Culture Conscious

How culture shapes thought

Lawrence T. White Ph.D.

The Most Powerful Variable in Psychological Science

If you could have just one piece of information in advance about the person you are about to meet, what would you want to know?

How Emotions Are Depicted in American and Chinese Storybooks

Do children in different cultures lead different emotional lives? A new study finds large cultural differences in the emotion-related content of popular children’s storybooks.

Why Some People Don’t Seek Mental Health Services

A new study investigates why people living in some states are less likely to seek psychological help. It seems they want to maintain a certain kind of reputation.

Is the Sun More Fun in Egypt or Finland?

A study of more than 6,000 individuals in 55 nations found that factors related to climate can predict how a country’s residents feel about the color yellow.

Breaking Bread Together Leads Negotiators to Better Outcomes

In many cultures, a ritual of "breaking bread" precedes important negotiations. A new study has found that eating together can produce better outcomes for both parties.

Do People Everywhere Feel Blue and Turn Green with Envy?

In English-speaking countries, people may say “I feel blue” when sad and “I’m so angry I’m seeing red.” Do these same links between colors and emotions exist in other countries?

Why COVID-19 Spreads Faster in Some Countries than Others

In an attempt to explain national differences in COVID transmission rates, a new study establishes the importance of a cultural factor called relational mobility.

Some Data on Global Domestic Violence

In the U.S., about 20 people are abused by an intimate partner every minute. But how do those numbers compare with rates of domestic violence in other countries?

Is Implicit Bias a Product of the Person or the Situation?

Are nonconscious prejudices indelible attitudes that predict discriminatory behavior? Or are they fleeting momentary patterns?

Too Close, Too Far Away, or Just Right?

Anecdotes abound, but do people in different cultures actually have different preferred interpersonal distances? A study of nearly 5,000 people in 42 nations offers answers.

Does Eating Family-Style Foster Cooperation or Competition?

Do you and your family eat from a common plate? Or is each person's meal on a separate plate? A new study finds a surprising link between how we eat and when we collaborate.

Can You Adapt Successfully to Living in a New Country?

A new study identifies factors that may predict how well people adjust to living in a new country—and which countries are easier to adjust to.

Is the Maturity Gap a Psychological Universal?

A new study examines the discrepancy between young people's cognitive maturity and emotional maturity in 11 nations.

Adolescents, the Law, and the "Maturity Gap"

At what age does someone become psychologically "adult"? Developmental science offers guidelines to courts about when adolescents are "adult-like"—and when they are not.

Is There a Single, Higher-Order Factor in Personality?

Recent studies of personality have identified a general factor related to social effectiveness. Can the same factor be observed in forager-farmers living in the Bolivian Amazon?

Be Cognitively Flexible, Like the Himba

New research finds that, compared to students in the United States, members of the seminomadic Himba tribe in rural Namibia are less blind to alternative solutions to problems.

Are Gender Differences in Episodic Memory Universal?

A study found that, on a test of immediate recall, older women fared better than older men in Sweden and the US, but worse in Ghana and India. Why?

What Is the Relationship Between Creativity and Culture?

New studies find that cultural values appear to play no role in the generation of ideas, but an important role in the development of creative products.

Microaggressions: A Critique of the Research

Psychology's debunker-in-chief critiques studies of microaggressions and finds them lacking, both conceptually and methodologically.

Why Do Anime Characters Have Huge Eyes and Tiny Mouths?

Studies show that Americans attend more to the bottom half of the face when judging a person's emotion, but Japanese attend more to the top half. Why the difference?

When Does Close Become Too Close?

Everybody knows Italians have smaller “personal bubbles” than Americans, right? Well, maybe not. A new study examines interpersonal distances in 42 countries.

Is Implicit Bias a Useful Scientific Concept?

Fewer people than ever before say they are racially prejudiced, yet racial disparities persist. Is implicit bias a viable scientific explanation?

National Differences in Attitudes toward Gays and Lesbians

Why are some European countries more accepting of gays and lesbians? The answer may be found in newly-discovered national differences in empathic concern.

Is the Warm Glow of Giving Universal?

If I gave you $20, would you feel happier spending the money on yourself or spending the money on someone else? If you’re like most people in the world …

Why Are Old People So Religious?

The stereotype of the elderly churchgoer is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. Many of us assume that the older you get, the more religious you become. But is that true?

Does Advertising Content Reflect or Shape Societal Values?

Two psychologists examined the content of ads in Dutch and Italian newspapers. How often were women depicted as sex objects? How often were men depicted as working professionals?

Are You Being Lied To?

No matter the technique, most people can’t spot liars on a consistent basis. One potential solution is to remove “people” from the equation. Just let a computer do it.

How Important Is It to Look Competent?

Koreans can look at photos of political opponents in the U.S. and choose the winner about two-thirds of the time, yet they can’t predict what happens in their own country. Why not?

Thoughts Wandering in an Estonian Cemetery

Do Estonians, because of their surnames, feel more closely connected to nature? And what would happen if the dead wrote their own inscriptions on gravestones?

Creativity and Multicultural Experiences

In a recent study, children whose parents were born in different countries were more creative than children whose parents were born in the same country. The mystery is why.

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