You can see this on many dimensions: how we work and travel; how we mate and marry; how we care for our children and our elderly; how we police; how we conceive the relationship between the individual and the state; even how we manage death! Culture can be quite an offensive concept, particularly to people who project it onto an individual characteristic, as if it was about an individual. I think those fundamental religious beliefs extend to the American view of what leadership should look like outside of the church in the corporation, in the legislatures, and what have you. But then she took a semester abroad, to London. 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 . Rich. SFU will never request our users provide or confirm their Computing ID or password via email or by going to any web site. This is really a conversation that pleases me a lot. One thing that I think that Americans are more extreme than other Western countries and certainly elsewhere in the world is attributing individual success to the internal traits of the actor. Historically, politically, and yes culturally. You had Woodstock, and youre going to have this kind of stuff happening again. Freakonomics the film, like the book, is entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking. Wade meant that these unwanted children were not being bornthus, they could not grow up to be criminals. Can that possibly be trueour culture shapes our genetics? In 1990, when Gelfand was a graduate student, she followed the news as Iraq invaded Kuwait. So I have no doubt that his subjects really liked him. Freakonomics is a registered service mark of Renbud Radio, LLC. Really? The snob effect occurs when an individual's demand for a specific product increases when the number of units of that product other people purchase increases. If it were, Afghanistan and Venezuela, even Iran might be U.S.-style democracies by now. And that really can help explain some variation not all, but some variation in norms and values. DUBNER: So weve done a pretty good job of beating up on the U.S. thus far. Freakonomics Radiois produced by Stitcher and Renbud Radio. HOFSTEDE: You have a democracy. Henrich is saying that the export of American ideas isnt necessarily easier. Fortune, by the Hitchhikers; the rest of the music this week was composed byLuis Guerra. Okay, lets get into the six dimensions. Let me give a little background. Again, its worth repeating that no culture is a monolith. Long Island, New York, is thebirthplace of the American suburb. 47 min. Feb 15, 2023. SuperFreakonomics was the follow-up in 2009. The strongest parts of the original Freakonomics book revolved around Levitt's own peer-reviewed research. Q uite soon after the Freakonomics guys, Stephen J Dubner and Steven D Levitt, walk into their office on New York's Upper West Side for our interview, the scene resolves itself into the kind of . We should note that Bert and Ernie, despite their differences, are very dear friends! He started out as an anthropologist; but he started mixing and matching disciplines to suit his curiosity. So keep your ears open for all that. Michele GELFAND: The people that came to New York early on, they were from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds, and thats helped produce the looseness that exists to this day. 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. By late 2009, the book had sold over 4 million copies worldwide. Public school quality B. And I was like, This is every day in America! You could argue that treating your own children as if theyre special may make it harder to care as much about other peoples children. In the U.S., it was freedom to do whatever the hell that you wanted to. But there must be, I would think, evolution across time, yes? 469). GELFAND: In societies that are tighter, people are willing to call out rule violators. Whats a Chaos Muppet? Whereas uncertainty avoidance means you have lots of etiquette and ritual. She argues that both styles have their upsides and their downsides. DUBNER: What are some of the consequences of being relatively tolerant of uncertainty, as the U.S. is? We just need to do it. And you could have a perfect storm in that direction. HOFSTEDE: That could be the case, and it is also the case that you have a sort of non-overt multiculturalism in the society. HOFSTEDE: So youre asking about cultural convergence. The negotiations didnt work out. But somehow, that diversity and that early celebration of permissiveness has overridden that. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Why have rules if you dont use them? There is a strong desire to be more feminine. Uncertainty in economics means something very akin to risk. This episode was produced by Brent Katz. HENRICH: We dont like people telling us what to do. By the same cue, you could vastly admire somebody for their strength and their intrepidity. Well, because theyre really smart. The answer to that is usually: no, you cant. "The typical parenting expert, like experts in other fields, is prone to sound exceedingly sure of himself. HOFSTEDE: In the U.S.A., there is little constraining. 