict. Words: 777. We need to have different types of leadership. Now that weve taken a top-down view of how the U.S. is fundamentally different from other countries, were going to spend some time over the coming weeks looking at particular economic and social differences, having to do with policing, child poverty, infrastructure, and the economy itself. The reason we reached out to Michele Gelfand is that I want to understand this stuff better, too. employees spread across the globe. The most indulgent country in these rankings is Mexico, at 97 out of 100; the most restrained: Egypt, at four. My husband is an attorney. But that makes sense. Nevertheless, you might be able to intentionally create pockets of looseness so you can have more balance. I dont like to itch, Bert. 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. GELFAND: My own sweet Portuguese water dog, Pepper, I mean, that dog is just gigantic. Share. And it should stay there. There is no evidence for convergence other than if countries become equally rich, they all go to more individualistic. And this led to this project where we did in lots of places hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, Africa, Papua New Guinea. I do this for you and you do this for me. Folks who come from a collective standpoint where, I do this for you, but youre doing this for us thats a very, very different way of seeing the world. And theres large differences around the world, for example, on how much cultures are exposed to chronic threat. 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