China is also very collectivistic and so are the Southeast Asian countries, but not Japan. Apparently over 50 percent of cats and dogs in the U.S. are obese. My husband is an attorney. 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. All contents Freakonomics. Whatd they say? GELFAND: We have a lot of work to do, theres no question. Freakonomics Radio . We will leave you with a patriotic tribute from one last transplanted U.S. comedian. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. That, again, is the cross-cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand. Because when youre living inside a culture well, thats the culture you know; it is what it is. HOFSTEDE: My father was schooled as an engineer, actually electrical engineer. Open Document. Joe Henrichs research into national psychologies led him to an even more fascinating conclusion. HOFSTEDE: In a cultural sense, no, I dont think so. It could give you new occasions to gain status in an unexpected way. And that is a status-worthy thing. Historically, politically, and yes culturally. This really contrasts with lots of places where there are legitimate traditional authorities and people tend to defer to those authorities. In restrained societies, people tend to suppress bodily gratification, and birth rates are often lower; theres also less interest in things like foreign films and music. And they were finding that people in Africa were not falling victim to this illusion. Downloads: 18. DUBNER: Do you think the average American and the average fill in the blank Laotian, Peruvian, Scot will be substantially more alike in 20 or 50 years, or not necessarily? And the rest is history, if you like. The reason we reached out to Michele Gelfand is that I want to understand this stuff better, too. The sixth and, for now, final dimension was added to the model in 2010. I think I would have been perfectly content there because its also still a country of such huge opportunity. Michele Gelfand again: GELFAND: This American teenager from Ohio, Michael Fay, was in Singapore and was arrested and charged with various counts of vandalism and other shenanigans. HENRICH: If they accept the offer, they get the amount of the offer. 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 . Individualism is thought to be on the rise in Western countries, but new research suggests that increasing individualism may actually be a global phenomenon. Its like, Oh, my gosh, that is so amazing. I was feeling like I have to tell that to my kids as a good parent, training my kids to be vertical and individualistic. 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. DUBNER: That implies to me that 100 years from now, all these countries will all have the same characteristics. According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; were also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on uncertainty avoidance, if that makes you feel better). Oh say, can you see, the home run I just hit. Subtitles in: English Portugus Espaol Italiano Romn Polski Slovenina Freakonomics: The Movie is a 2010 American documentary film based on the book Freakonomics by economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner. For instance: According to the 6-D Model of National Culture that weve been talking about, the U.S. is the most individualistic nation on earth. The downsides: less innovation, less openness to ideas that challenge the status quo, and less tolerance for differences in religion and race. NEAL: Were a country that presumes male leadership. And: In present-day Scandinavia levels of individualism would thus have been significantly higher had emigration not occurred.. More feminine societies tend to have less poverty and higher literacy rates. Henrich is saying that the export of American ideas isnt necessarily easier. I asked Hofstede what he would advise if a given country did want to change its culture? As advertised!. HOFSTEDE: This is not about a homogenous soup, but its about the power of the millions versus the individual and the power of ostracism. Later on, fast forward, Pertti Pelto, whos an anthropologist. And so individualism, trust in others, leads to more rapid innovation. Based on the bestselling book of the same name, FREAKONOMICS attempts to break down dense economic theories and data into digestible bits. But yes, its all workplace. Freakonomics, which weighs in at just over 200 pages (plus a hefty section of bonus material for those interested in learning more), takes as its principal argument the idea that economics exist as a tool to study society. Stay up-to-date on all our shows. NEAL: We think about improvisation in the context, obviously, of creative and musical terms, but its also a way of always having to adapt to the changing political, social, and cultural realities. Most sociologists agree that individualistic cultures value individual choice, personal freedom, and self-actualization (Kemmelmeier 2002). So you see these eye movements that are very different. you ask. In the meantime, take care of yourself and, if you can, someone else too. GELFAND: Sometimes people actually revert back into their cultural chambers. We look at how these traits affect our daily lives and why we couldnt change them even if we wanted to. We can think about extraordinarily loose contexts like Tesla or Uber that probably need a little more structure. DUBNER: So I have to say, Gert Jan, youve made me feel kind of terrible about being American today. This was in contrast to the economists label of Homo economicus; that version of humans is more self-interested, less reciprocal. Innovation requires coming up with a lot of ideas. The best thing you can become is yourself. Like, you can buy them on the internet. NANJIANI: I was so excited to be in America I couldnt sleep. 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. The third measures masculinity versus femininity in a given culture. Meaning, if you grew up in someplace like the U.S., when you look at an image youre more likely to pay attention to whats in the foreground, in the center. GELFAND: Were fiercely interdisciplinary. "Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work, wheareas economics represents how it actually does work.". Why arent all national cultures converging by now? Nobody can feel insulted. In the beginning, Feldman left behind an open basket for the cash, but too often the money vanished. Which is probably why we dont hear all that much about the science of culture. He takes on questions like: Why do kids with summer birthdays get the flu more often? But Joe Henrich wanted to see how the Ultimatum experiments worked when it wasnt just a bunch of WEIRD college students. So he left I.B.M. HOFSTEDE: In an individualistic society, a person is like an atom in a gas. There are plenty of looser people in tight countries and vice versa. GELFAND: I was watching this negotiation between Tariq Aziz and James Baker. You could argue that Peppers owner is the one who isnt very disciplined. If basic things like visual illusions are not universal, what about other phenomena? HOFSTEDE: And when he took the job in Lausanne, he found that the international group of pupils at his classes, if he asked them the same questions, came up with the same dimensions. That is something that fundamentally many whites dont understand, right? We put in a bunch of other checks and controls. HENRICH: Im Joe Henrich. 