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. So if you ask people to judge the absolute lengths of two lines, people in more individualistic societies tend to get that right. As an Amazon Associate, Freakonomics may earn commissions from qualifying purchases made through links on this site. And how are we defining culture? Better Essays. Theyre really hard-working. It turns out that Americans were among the least likely to conform. After all, they were the data set. HOFSTEDE: In the U.S.A., the boss needs to be a team player. HENRICH: And this can include motivations, heuristics, biases, beliefs. We look at how these traits affect our daily lives and why we couldnt change them even if we wanted to. But oh, the places you'll go! On the more feminine end of the spectrum are the Scandinavian countries and some of Western Europe. Im a professor of artificial sociality at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. And I think that is a hallmark of African-American culture in this country. And that also means that fighting is a good way to get what you want. This realization is what led us to todays episode of Freakonomics Radio. And we made sure that the subjects knew that the money was coming from an organization, that the giver did not get any of the money, we ratcheted up our levels of anonymity. GELFAND: Exactly. Its hard in either direction not just because some cultures are tighter than others. This is the flip side of the idea we started out with in this episode that is, why its hard for the U.S. to simply import successful policies from elsewhere. There are plenty of looser people in tight countries and vice versa. The U.S., according to this analysis, is comparatively a short-term country. And you need revolutions in order to change the government. Thats the cross-cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand. But even a loose country will tighten up when a threat arises. If you dont feel that, then you will be an unhappy person. So, Japan has been hit by Mother Nature for centuries. HOFSTEDE: In the U.S.A., individualism coupled with masculinity creates a society where if youre not a winner, youre a loser. we're looking out for the best interest of our individual pursuits. We look at how these traits affect our daily lives and why we couldn't change them . HOFSTEDE: It means that you only need rules when youre going to use them. HENRICH: If they accept the offer, they get the amount of the offer. In our previous episode, we made what may sound like a bold claim. Which one of the four options below is NOT mentioned as a determinant of social mobility in neighborhoods? Tightness and compliance would seem to go hand-in-hand. HENRICH: So, Francisco is a good pal of mine and hes also a very charming fellow. All contents Freakonomics. Henrich has also observed this about Americans. GELFAND: Sometimes people actually revert back into their cultural chambers. Ultimatum Game Bargaining Among the Machiguenga of the Peruvian Amazon, U.S. Student Tells of Pain Of His Caning In Singapore, Singapores Relations With U.S. But heres the thing about culture: it can be really hard to measure. Sinopsis. Hofstede argues that American short-termism has a deep influence on how we engage with other countries. Freaknomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is the book for readers who run screaming at the thought of cracking open a book with the word "economics" in the title. But some cultures strictly abide by their norms. We visit the world's busiest airport to see how it all comes together. No difference, that is, between tight and loose cultures. Some researchers looked at these results and came up with a new label for humans in this context: Homo reciprocans. The people that came to New York early on, in the early 1800s, they were from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds. Today, an overview of the cultural differences. Life is going to be hard. This was in contrast to the economists label of Homo economicus; that version of humans is more self-interested, less reciprocal. He did some work in the factory and it shaped him to a great extent because there, he could see that the world of the organization looks so differently from the floor than it does from above. So the general rules of a loose or tight culture may not be consistently applied to all populations. You might think that someone who studies cross-cultural psychology also grew up abroad, or at least in some big city with a melting-pot vibe. And I think that America has wonderful things happening to it. You realize, you want a black or white value judgment. He started working as an engineer during turbulent years of rebuilding, and soon became a personnel manager. There were a number of low offers of 15 percent, which didnt get rejected. 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. HOFSTEDE: You are on the masculine side not at the very end, but more on the masculine side. DUBNER: Name some of the highest and lowest countries on this dimension. Whereas looking away in a very egalitarian society is seen as a sign of deceptiveness. And it should stay there. Because $1 is more than zero, so the second player would still be better off. And we manipulated whether their names were like Jamal or Latisha versus Brad and Lorna. It was a collaboration between Hofstede the Elder, his son Gert Jan, whod begun working with him by now, and a Bulgarian linguist named Michael Minkov, who had been analyzing data from the World Values Survey. It means you really want to know and youre not satisfied until you know. