And then theres the big C, the stuff that we have these big conversations about, that we do these incredible studies about, which is really about the worldview of groups of people coming together, in a community, in a nation, in a family, right? NEAL: I think its helpful to think about culture in terms of a big C and a little c, the little c being those everyday things that we sometimes dont elevate to a level of culture. HOFSTEDE: My name is Gert Jan Hofstede. GELFAND: This has always been the big question, that with the internet and globalization were going to become more similar. 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 . GELFAND: Exactly. Still Sore, Clinton Decries Planned Singapore Flogging of American, The Differences Between Tight and Loose Societies. And I was like, This is every day in America! So how it is that we acquire ideas, beliefs, and values from other people, and how this has shaped human genetic evolution. 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. Heres how it works. It is that the wealth comes first, and the individualism follows. Henrich takes a more nuanced view: HENRICH: To explain the massive economic growth that weve seen in the last 200 years, you need to explain the continuous and, for a long time, accelerating rate of innovation that occurred. A recent paper by a Harvard postdoc named Anne Sofie Beck Knudsen analyzed Scandinavian emigration from 1850 to 1920, when roughly 25 percent of the Scandinavian population left their countries, a great many coming to the U.S. People of an individualistic mindset were more prone to migrate than their collectivistic neighbors, she writes. This episode was produced byBrent Katz. But no. And we found that people from minority or even women backgrounds were seen as violating something more severely and were subject to higher punishment without even people realizing this. We do this on vacations with my siblings. And you dont need them for ritual reasons. . It was back in grad school that Michele Gelfand first asked herself this question. We may not be the very loosest culture; but we are No. Consider the prominent Muppets Bert and Ernie. Is that a yes? 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. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers. GELFAND: I also teach negotiation. Once you begin looking for evidence, you see an almost infinite array of examples. Historically, politically, and yes culturally. In one experiment, Gelfand sent a bunch of research assistants to different places around the world. 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 . 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 . Culture is not genetics or biology or individual characteristics. Just like good science, good . So uncertainty avoidance is the intolerance of ambiguity. And she doesnt love to exercise. This is where he combines all his academic interests: not just economics and psychology, but also anthropology and evolutionary biology. Let me give a little background. HOFSTEDE: And this is before the 60s, before the 70s. How do racial and ethnic minorities fit into the American looseness? Better Essays. NEAL: We realized that the grind is unsustainable. All contents Freakonomics. But when you use data to measure the specific dimensions of a given culture, and compare them to other countries, you see some stark differences. Whether proud or not, whether happy or not, it has a position. So, Japan has been hit by Mother Nature for centuries. Theyre longing for it. Well go through the other five dimensions, much faster, I promise. DUBNER: So weve done a pretty good job of beating up on the U.S. thus far. Freakonomics Summary. DUBNER: So I have to say, Gert Jan, youve made me feel kind of terrible about being American today. thats always there. It is what we got fed with our mothers milk and the porridge that our dad gave us. Open Document. Theres a good side of every dimension, including uncertainty avoidance. Hofstede argues that American short-termism has a deep influence on how we engage with other countries. Thats the cross-cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand. Im a professor of artificial sociality at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands. For the last few months, the city-state has seen just a handful of Covid-19 cases. So if you base your understanding of a given culture on a body of research that fails to include them, youll likely fail to understand how that culture thinks whether were talking about another country or a group within your own country. Public school quality B. But relatively speaking, we have more tolerance. Thats Joe Henrich, a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard; hes also a scholar of psychology, economics, and anthropology. These are stereotypical names. HOFSTEDE: Because its true: the very same dimensions under different circumstances, can work the other way. The downsides: less innovation, less openness to ideas that challenge the status quo, and less tolerance for differences in religion and race. And I think, Holy cow, Ukraine is surrounded by threat, including its next-door neighbor, Russia. That relationship has not been a constant, but that makes me a little suspicious. During the Cold War. If . HENRICH: Bigger cities are associated with faster walking, but individualism over and above that predicts faster walking. You have to pronounce it right. The people that came to New York early on, in the early 1800s, they were from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds. Most white Americans have an entirely different ancestral history. If you dont feel that, then you will be an unhappy person. Its part of our founding D.N.A. 470. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism: With Stephen Dubner. Henrich has written about the notion of time psychology.. Good on you, I say. 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. So the general rules of a loose or tight culture may not be consistently applied to all populations. DUBNER: But that the research subjects, they gave him a lot back and they thought it was going to him. HENRICH: But if you want to talk about humans, then you have a problem. "The typical parenting expert, like experts in other fields, is prone to sound exceedingly sure of himself. 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 "uncertain. And I think that America has wonderful things happening to it. DUBNER: And what would you say is maybe a political ramification of low power distance? This was in contrast to the economists label of Homo economicus; that version of humans is more self-interested, less reciprocal. We look at how these traits affect our daily lives and why we couldn't change them . So you can see that in an individualistic society, after becoming a world champion in a sport or certainly after winning a major war, people do not fight one another, but they admire one another. People who went out to California, I would say if we gave them the tight-loose mindset quiz, they were probably on the looser mindset. Henrich says yes. Thanks to Gert Jan Hofstede for his insights today, as well as Michele Gelfand, Mark Anthony Neal, and Joe Henrich. This suggests that looseness and tightness can co-exist. If youre a constrained sort of person, you wont go far in the U.S. Stephen DUBNER: Im curious whether youve ever been accused of political incorrectness in your study of national cultures. HENRICH: If you go to other societies, people are much more willing to give the same wrong answer to go along with others. Michele Gelfand again: GELFAND: De Tocqueville noticed this about