Culture and decision making

Cognitive universals? Psychology has looked for cognitive universals Piagetian vs. Vygotskian modes –Piaget: Fixed universal stages of thought culminating in formal logical operations Very individual-based –Vygotsky: Deep influence of culture on cognition Much more collective

Individualism vs. Collectivism Cultural studies has focused on this dimension Western culture is very individual oriented –Agency of individual people –Objects are identified individually Independent of context Determines what an object ‘is’ –Locus of causes is in specific objects –The ideal of reasoning is logic Reasoning should be free from contradiction

Collectivism East Asian cultures tend to be collectivist –Collective culture promotes relational thinking –Agency is part of the collection of individuals –Causality resides in situations –Objects are identified with respect to a field –Contradiction may be embraced People may be more prone to see both sides of an issue Seeking a third-way to solve conflicts

Dialectical reasoning Appreciation for contradiction –Western culture seeks one solution or another Finds certain outcomes to be surprising Scientific reasoning seeks a winning theory –May have hampered the development of physics –Source of motion was placed within objects –Eastern culture embraces contradiction Proverbs embody contradictions Seeks compromise solutions in solving dilemmas May have hampered science in Eastern cultures –Outcomes were not seen as surprising and so new theories were not required

Object identification and memory Western culture –People tend to dis-embed objects from context –Memory for objects not strongly influenced by the context in which the object was seen Eastern culture –People tend to view objects within a field –Memory for objects is more strongly affected by the context in which the object was seen

Risk and culture Cushion hypthesis (Hsee and Weber) –Members of Eastern cultures have larger social networks than do members of Western cultures –This social network makes members of Eastern cultures more tolerant of financial risks –Members of Eastern cultures may be more risk- seeking for gains

Promotion, prevention & culture Western cultures –More chronically promotion focused Eastern cultures –More chronically prevention focused Some have manipulated this experimentally Focusing people on individuals leads to a promotion focus Focusing people on relationship to a collective leads to a prevention focus

Summary Much work to be done on this dimension Individualism Collectivism Not a pure distinction –Both cultures have some elements of each –Still, effects of culture are strong.