Learning the Place
Long-lasting effects of indoctrination in school: Evidence from the People’s Republic of Poland
Joan Costa-Font, Jorge García-Hombrados & Anna Nicińska
European Economic Review, January 2024
Abstract:
This paper studies the effect of communist indoctrination in school on labour force participation and human capital investments. Specifically, we evaluate the impact of a reform in Poland that revoked political indoctrination in school in the mid-1950s, while leaving the rest of the curriculum unchanged. To overcome endogeneity concerns, we exploit cut-off birth dates for school enrolment that exhibit variation in the level of exposure to the reform. We find that a reduction in school indoctrination increased the probability of finishing secondary and tertiary education, and expanded labour force participation about 50 years down the line.
The effects of superstition on firms' investment behavior: Evidence from Vietnam, an irreligious country
Dai Van Pham
Journal of Comparative Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines the impact of superstition on corporate decision-making in Vietnam, a highly irreligious country. We focus on the folk belief that the ages of 49-53 are considered calamitous and use a regression discontinuity design to show that companies significantly decrease their investment in fixed assets during these ages of their directors. The effect is more pronounced in smaller firms and is not accompanied by a decrease in employment growth. We introduce a novel two-stage difference method to identify the role of superstition in causing the ‘calamitous ages’ effect.
Mother-Child Conversations of Latina Immigrant and U.S.-Born Mothers in the United States
Erika Hoff & Katherine Shanks
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present study examined heritage culture influences on the roles of adult and child in the conversations Latina immigrant mothers in the United States have with their young children. Spanish monolingual Latina mothers (n = 17), Spanish-English bilingual Latina mothers (n = 30), and English monolingual European American mothers (n = 22) were recorded in toy play interaction with their 2.5-year-old children; the bilingual Latina mothers were recorded twice, once interacting in Spanish and once in English. Analyses of transcripts of those conversations revealed that the monolingual Spanish-speaking Latina mothers talked more and asked fewer questions of their children and their children talked less compared with the monolingual English-speaking European American mothers and their children, consistent with differences that have been observed between mothers in Latin America and in the United States. The Spanish and English conversations between the bilingual mothers and their children similarly differed in the ratio of adult to child speech, although the Latina mothers’ English conversations still differed from the English conversations of European American mothers. In addition, the ratio of mother to child speech in the immigrant mothers’ Spanish language conversations declined as their years of U.S. residence increased. These findings argue that children of Latina immigrant mothers in the United States are socialized to talk less (and listen more) in conversation with adults compared with children from European American families. These findings also provide new evidence for cultural frames as the mediators of cultural influences on behavior and for language priming of cultural frames.
Cultural variation in neural responses to social but not monetary reward outcomes
Elizabeth Blevins et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
European Americans view high intensity, open-mouthed “excited” smiles more positively than Chinese because they value excitement and other high arousal positive states more (Tsai et al. 2018). This difference is supported by reward-related neural activity, with European Americans showing greater Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) activity to excited (vs. calm) smiles than Chinese (Park et al., 2018). But do these cultural differences generalize to all rewards, and are they related to real-world social behavior? European American (N = 26) and Chinese (N = 27) participants completed social and monetary incentive delay tasks that distinguished between the anticipation and receipt (outcome) of social and monetary rewards while undergoing Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI). The groups did not differ in NAcc activity when anticipating social or monetary rewards. However, as predicted, European Americans showed greater NAcc activity than Chinese when viewing excited smiles during outcome (the receipt of social reward). No cultural differences emerged when participants received monetary outcomes. Individuals who showed increased NAcc activity to excited smiles during outcome had friends with more intense smiles on social media. These findings suggest that culture plays a specific role in modulating reward-related neural responses to excited smiles during outcome, which are associated with real-world relationships.