Americans, that we are a time is money country. She likes to eat human food. Gelfand has spent a lot of time trying to understand how a given countrys looseness or tightness affects everyday life. And how does this extraordinarily high level of individualism versus collectivism play out? Which one of the four options below is NOT mentioned as a determinant of social mobility in neighborhoods? GADSBY: Have you ever noticed how Americans are not stupid? Documentary. Its the tiny differences in sociality. You can think about it at the household level. There is a strong desire to be more feminine. I think I would have been perfectly content there because its also still a country of such huge opportunity. Tightness may create compliance; but looseness can drive innovation and creativity. By the way, Gelfand doesnt really take a position on whether loose or tight is superior. But oh, the places you'll go! And I think thats always going to be an ongoing tension this idea of America thats rooted in individualism, thats rooted in transactional practices. Freakonomics Radio . The first is that a model of anything even nearly as complex as a national culture is bound to miss a lot of nuance. Heres another culture metaphor another watery one from the Dutch culture scholar Gert Jan Hofstede. Based on the bestselling book of the same name, FREAKONOMICS attempts to break down dense economic theories and data into digestible bits. Thats what we call tight-loose ambidexterity. Everyone knows there are differences between people in different countries, but his approach was a quantifiable approach. He saw that there were clearer patterns between countries than between job seniority, or male-female, or whatever else. Every action or every fact or every move has a system around it. 702 Episodes. HOFSTEDE: Okay, well, dont. But then the experimenters confederates come in. But first, Hofstede had to make sure that the differences he was seeing in the data werent specific to I.B.M. 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. Which is probably why we dont hear all that much about the science of culture. Freakonomics the film, like the book, is entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism (Ep. We owe much of our freedom to that influence. So he left I.B.M. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. GELFAND: Well, we can look back to Herodotus. They can freely float about. Those should be the new words to your national anthem. And thats because the vast majority of the research subjects are WEIRD. And in this moment, we realized that the grind is unsustainable, right? 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. In the meantime, take care of yourself and, if you can, someone else too. And if you get crumbs in your pajamas, theyll make you itch. There are plenty of looser people in tight countries and vice versa. Also, he uses some very bold examples (crime rates versus abortion, drug dealership, cheating teachers, etc) to make some very simple . And in one condition, I had them wearing these fake facial warts. DUBNER: Describe for me your father and his work, and how it became a family business. The correct answer of the given question above would be the second option. DUBNER: I find that people who dont load dishwashers carefully are usually pretty loose with the planning. We are supremely WEIRD. Ambiguity is good. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Part of the Freakonomics Series) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J . BUSH: Allied air forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait. Freakonomics, M.D. Freakonomics Science 4.7 932 Ratings; Each week, physician and economist Dr. Bapu Jena will dig into a fascinating study at the intersection of economics and healthcare. Caning as in a spanking, basically, on the bare buttocks, with a half-inch-thick rattan cane. Both are long-term oriented, so they see a lot of context around things. I dont like to itch, Bert. Our staff also includesAlison Craiglow,Greg Rippin,Joel Meyer,Tricia Bobeda, Mary Diduch, Zack Lapinski, Emma Tyrrell, Lyric Bowditch, Jasmin Klinger,andJacob Clemente. And this led to this project where we did in lots of places hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, Africa, Papua New Guinea. Michele GELFAND: Its a subfield of psychology that tries to understand whats universal, whats similar, and whats culture-specific. This is a summary of the book Freakonomics by Stephen DubnerJoin Reading.FM now: https://fourminutebooks.com/go/readingfm/register/Read more summaries: http. 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). We visit the world's busiest airport to see how it all comes together. NANJIANI: I was so excited to be in America I couldnt sleep. Im like, Were going to go to Singapore if you people dont behave.. This feeds back into what Michele Gelfand was talking about earlier, in the context of geopolitical negotiations. making a claim about his individual experiences and looking for evidence. And heres one of the people who created the WEIRD designation. So the picture that emerges from these findings is that Americans are less likely to conform in the name of social harmony; and we also treasure being consistent, expressing our true selves, regardless of the context. People get less interested. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism av Freakonomics Radio direkt i din mobil, surfplatta eller webblsare - utan app. Feb 15, 2023. The authors seek to find simple answers to complicated world problems. It suggests that as in most things in life balance is desirable. I get these words out so I can get on to the next thing. And this dynamic leads to a lot of fighting for the sake of fighting. Shes not very disciplined. And we found the full spectrum of variation. HOFSTEDE: In an individualistic society, a person is like an atom in a gas. And theres large differences around the world, for example, on how much cultures are exposed to chronic threat. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. And he said the reason was that he was a young postdoc, and he had holes in his jeans. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, they show that economics is . Lets flip it for a moment. As of today, it covers six dimensions or, as the Hofstedes put it, six basic issues that society needs to organize itself. Its called the 6-D, or 6-Dimension, Model of National Culture, and it is one of the most intriguing explanations Ive ever seen for why American society is such an outlier in the world for better and worse. He has written several books about what music and other pop culture has to say about the broader culture. The other point is a reminder: Its good to be humble about our ability our inability, actually to predict how a given culture will change. And thats different than in Scandinavia and in New Zealand and Australia, which has much more horizontal individualism. Michele Gelfand wasnt interested in that. Baker was Bushs secretary of state; Aziz was Husseins deputy prime minister. The third measures masculinity versus femininity in a given culture. This leads to less obesity, less addiction, and theres less crime in tighter cultures. GELFAND: Groups that are of lower status tend to live in tighter worlds. Kumail NANJIANI: I was so excited to be in America I couldnt sleep. Because when youre living inside a culture well, thats the culture you know; it is what it is. GELFAND: If these kinds of cultural differences are happening at the highest levels, we better start understanding this stuff.. 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