Cross-Cultural Psychology

Why is cross-cultural research important? #

As a species, humans are unique in the following:

• We have very complex culture.
• We are extremely social and are able to support communities of hundreds.
• We develop very slowly compared to other animals. Unlike chimpanzees and other apes, we have a dedicated period of childhood (where we are unable to survive independently) and a long post-reproductive period (about as long as reproductive period itself).
• We have a remarkable amount of flexibility and plasticity due to a high investment in learning. 65% of glucose entering our bodies goes to the brain during childhood.
• We live in practically every habitat in the world, despite only being one species.

The last point brings up an important aspect of human psychology: we have a vast variety of experiences depending on where we live in the world.

However, 92% of all participants in developmental psychology studies come from WEIRD societies (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic). This is problematic because WEIRD societies are very evolutionarily recent: until only several thousand years ago, all humans lived in small-scale societies who survived by foraging, herding, and non-intensive horticulture.

Through cross-cultural research, we can:

• Document and explain psychological variation, such that we can better generalize findings
• Distinguish whether behaviors are universal throughout humans, or culturally mediated

Case Studies #

The Dictator Game #

Researchers asked individuals from several different cultures around the world: “If you were given $10, how much would you share with another person?”

Cultures with higher market integration and religiosity tend to share more than others.

Additionally, in early life (3-5 years), children tend to behave similarly regardless of culture. As children grow older, their behavior diverges and gets closer to the behavior of adults in their culture.

Magnetic Cubes #

In this experiment, two children were each given the task to fish out magnetic cubes from a box. However, only some of the cubes were actually magnetic.

Multiple groups were tested: unequal merit (one child got 9 and the other got 3), equal merit (both children got 6 cubes), and no merit (no task, experimenter just gave the cubes directly 9:3). Children in an industrialized society tended to not share rewards, so the child with 9 cubes got 9 rewards and the other only got 3. However, children in other societies had different concepts of fairness, and tended to share more regardless of merit.

Theory of Mind #

Sally-Anne Task:

• Sally puts her ball in her basket, covers it and walks away.
• After Sally leaves, Anne takes the ball out and puts it in her box.
• When Sally comes back, where will she look for the ball?

To correctly answer the above question, children need to have developed the ability to visualize the mental state of other people.

This is an example of a false belief task.

Through cross-cultural studies, it seems like the development of theory of mind is independent of culture: children consistently can pass verbal false belief tasks at age 6.

In some cultures, verbal communication in this manner is very abnormal. In these cases, verbal preferential looking is used to assess children’s thoughts: when the Sally-Anne task is shared in pictorial form, children who have developed theory of mind will look at the basket longer than the box.