Measuring and mapping 2017 -part 1

1. Measuring and mapping cultures (Part 1)

2. What do “cultural differences” mean?

• “Culture is the collective programming of the
mind distinguishing the members of one group or
category of people from others” (G. Hofstede)
• Cultural dimensions are value constructs, which
can be used to describe a specific culture.
• Values are a “desirable transsituational goals,
varying in importance, that serve as guiding
principles in the life of a person or other social
entity” (S. Schwartz)

3. Objective Elements of Culture

The objective elements of culture involve objective, explicit elements
that are physical.
These would include architecture, clothes, foods, art, eating utensils,
and the like. In today’s world, advertising, texts, architecture, art,
mass media, television, music, the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter are
all physical, tangible, and important artifacts of culture (Lamoreaux &
Morling, in press; Morling & Lamoreaux, 2008).
A recent study actually analyzed millions of digitized books—about
4% of all books ever printed—to investigate cultural trends over time
(Michel et al., 2011) and demonstrated changes in vocabularies,
grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit
of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology.

4. Subjective Elements of Culture

The subjective elements of culture include all those parts of a culture
that do not survive people as physical artifacts (psychological processes
such as attitudes, values, and beliefs, as well as behaviors).

5.

6. Elementary forms of social behavior (Fiske, 1990, 1992)

• Communal Sharing (CS) – sharing by all those
who belong to the group according to need
• Authority ranking (AR) – paying attention to
status and divide according to rank
• Equality matching (EM) – accent is on equality
and equal sharing
• Market pricing (MP) – proportionality
between you give and receive

7. How to “measure” culture?

Harry C.
Triandis
Ronald F.
Inglehart
Geert
Hofstede
Shalom H.
Schwartz

8. Cultural Syndromes (H.Triandis)

1. Cultural complexity
2. Tight versus Loose cultures (T-L)
3. Individualism - Collectivism

9. Cultural Complexity

• The ecology and history of a society
determine its complexity:
• societies that subsist on hunting, fishing, and food gathering
tend to be simple;
• agricultural societies tend to be somewhat complex;
• industrial societies tend to be more complex;
• informational societies are the most complex.
• Associated with higher complexity are:
• settlement size, level of political integration, population
density, complex social stratification; a lot of different
occupations; much of expressive realm of culture (art, music,
dance, games, religion), value of time etc.

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16.

Individualism
Collectivism
Priority to personal goals, Priority to in-group goals
Self is defined in terms of
even if they conflict
membership in in-groups which
with group goals
influence social behavior
Collectivists tend to :
1) Be concerned about the results
of their actions on in-group
2) Share resources with in-group
3) Feel interdependent
4) Feel involved in the lives of ingroup

17. Individualism - Collectivism

Collectivism
Horizontal
Interdependence and
oneness
Vertical
Serving the group
Those two aspects of collectivism are
correlated ( .3 -.4)

18. Antecedents of Individualism (IND)

• Affluence: financial independece leads to social
independence
• But extreme economic deprivation also
associates with IND
• Migrations
• Social mobility
• Urban residence
• The more complex the culture the more IND it is

19. Contrasting attributes of people in collectivist and individualistic cultures

1. FOCUS ON
• Groups as basic units of
social perception
• Relationships are the
figure; the individual is
in the background
• Individuals as the basic
units of social
perceptions
• The individual is the
figure; relationships are
in the background

20. Collectivist vs. Individualst

2. ATTRIBUTIONS
• Behavior explained as
reflecting norms
• Success is attributed to
help from others
• Failure is attributed to
external factors
• Behavior explained by
reference to personality,
traits, principles, attitudes.
• Success is attributed to
ability.
• Failure is attributed to lack
of effort

21. Collectivist vs. Individualst

3. SELF
• Defined in terms of ingroups, relationships
• Change the self to fit the
situation
• Know more about others
than about self
• Have few self-linked
memories
• Self includes achievement
for the group
• Defined as an independent
entity
• Change the situation to fit the
self
• Know more about self than
about others
• Have many self-related
memories
• Self includes achievement for
self-glore

22. Collectivist vs. Individualst

4. GOALS
Role-relevant goals are
greatly values
• Clearly articulated goals
are greatly values
Of long duration
• Of short duration

23. Collectivist vs. Individualst

5. EMOTIONS
• Tend to be most
frequently otherfocused (empathy)
• Tend to be most
frequently self-focused
(anger)

24. Collectivist vs. Individualst

6. COGNITIONS
Focus on the needs of my
in-group (obligations)
• Focus on my needs, rights,
capacity (contracts)
Cognitions are context
dependent
• Cognitions are context
independent.

