Crossing Culture
Doux Commerce: Markets, Culture, and Cooperation in 1850-1920 U.S.
Max Posch & Itzchak Tzachi Raz
Hebrew University of Jerusalem Working Paper, July 2025
Abstract:
We study how rising market integration shaped cooperative culture and behavior in the 1850-1920 United States. Leveraging plausibly exogenous changes in county-level market access driven by railroad expansion and population growth, we show that increased market access fostered universalism, tolerance, and generalized trust -- traits supporting cooperation with strangers -- and shifted cooperation away from kin-based ties toward more generalized forms. Individual-level analyses of migrants reveal rapid cultural adaptation after moving to more market-integrated places, especially among those exposed to commerce. These effects are unlikely to be explained by changes in population diversity, economic development, access to information, or legal institutions.
Individualist and Collectivist Cultures, and the Welfare State: A Global Cross-national Analysis of Over 120 Societies
Tibor Rutar
Cross-Cultural Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Cultural differences between societies have turned out to be crucial determinants of various salient political-economic processes, including economic development and governance. The persistent, deeply historically rooted individualism-collectivism divide is especially important in this respect. But does this cultural cleavage also matter for the size of the modern welfare state? Theoretically, the issue seems undetermined. On one side, critical scholars have been warning that individualism erodes social solidarity and cohesion, bolstering self-centered and self-seeking behavior, and thus undermining the prospects of a robust social safety net. On the other side, a wealth of empirical evidence shows individualism is associated with higher trust, more cooperation, and increased prosociality, suggesting it might act as a key structural foundation of the welfare state. Empirically, macro-level studies on the topic performed with large, globally representative sources are sparse to nonexistent. The present study seeks to address this gap in the literature by constructing a panel dataset of 120-140 countries and using the latest comprehensive, non-WEIRD-biased measure of collectivism. A variety of different statistical estimations, including causal instrumental-variable analyses based on the Parasite-Stress Theory of Values and Sociality, uncover no evidence to support the claim that individualism corrodes the welfare state. Instead, correlational random-effects regressions clearly suggest the opposite, with collectivism consistently and significantly negatively predicting the welfare state. Causal instrumental-variable analyses reveal a more mixed result, with many estimates turning out to be non-significant in at least some of the specifications.
Life Satisfaction in Western Europe and the Gradual Vanishing of the U-shape in Age
David Blanchflower & Alex Bryson
NBER Working Paper, June 2025
Abstract:
Using Eurobarometer data for 21 Western European countries since 1973 we show the U-shape in life satisfaction by age, present for so long, has now vanished. In 13 northern European countries -- Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK -- the U-shape has been replaced by life satisfaction rising in age. We confirm these findings with evidence from the European Social Surveys, the Global Flourishing Survey and Global Minds. Evidence of change in the U-shape is mixed for Austria and France. In six southern European countries -- Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain and Portugal -- the U-shape was replaced by life satisfaction declining in age. In these southern European countries, life satisfaction of the young has been rising since around 2015. A contributory factor is the rapid decline in youth unemployment from its 2015 peak.
Jumping the queue: An experimental study on cultural differences in bribing attitudes among Greeks and Germans
Alexandros Karakostas, Veronika Grimm & Andreas Drichoutis
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, July 2025
Abstract:
We examine how queuing processes in public service provision influence individuals' propensity to engage in bribery. We introduce the queue-jumping game, distinguishing between queue-jumping bribes (to advance one's position) and counter-bribes (to maintain one's position when threatened by queue-jumping). Participants from Greece and Germany, countries with different levels of perceived corruption, played the game in monocultural and intercultural groups. Our findings reveal that in monocultural settings, Greek participants initially exhibited higher bribery rates than German participants, driven primarily by more frequent queue-jumping. However, these cultural differences diminished over repeated interactions, suggesting strategic adaptation. Crucially, analysis indicates that bribing to queue-jump incurs a substantially higher moral cost than counter-bribing for both nationalities. Furthermore, Greek participants perceived counter-bribing as significantly more socially inappropriate than their German counterparts, helping explain the higher initial rates of queue-jumping among Greek participants. In intercultural groups, we found only limited evidence of minority participants adjusting behavior towards majority norms, although minorities consistently earned less regardless of nationality.
Is Honor Culture Linked With Depression?: Examining the Replicability and Robustness of a Disputed Association at the State and Individual Levels
Jarrod Bock et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
A large body of evidence indicates that U.S. honor states exhibit higher suicide rates than do dignity states. Research into one potential precipitating factor, depression, has yielded conflicting evidence, with support for an honor-depression association observed by some researchers but not by others. The present research (a) reassessed this association using more robust measures, (b) extended prior work by also examining suicidal ideation, and (c) examined the associations among honor, depression, and suicidal ideation at both the state and individual levels. Study 1 showed that, after controlling for relevant covariates, state-level honor was associated with higher levels of depression (both major depressive episodes and lifetime depression diagnoses), especially among non-Hispanic White adults. Furthermore, we found the strongest evidence for the honor-depression association using the continuous honor index. We also found that the honor-suicidal ideation association was mediated by depression. Study 2 (N = 4,235) showed that individual-level honor endorsement was positively associated with depression and suicidal ideation, but not anxiety. Moreover, the individual-level honor-suicidal ideation association was also mediated by depression. We discuss the theoretical and clinical implications of these findings.
