Key to living & working in multi-cultural environments is understanding the Why of different values & behaviors. Parenting styles differ significantly between Interdependent & Independent cultures. Cross-cultural psychologists examined parent-child interactions in poorer rural Cameroon & India, compared to middle-class German pairs. The agricultural Cameroonian Nso and Indian Rajput cultures shared a style that promoted
Human relations aren’t easy. Understanding the ways in which we develop our values, which affect behavior, can help deal with the complexity of human interaction. Much of what Western-trained behavioral scientists think they understand about culture, values, & behavior is based on a very narrow data set of WEIRD people—Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic. A
It appears that culture heavily influences how well people incorporate the context of an environment versus how well they can filter out the context to focus on a prominent object. This has been illustrated in eye measurements of Asians versus North Americans as they evaluate photographs, of Japanese & Americans recalling foreground objects versus background
Can something be true and not true at the same time? East Asian & Western philosophies have had very different ways of answering this question that still affects the ways people in various cultures reason. The collectivist culture of Asia emphasizes harmony & a constantly changing environment in which contradictions are natural, & truth depends
Body language speaks much louder than words! The verbal portion of a message is responsible for only 7% of what people remember…body language accounts for 55% of what people retain. Body language is particularly important in the collectivist culture of Thailand, where it communicates the social order & respect. I found a cute school project
The arrest of Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn shocked the financial world. Will his behavior be attributed to the context of the situation, or will he be vilified for having a bad character? The story is still developing, but there is interesting evidence that Dependent and Interdependent cultures see causes for behavior differently.A study of Chinese