Neural signals predict information sharing across cultures
Hang-Yee Chan et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 31 October 2023
Abstract:
Information sharing influences which messages spread and shape beliefs, behavior, and culture. In a preregistered neuroimaging study conducted in the United States and the Netherlands, we demonstrate replicability, predictive validity, and generalizability of a brain-based prediction model of information sharing. Replicating findings in Scholz et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114, 2881–2886 (2017), self-, social-, and value-related neural signals in a group of individuals tracked the population sharing of US news articles. Preregistered brain-based prediction models trained on Scholz et al. (2017) data proved generalizable to the new data, explaining more variance in population sharing than self-report ratings alone. Neural signals (versus self-reports) more reliably predicted sharing cross-culturally, suggesting that they capture more universal psychological mechanisms underlying sharing behavior. These findings highlight key neurocognitive foundations of sharing, suggest potential target mechanisms for interventions to increase message effectiveness, and advance brain-as-predictor research.
The Socioecological Psychology of Financial Debts: The Role of Residential Mobility
Shigehiro Oishi et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined individual, regional, and cultural differences in household debts and identified residential mobility as a key socioecological variable at multiple levels of analysis. Study 1 found that American households’ debt rates were higher than Japanese debt rates. Across 76 countries, household debts were higher in residentially mobile countries than those in residentially stable ones (Study 2). Next, across 144 U.S. cities, residents of residentially mobile cities had more credit card debts than those of residentially stable cities (Study 3). We further replicated the international and U.S. findings across 366 districts in India (Study 4). Study 5 found that American participants were more residentially mobile and more willing to borrow than Japanese participants, and the willingness to borrow was partly explained by the personal history of residential mobility. Study 6 found that residentially mobile individuals felt less indebtedness/gratitude than residentially stable individuals; the study also found how indebtedness/gratitude impacted individuals’ credit card debts and willingness to borrow.
The Social Overload Thesis Revisited: Exploring the Mechanisms of Size-Dependent Participation Behavior in Voluntary Communities
Yongren Shi & Qianyi Shi
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, November 2023
Abstract:
Sociological and urban studies have consistently reported that human behavior exhibits a discernible correlation with population size, following a power-law function. Individuals residing in larger communities exhibit significantly higher levels of activity in contrast to their counterparts in smaller communities. However, the underlying processes responsible for such behavioral patterns remain unclear. The authors propose that organizational crowding tends to generate competitive pressure that results in social overload for individuals, who in turn divide time and energy among many groups while reducing the time spent in each. The social overload thesis predicts integration, rather than mutual exclusion of groups, when experiencing competition. A large-scale event participation dataset from 11 major U.S. technology clusters over a period of 10 years is used to test these hypotheses. The results support the mediating role of competition in the relationship between population size and participation intensity. The authors demonstrate the impact of competition on network structure.
The Effect of Language on Income Smoothing: Cross-Country Evidence
Wenjiao Cao, Linda Myers & Zhifang Zhang
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine whether and how the time-oriented tendency embedded in languages influences income smoothing. Separating languages into weak- versus strong-future time reference (FTR) groups, we find that firms in weak-FTR countries tend to smooth earnings more. We also find that relationships with major stakeholders (i.e., debtholders, suppliers, and employees) amplify the effect of the FTR of languages on income smoothing. Additional analyses suggest that income smoothing driven by the FTR of languages enhances earnings informativeness. These findings provide new insights on the role that language plays in financial reporting decisions and on how relationships with major stakeholders influence the relation between an important feature of language and corporate income smoothing behavior.
Concepts Are Restructured During Language Contact: The Birth of Blue and Other Color Concepts in Tsimane’-Spanish Bilinguals
Saima Malik-Moraleda et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Words and the concepts they represent vary across languages. Here we ask if mother-tongue concepts are altered by learning a second language. What happens when speakers of Tsimane’, a language with few consensus color terms, learn Bolivian Spanish, a language with more terms? Three possibilities arise: Concepts in Tsimane’ may remain unaffected, or they may be remapped, either by Tsimane’ terms taking on new meanings or by borrowing Bolivian-Spanish terms. We found that adult bilingual speakers (n = 30) remapped Tsimane’ concepts without importing Bolivian-Spanish terms into Tsimane’. All Tsimane’ terms become more precise; for example, concepts of monolingual shandyes and yụshñus (~green or blue, used synonymously by Tsimane’ monolinguals; n = 71) come to reflect the Bolivian-Spanish distinction of verde (~green) and azul (~blue). These results show that learning a second language can change the concepts in the first language.