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 . Steven D Levitt. I dont want to be a doom thinker. HOFSTEDE: In the U.S.A., the boss needs to be a team player. How do racial and ethnic minorities fit into the American looseness? And not attending enough to contextual factorsopportunities that presented themselves, being in the right place at the right time. Good on you, I say. data, gathered in the late 60s and early 70s. Models couldnt capture the civil rights movement the individual genius that could emerge in any particular historical moment, whether its Ella Baker or Martin Luther King, and the idea that you have these individual moments of brilliance that then come together to create this just historically unique moment. So why did someone succeed? Its called long-term versus short-term orientation. Macroeconomics, on the other hand, works on a larger scale. Joe Henrich points out that even our religions are competitive. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. after? The focus of that episode was American culture. Whats a Chaos Muppet? The first one measures the level of individualism in a given culture, versus collectivism. You may have noticed that Hofstede neglected to mention a certain country that we Americans tend to care about quite a bit. HOFSTEDE: You are on the masculine side not at the very end, but more on the masculine side. So, say its $100, and the first player can offer a portion of the $100 to a second player. GELFAND: If youre in contexts where theres a lot of rules, you develop from a very early age that impulse control. So yeah, the U.S. has that assignment ahead of it. We just need to do it. Heres how he puts it in his latest book: You cant separate culture from psychology or psychology from biology, because culture physically rewires our brains and thereby shapes how we think. One example he gives is literacy. Offers went up as high as 55 or 60 percent in some places and then down around 25 percent in other places. DUBNER: When I look at the loosest country in the data, I see Ukraine. 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. But then the experimenters confederates come in. Whether this means something brings you financial, emotional, or even community benefit. HOFSTEDE: In the U.S.A., individualism coupled with masculinity creates a society where if youre not a winner, youre a loser. And I think that America has wonderful things happening to it. 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. But Im Dutch, of course. But Bush also wanted to avoid going to war with Iraq. So they might offer, say, 10 out of the 100. HENRICH: My favorite explanation for this I think this has been put out most clearly by a sociologist named Rodney Stark is that with freedom of religion, you get competition amongst religious organizations. The fourth original dimension was called uncertainty avoidance. This has to do with how comfortable people are with ambiguity. Michele Gelfand has another example of how culture shapes perception. Singapore, for instance. 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 . Download. The most indulgent country in these rankings is Mexico, at 97 out of 100; the most restrained: Egypt, at four. Theyre what we call tight cultures. HOFSTEDE: Yes, especially by people from Anglo countries. And this led to this project where we did in lots of places hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, Africa, Papua New Guinea. She sees the lack of self-control in loose countries as particularly worrisome. HOFSTEDE: Well, if you want an honest answer, I think mainly our own curiosity. Were realizing that part of that push forward theres a toxicity to that in terms of how you treat other people, how you think about institutions. GADSBY: Have you ever noticed how Americans are not stupid? Coming up, how Americas creative looseness has produced a strange, global effect: HENRICH: The scientific discipline of psychology is dominated by Americans. HOFSTEDE: And blue-collar. This realization is what led us to todays episode of Freakonomics Radio. The average U.S. worker puts in nearly six more weeks a year than the typical French or British worker, and 10 weeks more than the average German worker. 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. He was a professor in both the economics and psychology departments, which was weird in its own way lower-case weird since Henrich had never taken a course in either subject. It means I did it my way.. What we saw in Egypt was very similar. Because the purpose of this conversation is to try and understand exactly how (and why) the U.S. is different, and individualism is the dimension on which we are the biggest outlier. Most white Americans have an entirely different ancestral history. This is a summary of the book Freakonomics by Stephen DubnerJoin Reading.FM now: https://fourminutebooks.com/go/readingfm/register/Read more summaries: http. Well call it The U.S. Is Very Different from Other Countries So Lets Stop Pretending Its Not. Its the first in a series of episodes where well look at different pieces of that difference. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Part of the Freakonomics Series) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J . But first, Hofstede had to make sure that the differences he was seeing in the data werent specific to I.B.M. We see them as individuals with whom we are in competition. So were all constraining one another through our collective culture. And so often, theyll just point at some other country on the map. You have to behave like a family member if you want to be one. Fortune, by the Hitchhikers; the rest of the music this week was composed byLuis Guerra. And in a collectivistic society, a person is like an atom in a crystal. So uncertainty avoidance is the intolerance of ambiguity. But no. But oh, the places you'll go! 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. HENRICH: Theres something called the Asch conformity test, where you have confederates of the experimenter give the same wrong answer to an objective problem. Michele Gelfand is one of the premier practitioners of cross-cultural psychology. GELFAND: I also teach negotiation. Bush made clear to Iraqs Saddam Hussein that this wouldnt stand. You had Woodstock, and youre going to have this kind of stuff happening again. In a more masculine society, men and women adhere to the gender roles you might think of as patriarchal: fathers, for instance, take care of the facts, while mothers handle the emotions. Well, because theyre really smart. 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. GELFAND: And it caused a real international crisis because the Singapore government gave him what was then classic punishment, which was caning. DUBNER: I find that people who dont load dishwashers carefully are usually pretty loose with the planning. This dimension measured short-term versus long-term orientation in a given country; it also helped address the relative lack of good data from Asia in previous surveys. Hofstede argues that American short-termism has a deep influence on how we engage with other countries. Means that we need to attract different types of people to an organization a more! Yourself and, if you can, someone else too a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J.,. Especially by people from Anglo countries that individualistic cultures value individual choice, personal,. 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Down around 25 percent in other places of cats and dogs in the late 60s and early 70s as engineer.

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