Cultural Beings
Cultural Variation in Attitudes Toward Social Chatbots
Dunigan Folk, Chenxi Wu & Steven Heine
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Across two studies (Total N = 1,659), we found evidence for cultural differences in attitudes toward socially bonding with conversational AI. In Study 1 (N = 675), university students with an East Asian cultural background expected to enjoy a hypothetical conversation with a chatbot (vs. human) more than students with European background. Moreover, they were less uncomfortable and more approving of a hypothetical situation where someone else socially connected with a chatbot (vs. human) than the students with a European background. In Study 2 (preregistered; N = 984), we found similar evidence for cultural differences comparing samples of Chinese and Japanese adults currently living in East Asia to adults currently living in the United States. Critically, these cultural differences were explained by East Asian participants increased propensity to anthropomorphize technology. Overall, our findings suggest there is cultural variability in attitudes toward chatbots and that these differences are mediated by differences in anthropomorphism.
Riding the frontier wave: Unveiling the impact of rugged individualism on small business dynamics during COVID-19
Pankaj Patel
Journal of Evolutionary Economics, January 2025, Pages 1-33
Abstract:
This study investigates the impact of rugged individualism, a distinctive sociocultural phenomenon rooted in cumulative frontier experiences between 1790 and 1890, on variations in small business establishments and revenues within US counties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing high-frequency weekly data encompassing 369 counties and spanning from January 4, 2020, to January 29, 2022 (31,460 weekly observations), our analysis revealed that counties with above-median frontier experience demonstrated a 5.32 percentage points smaller decline in business establishments and a 14.2 percentage points less severe reduction in small business revenues compared to counties with below-median frontier experience. Further testing validated the robustness of these effects against placebo considerations, alternate temporal frameworks, pre- and post-COVID-19 county vulnerabilities, and alternative measures of historical frontier experiences. Importantly, these relative performance advantages were not contingent on differences in employment levels or job postings. The findings provide insights into the interplay of cultural variations and entrepreneurial resilience within a national context.
Does literature evolve one funeral at a time?
Oleg Sobchuk & Bret Beheim
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, February 2025
Abstract:
The cultural evolution of literary fiction is rarely studied, but rich literary data can help address some of the general problems of cultural change. In this article, we use a massive dataset of Anglophone fiction (over 23 000 books) and the tools of natural language processing to understand whether the long-term change of topics in books is driven by the individual change of authors or by the cohort turnover in author populations. To answer this question, we borrow a method from evolutionary ecology: decomposition analysis based on the Price equation. To prove the suitability of this method, we first apply it to simulated data and show that it does allow distinguishing between these two processes. Afterwards, we decompose the temporal trajectories of topics and measure the relative effects of the arrival of newcomer authors (entrances), the retirement of authors (exits) and the change of topic preferences during authors’ lifetimes (individual change). We find that cohort turnover is a stronger force than individual change. Within the cohort effects, the effect of entrances is almost twice as strong as the effect of exits. Using simulated data, we discover that this difference stems from the unequal lengths of authors’ careers.
Cultural Differences in Vicarious Optimism
Andreas Kappes et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prosocial behavior is affected by the beliefs people have about others. The maintenance of these beliefs is biased: people are vicariously optimistic when updating beliefs about the future of others they care about. This vicarious optimism influences prosocial behavior and might be shaped by the culture people live in. We investigated this question by measuring learning from good and bad news for oneself, friends, and strangers in a pre-registered study of Chinese and American participants (N = 963). American participants showed a stronger bias for better-than-expected “good news” over worse-than-expected “bad news” when learning about themselves (optimism bias) and others (vicarious optimism) compared to Chinese participants. Chinese participants showed vicarious optimism only when learning about a friend, while American participants showed the most vicarious optimism when learning about an identifiable stranger. Our results provide evidence that culture might shape social behavior by biasing learning about the future of others.