25. Collectivist vs. Individualst

7. ATTITUDES
Favor belifs that reflect
interdependence
Favor beliefs that reflect
independence,
emotional detachment
from in-group
8. NORMS
Favor embededness in ingroup
Favor independence from
in-group

26. Collectivist vs. Individualst

9. VALUES
Security, obedience, duty,
in-group harmony,
personolized
relationships.
Concern for «virtuous
action»
Persistence
Pleasure, achievement,
competition, freedom,
autonomy, fair,
exchange.
Concern for «the truth» vs
«action consistent with
important principles»
10. MAJOR CALAMITY
Ostracism
Dependence on others

27. Collectivist vs. Individualst

11. IN-GROUPS
Few, but relationships to them Many; relationships are casual,
is close, with much concern
little emotional involvement
for their integrity.
Small families, static
Large families; rapid
population
population growth
Less willingness to selfSelf-sacrifice for groups is
sacrifice for in-group
«natural»
In-group perceived as more
In-group perceived as more
heterogenious that outhomogenious than outgroup
group
Debate, confrontation are
In-group harmony is required
accepted
Conflict with out-group is
Conflict with out-group is
expected
accepted but not desired

28. Collectivist vs. Individualst

12. SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
• Very different when the
other person belongs to
an in-group vs outgroup
• Most behavior occurs in
small groups
• Most interaction is
between an individual
and groups
• Only somewhat
different when the
other person belongs to
in- vs out-group
• Much behavior occurs
when individual is alone
or in couples
• Most interaction is
between an individual
and one other
individual

29. Relations between cultural syndromes

30. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

1. Power Distance (different solutions of the basic problem of human
inequality);
2. Uncertainty Avoidance (level of stress in a society in the face of an
unknown future);
3. Individualism versus Collectivism (integration of individuals into
primary groups);
4. Masculinity versus Femininity (division of emotional roles between
women and men);
5. Long Term versus Short Term Orientation (focus for people's efforts:
the future or the present and past);
6. Indulgence versus Restraint (gratification vs control of basic human
desires related to enjoying life).

31. Ten Differences Between Small- and Large- Power Distance Societies

32. Power Distance

Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less
powerful members of institutions and organisations within
a country expect and accept that power is distributed
unequally

33. Ten Differences Between Collectivist and Individualist Societies

34. Individualism

The degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.

35. Ten Differences Between Feminine and Masculine Societies

36. Masculinity

A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven
by competition, achievement and success. A low score (feminine) on the dimension
means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life.
The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best
(masculine) or liking what you do (feminine).

37. Ten Differences Between Weak- and Strong- Uncertainty Avoidance Societies

38. Uncertainty Avoidance

The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous
or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try
to avoid these is reflected in the Uncertainty Avoidance score

39. Ten Differences Between Short- and Long-Term-Oriented Societies

Ten Differences Between Short- and Long-TermOriented Societies

40. Ten Differences between Indulgent and Restrained Societies

41. Indulgence

The extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses.
Relatively weak control is called “indulgence” and relatively strong
control is called “restraint”.

42. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

43. Hofstede’s model of values (cont’d)

• Based on large-scale study (N > 100,000) of
‘HERMES’ employees
• Country-level analyses (values as characteristics of
nations)
• Country scores are available on the Internet:
– http://spectrum.troy.edu/~vorism/hofstede.htm
– (see also http://www.geert-hofstede.com/)
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44. Issues in Use

Ecological fallacy often observed
– Country level characteristics indiscriminately
ascribed to all members of the population
– Countries are multicultural
– Stability of country differences sometimes
questioned
– IND/COL and PDI often show strong, negative
correlations
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