Out-of-School Learning: Subtitling vs. Dubbing and the Acquisition of Foreign-Language Skills
Frauke Baumeister, Eric Hanushek & Ludger Woessmann
NBER Working Paper, July 2025
Abstract:
The development of English-language skills, a near necessity in today's global economy, is heavily influenced by historical national decisions about whether to subtitle or dub TV content. While prior studies of language acquisition have focused on schools, we show the overwhelming influence of out-of-school learning. We identify the causal effect of subtitling in a difference-in-differences specification that compares English to math skills in European countries that do and do not use subtitles. We find a large positive effect of subtitling on English-language skills of over one standard deviation. The effect is robust to accounting for linguistic similarity, economic incentives to learn English, and cultural protectiveness. Consistent with oral TV transmission, the effect is larger for listening and speaking skills than for reading.
The cultural construction of "executive function"
Ivan Kroupin et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 8 July 2025
Abstract:
In cognitive science, the term "executive function" (EF) refers to universal features of the mind. Yet, almost all results described as measuring EF may actually reflect culturally specific cognitive capacities. After all, typical EF measures require forms of decontextualized/arbitrary processing which decades of cross-cultural work indicate develop primarily in "schooled worlds"-industrialized societies with universal schooling. Here, we report comparisons of performance on typical EF tasks by children inside, and wholly outside schooled worlds. Namely, children ages 5 to 18 from a postindustrial context with universal schooling (UK) and their peers in a rural, nonindustrialized context with no exposure to schooling (Kunene region, Namibia/Angola), as well as two samples with intermediate exposure to schooled worlds. In line with extensive previous work on decontextualized/arbitrary processing across such groups, we find skills measured by typical EF tasks do not develop universally: Children from rural groups with limited or no formal schooling show profound, sometimes qualitative, differences in performance compared to their schooled peers and, especially, compared to a "typical" schooled-world sample. In sum, some form of latent cognitive control capacities are obviously crucial in all cultural contexts. However, typical EF tasks almost certainly reflect culturally specific forms of cognitive development. This suggests we must decide between using the term EF to describe 1) universal capacities or 2) the culturally specific skill set reflected in performance on typical tasks. Either option warrants revisiting how we understand what has been measured as EF to date, and what we wish to measure going forward.
Cultural shaping of emotion differentiation: Socially engaging and disengaging emotions
Jiyoung Park et al.
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is a growing consensus that emotion differentiation -- the ability to discern specific emotions -- is healthy. To assess this ability, studies so far have exclusively relied on the dimension of emotion pleasantness by lumping together various types of emotions that fall within the same valence category. However, this approach neglects the possibility that individuals may represent certain types of emotions in a more differentiated fashion, if these emotions are functionally adaptive and therefore are more frequently experienced in their cultural environments. Here, we propose social orientation as another dimension to analyze emotion differentiation and test a hypothesis that the ability to differentiate socially engaging (vs. disengaging) emotions is reinforced more and is associated with better health in interdependent (vs. independent) cultural contexts. In a longitudinal daily diary study conducted in the United States and Korea between 2019 and 2020, we assessed the extent to which participants differentiated engaging or disengaging emotions based on 2 weeks of daily affective reports. For both positive and negative emotions, Koreans differentiated engaging emotions more than European Americans did. Conversely, European Americans differentiated disengaging emotions more than Koreans did. Moreover, for both cultural groups, the extent to which they differentiated emotions that are valued more in their respective culture -- engaging for Koreans and disengaging for European Americans -- predicted better health 2 months later, indirectly via reducing their tendency to ruminate over time. These results suggest that culture shapes how we represent emotions, and doing so in a culturally preferred way has a potential to bring health benefits.
Depictions of Prosocial Behavior in U.S. and Japanese Children's Picture Books
Matthew Wice et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, June 2025, Pages 337-353
Abstract:
In the current study, we analyzed prosocial content in children's picture books in the United States (N = 40) and Japan (N = 40). Results revealed cultural commonality and differences in the nature of the prosocial behaviors depicted. While acts involving characters helping others fulfill goals were frequent in both cultures, children's books in the United States were more likely than those in Japan to contain depictions of characters providing emotional comfort. Japanese children's books, on the contrary, were more likely to involve mutual collaboration and sharing. The findings demonstrate how valued forms of prosocial behavior are reflected in cultural products that are geared toward children.
A norm about harvest division is maintained by a desire to follow tradition, not by social policing
Minhua Yan et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 24 June 2025
Abstract:
Determining how people behave in contexts governed by social norms can clarify both how norms influence human behavior and how norms evolve. We examined cooperative farming harvest division among the Derung, a Tibeto-Burman-speaking horticultural society in southwestern China. In the village of Dizhengdang, the norm dictates that cofarming harvests should be divided equally among participating households. This contrasts with an alternative norm followed in some other Derung villages that holds that harvests should be divided equally among participating laborers. Rational choice theory and evolutionary models of norm-based cooperation assume that individuals weigh the material and social payoffs of different actions and follow norms because doing so maximizes their payoff. However, the behavior of the Derung in Dizhengdang is not consistent with payoff maximization. Using interviews on co-farming behaviors and attitudes, along with an ultimatum game experiment framed as co-farming harvest division, we found that most respondents preferred divisions based on labor contribution. They also accurately guessed that others shared this preference and would approve of such divisions. Nonetheless, they still followed the prevailing norm of dividing by household. Their self-reported explanation for this behavior was that they desired to follow their traditional practices. Such a normative decision-making algorithm can allow individually consequential norms to persist without costly policing by other group members.