The valuation of copies for Chinese artworks
Kim Oosterlinck, Anne-Sophie Radermecker & Yuqing Song
Journal of Cultural Economics, March 2025, Pages 99-140
Abstract:
Are copies always inferior to originals in value? In this paper, we first detail the differences existing between copies in the Western and the Eastern worlds and the influence of these differences on their appreciation. In the Western world, copies are often unnamed. By contrast, in China, artists are used to adding seals and inscriptions to declare the authorship of the artworks, even for copies. While the Western obsession with autography explains the lower prices observed for Western copies, Chinese markets also consider the formal aspects of copies in art valuation. Focusing on the eminent Chinese old master Dong Qichang (1555–1636), our empirical analysis demonstrates that the prices of copies may be higher than those of originals when the name of the copying artist is known. The paper sheds light on how buyers value copies in the context of a globalized art market.
Cultural differences in jury deliberations and jury decision making between South Korea and the United States
Inyeong Lee, Jungwon Lee & Yuhwa Han
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current study explored cultural differences in jury deliberations and decision making between South Korea (a collectivist society) and the United States (an individualistic society). We expected cultural differences to be found in terms of conformity, communication styles, and attribution styles. Specifically, we expected that Korean mock juries (vs. U.S. mock juries) would exhibit higher levels of conformity, a greater tendency to employ multiple-account strategy, and a preference for external attribution when considering the defendant’s behavior. Furthermore, due to cultural differences, we expected Korean mock juries to be more unanimous and less in favor of the death penalty than U.S. mock juries. We replicated Stevenson et al.’s (2010) U.S. jury simulation study in South Korea and analyzed transcripts of the 28 mock jury deliberations (14 Korean and 14 U.S. mock juries). Compared to the U.S. mock juries, the Korean mock juries exhibited a lower inclination toward conformity and a higher likelihood of incorporating multiple arguments into a single utterance. Additionally, the Korean mock juries were more likely to use the defendant’s history of child abuse and alcohol abuse as mitigators and to view them as uncontrollable causes of his criminal behavior, in comparison to the U.S. mock juries. Contrary to expectations, however, there were not significant differences in the juries’ final sentencing between the two countries. While cross-cultural differences in jury deliberations can be significant, particularly in terms of attribution, we found that these differences did not undermine fair death penalty decisions.
Outlaws of the Land: Historical Violence and Collective Action in China
Haotian Bai, Li Li & Yuying Chen
University of Oxford Working Paper, November 2024
Abstract:
There is a long held but rarely-tested belief that historical unrest and rebellion activity continues to shape the political geography of collective actions. By combining data on bandit activities from the memorials to the emperors of the Qing Dynasty and current protest events from social media postings in China, we argue historical unrest and rebellion activity increased social connectedness while lowering trust on the state apparatus, mobilizing local collective actions. Banditry and rebellion memory consistently trigger strong anti-government sentiments and willingness to defend oneself from exploitation through localized narration and clustered identity.
Unearthing the nexus: Latifundia, earthquakes, and the emergence of the Sicilian Mafia
Michele Battisti et al.
Economics of Governance, March 2025, Pages 57–91
Abstract:
This paper explores the historical origins of the Mafia and its roots in the Sicilian latifundia. By employing earthquake intensity as an instrumental variable to tackle endogeneity concerns, our study reveals a significant relationship between the presence of the Mafia during its initial historical appearances in the second half of the 19th century and the characteristics of latifundia. Latifundia, distinguished by large landowners and extensive agriculture, including the rotation of single-crop, pasture, and fallow lands, is found to be closely linked to this heightened Mafia presence. Moreover, our analysis rules out contemporary socio-economic factors by considering a set of control variables such as agricultural proxies. These findings highlight a persistent historical pattern of inequality, proxied by the spread of latifundia, underscoring the enduring influence of the medieval feudal system, transformed into latifundia, on social dynamics. Our findings suggest that policies aimed at reducing the concentration of land ownership and promoting land reform could effectively have curbed the emergence of organized crime in areas with a history of comparatively higher land ownership inequality.