“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” How many times have you heard this? If something is functioning well, why mess with it? This complacency attitude leads to stagnation at best, disaster at worst. In 2007 a formidable fighter in the US arsenal experienced a catastrophic break-up during a routine flight. It turns out a
You are constantly changing…the “You” before you heard the recording and the “You” after the recording are like 2 different beings. Once we hold a pattern in our brains, it becomes very difficult to undo it, & our brain will easily seek out similar patterns. When we acquire a certain belief, we’ll see things that
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
Thankfulness empowers us. Thankfulness brings positive outcomes. Thankfulness is a powerful tool for leaders. Shawn Achor’s book The Happiness Advantage is an excellent resource that you can find here: http://www.shawnachor.com/the-books/the-happiness-advantage/ He also has one of the most popular TED talks with over 18 million views on the subject, which you can watch here:
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
Several studies indicate that children in more individualist culture countries learn to identify & classify objects faster than those in collectivist cultures. This could be language-related, as Asian languages don’t distinguish generic names that indicate category. In English, if I say “the ducks,” it is specific, but if I use just “ducks” it indicates the
An intriguing experiment may show cultural difference in how people see the world—either as discrete & differentiated objects or as interconnected substances. Told that a simple shape & material item (like a cork cone) was an imaginary name (dax), Americans & Japanese were asked to choose either same shape/different material or same material/different shape as
Most of us recognize that time is treated differently in different cultures. This usually comes up when someone from another culture is late for a meeting & makes a joke about being on “local” time. But there are deeper consequences of the truth that people experience time differently depending on their cultural background. Many Asian
Studies in western societies show people have an inflated view of self. Whether it’s drivers, students, or college professors, most rate their own abilities as higher than others, & westerners evaluate themselves as unique in ways they aren’t. This overconfidence bias, however, appears to weaken as it crosses the East-West divide. An experiment may suggest