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers. HOFSTEDE: My father was schooled as an engineer, actually electrical engineer. Happiness is going to be lower, but crime, too. Essentially, theyre the opposite of the loose attributes: tight cultures have more coordination and more self-control. Offers went up as high as 55 or 60 percent in some places and then down around 25 percent in other places. His ideas, along with others, are credited with . A dream team of directors e. Individualism encompasses a value system, a theory of human nature, and a belief in certain political, economic, social, and religious arrangements. HOFSTEDE: In a cultural sense, no, I dont think so. These are stereotypical names. Compared to other countries including places like Japan, Singapore, Germany we can afford to be more permissive. Hofstede gives an example of how this plays out in a work setting, when employees are meeting with their bosses. And not attending enough to contextual factorsopportunities that presented themselves, being in the right place at the right time. Then you can have something very good happening. 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. As its been said: Everyone knows that 11 oclock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in American life. Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African-American studies at Duke, notes that American individualism is hardly experienced equally across the population. In other places they dont think its a smart idea to be consistent. Fundamentally, individualism is a belief that the individual is an end in themself. 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. Freakonomics is a collaboration of authors Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, journalists and winners of numerous awards. Gelfand says the countries that were most aggressive in trying to contain Covid tended to be tighter countries. Season 10, Episode 49. If youre violating the social order, youre going to be punished.. (8) My years of experience traveling in 100 . According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we're also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on "uncertainty avoidance," if that makes you feel better). 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. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism (Ep. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. GELFAND: If youre in contexts where theres a lot of rules, you develop from a very early age that impulse control. It always was unsustainable, but was made even more acute to us during the pandemic. 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. But the Chinese, even rich, will be a lot more collectivistic and a lot more long-term-oriented than the Americans. Now, keep in mind this was London, English-speaking London not Uzbekistan or Botswana, even Mexico. Thats right: we are No. And that happens a lot. Europe has a strong influence from Germany, also from France. So after we ran that first project, we redid the entire project, and we took concerns like the one Francisco had. It always was unsustainable, but was made even more acute to us. But Bush also wanted to avoid going to war with Iraq. And then you see how often the subject wants to go along with the other people, as opposed to give the answer they would give if they were by themselves. Freakonomics is a book about 'freaky' research and insight. The United States, you may not be surprised to learn, is on the loose end of the spectrum although not in the top five. Out into the ocean where they were caught by people on jet skis. DUBNER: These are the two lines that are the same. 1, the most individualistic country in the world, 91 out of 100 on the Hofstede scale of individualism. The Aztec, the Inca, and todays Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, are very collectivistic. DUBNER: So I have to say, Gert Jan, youve made me feel kind of terrible about being American today. So uncertainty avoidance is the intolerance of ambiguity. Why arent all national cultures converging by now? People get less interested. The fourth original dimension was called uncertainty avoidance. This has to do with how comfortable people are with ambiguity. The first: individualism versus collectivism. DUBNER: Can you give me a good example of an idea or a theory that I might come across in a Psych 101 textbook that would just be so American that it wouldnt really be useful if you actually care about humans? Well find out what it means to be WEIRD although not weird in the way youre thinking. He contrasts places like Egypt, that had strict rules for authority and gender and purity, with the Persians who, using my terminology, he would have said that they were quite loose. She says these are merely visible indicators of a countrys tightness or looseness and its what you dont necessarily see that shapes a given countrys culture. According to the Pew Research Center, 80 percent of Americans claim to believe in God, 55 percent pray at least daily, and 36 percent attend a religious service at least once a week. Most sociologists agree that individualistic cultures value individual choice, personal freedom, and self-actualization (Kemmelmeier 2002). HOFSTEDE: Yes, especially by people from Anglo countries. Follow. HOFSTEDE: Which doesnt mean egoism, but it could go that way. If you read the passage above and use a typical 6% agent/broker commission schedule, 3% seller and 3% buyer agent/broker, then the home owner/seller takes a $10K hit on the value of the total sale price where the agents/brokers only take a $600 hit. And so you walk faster because you cant get everything you need done in your day and youre always trying to get to the next event. Whether proud or not, whether happy or not, it has a position. Freakonomics has since grown up into a media company, complete with documentary, radio show, and blog. One hallmark of short-term thinking: a tendency toward black and white moral distinctions versus shades of gray. 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. GELFAND: I grew up on Long Island. Individualistic countries tend to be richer, but as Hofstede the Elder once put it, The order of logic is not that individualism comes first. BERT: Because: you get crumbs in the sheets, thats why. individualism, political and social philosophy that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. So he left I.B.M. So how it is that we acquire ideas, beliefs, and values from other people, and how this has shaped human genetic evolution. And so often, theyll just point at some other country on the map. So its hard to simply transplant another countrys model for education or healthcare, no matter how well it might seem to fit. Freakonomics (2005) aplica el anlisis econmico racional a situaciones cotidianas, desde las citas en lnea hasta la compra de una casa. The same experiment was done in other, non-WEIRD countries, like Ghana and Zimbabwe. It has to do with conformity. In the meantime, a bit more from the comedian Hannah Gadsby. The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, show that increasing socioeconomic development is an especially strong predictor of increasing individualistic practices and values . 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. 470 Replay) Freakonomics Radio Documentary According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we're also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on "uncertainty avoidance," if that makes . The U.S. is a pretty successful country, maybe the most successful country on many dimensions in the history of the world. The U.S. patent database goes back into the 18th century and what a number of studies in economics as well as work in my lab has shown is that openness to other people so, trust in strangers, an inclination towards individualism, a desire to stand out, to be the smartest guy in the room fosters more rapid innovation because people are more likely to exchange ideas, theyre more interested in distinguishing themselves. Documentary. She decided that the key difference, the right place to start measuring, was whether the culture in a given country is tight or loose. Then came SuperFreakonomics, a documentary film, an award-winning podcast, and more.. Now, with Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have written their most revolutionary book yet.With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and . So, organizations you can think about them as the people, the practices, and the leaders. Shes not very disciplined. Hannah GADSBY: Have you ever noticed how Americans are not stupid? GADSBY: Have you ever noticed how Americans are not stupid? At school in the Netherlands, Ive seen a mother ask her two-year-old, Shall I change your nappy? And then the child gets to decide whether its nappy gets changed. HENRICH: They are self-enhancing, which means they try to promote their attributes. Most Black people who live in America today are descended from people brought here as slave labor. Heres another culture metaphor another watery one from the Dutch culture scholar Gert Jan Hofstede. Hes horrified by my dishwasher-loading behavior. When most readers think economics, they think advanced math, complicated models, and subjects like unemployment, the stock market, and the trade deficit. Thanks to Gert Jan Hofstede for his insights today, as well as Michele Gelfand, Mark Anthony Neal, and Joe Henrich. In case you missed it, thats Western. DUBNER: What does an institution like the Navy see as the upsides of more looseness? For the last few months, the city-state has seen just a handful of Covid-19 cases. We look at how these traits affect our daily lives and why we couldn . Although it is more self-help than traditional economics it shares many of the weaknesses of more serious works in the discipline. To become American and to be American is to be individual. NANJIANI: I was so excited to be in America I couldnt sleep. And then I meet you all, and then youre not. The Neglected 95%: Why American Psychology Needs to Become Less American, Measuring Inequity Aversion in a Heterogeneous Population Using Experimental Decisions and Subjective Probabilities, Westerners and Easterners See the World Differently, Economic Man in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies, Ultimatum Game with Ethnicity Manipulation: Problems Faced Doing Field Economic Experiments and Their Solutions, Does Culture Matter in Economic Behavior? He came to consider a company "honest" if its payment rate was above 90 percent. Youre culturally confident. The future could be bright. This individualism has produced tremendous forward progress and entrepreneurial energy. We see them as individuals with whom we are in competition. They dont even see each other and this is a one-time interaction, so there wont be another round of the game where the second player can punish or reward the first player. Theyre not supposed to be the boss. 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