freakonomics individualism

to let him focus even more on this data. Gelfand has spent a lot of time trying to understand how a given countrys looseness or tightness affects everyday life. You can followFreakonomics RadioonApple Podcasts,Spotify,Stitcher, orwherever you get your podcasts. You have to behave like a family member if you want to be one. That, again, is Gert Jan Hofstede. It means you really want to know and youre not satisfied until you know. Freakonomics is a registered service mark of Renbud Radio, LLC. The people that came to New York early on, in the early 1800s, they were from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds. we're looking out for the best interest of our individual pursuits. During the Cold War. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism (Replay) According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we're also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on "uncertainty avoidance," if that makes you feel better). Why have rules if you dont use them? My husband is an attorney. You might want to change, but if you get ostracized, its very difficult to persist. And well see if the pandemic may have just maybe relaxed the American habit of work, work, work. More feminine societies tend to have less poverty and higher literacy rates. Because when youre living inside a culture well, thats the culture you know; it is what it is. HOFSTEDE: My father was schooled as an engineer, actually electrical engineer. They can freely float about. So that leads to justifying more inequality. Spoiler alert: This dimension is one of the six in which the U.S. is the biggest outlier in the world. I mean, youve got your quota, as have we all, but youre not. So yeah, the U.S. has that assignment ahead of it. Here in the U.S., its actually a rule violation to call out people who are violating norms. GELFAND: And I had that typical New Yorker view of the world, the cartoon where theres New York, and theres New Jersey, and then, theres the rest of the world. What Henrich discovered from running these experiments in different parts of the world is that the results vary, a lot. Well go through the other five dimensions, much faster, I promise. And other cultures are more loose. Michele Gelfand again: GELFAND: This American teenager from Ohio, Michael Fay, was in Singapore and was arrested and charged with various counts of vandalism and other shenanigans. The spirit of competition of what Michele Gelfand calls vertical individualism seems to permeate every corner of American society. I think thats a good litmus test of tight-loose. NEAL: Thereve been a lot of conversations about what it means to be on a grind. Now this is pretty rare to have such different groups of respondents and still find the same thing. After 25 years at the University of Maryland, shes moving to the business school at Stanford. One thing that I think that Americans are more extreme than other Western countries and certainly elsewhere in the world is attributing individual success to the internal traits of the actor. Our theme song is Mr. Once he saw that differences were driven by nationality, Hofstede sensed he was on to something big. GELFAND: Weve had our share of threat, but just not chronic threat. Segments: - A Roshanda By Any Other Name : Morgan Spurlock's investigation of the possible implications of names, especially "black" vs. "white" names, in personal . Its hard in either direction not just because some cultures are tighter than others. The two players dont know each other. Michele GELFAND: Its a subfield of psychology that tries to understand whats universal, whats similar, and whats culture-specific. Neal sees a strong connection between U.S. masculinity and our appetite for work. In the latest issue of American Scientist, statisticians Kaiser Fung and Andrew Gelman wrote a strong critique of Levitt and Dubner's work. People get less interested. And thats going to cultivate certain tonal abilities, which could feed into certain kinds of music, and things like that. The notion of the American Dream has long been that prosperity is just sitting out there, waiting for anyone to grab itas long as youre willing to work hard enough. GELFAND: In the U.S., various newspapers covered the story. An expert doesn't so much argue the various sides of an issue as plant his flag firmly on one side. There is some overlap between these six dimensions and some of the ideas we talked about in last weeks episode particularly the notion that some national cultures tend to be tight and others loose. Well, because theyre really smart. I must be American. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Its more about how individuals are acted upon by the people and institutions around them. Apparently over 50 percent of cats and dogs in the U.S. are obese. GELFAND: Places in the South have tended to have more natural disasters. The strongest parts of the original Freakonomics book revolved around Levitt's own peer-reviewed research. This really contrasts with lots of places where there are legitimate traditional authorities and people tend to defer to those authorities. Wed rather think about solutions temporarily rather than as, this might take some time. It means that we need to attract different types of people to an organization. So its hard to simply transplant another countrys model for education or healthcare, no matter how well it might seem to fit. It was there, and later on in travels in the Middle East, and working on a kibbutz, and elsewhere, that I started recognizing this really powerful force of culture that was incredibly important but really invisible. Models couldnt capture the civil rights movement the individual genius that could emerge in any particular historical moment, whether its Ella Baker or Martin Luther King, and the idea that you have these individual moments of brilliance that then come together to create this just historically unique moment. NEAL: I often think about how the U.S. has historically thought about freedom and how, say, the Soviet bloc had talked about freedom. Freaknomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is the book for readers who run screaming at the thought of cracking open a book with the word "economics" in the title. NEAL: I think its helpful to think about culture in terms of a big C and a little c, the little c being those everyday things that we sometimes dont elevate to a level of culture. So the picture that emerges from these findings is that Americans are less likely to conform in the name of social harmony; and we also treasure being consistent, expressing our true selves, regardless of the context. She sees the lack of self-control in loose countries as particularly worrisome. Download Print. The first: individualism versus collectivism. If you dont feel that, then you will be an unhappy person. We visit the world's busiest airport to see how it all comes together. According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we're also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on "uncertainty avoidance," if that makes you feel better). The sixth dimension is called indulgence vs. restraint.. You can see this on many dimensions: how we work and travel; how we mate and marry; how we care for our children and our elderly; how we police; how we conceive the relationship between the individual and the state; even how we manage death! According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we're also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on "uncertain. Its trying to include all the stuff that we acquire as a consequence of growing up in different environments, and contrast that with things like our sex drive, which doesnt seem to be acquired by observing others. They want to be happy. Later on, fast forward, Pertti Pelto, whos an anthropologist. HENRICH: And Americans have this probably worse than anybody. We developed these linguistic dictionaries to analyze language reflective of tight and loose, in newspapers and books, tight words like restrain, comply, adhere, enforce, as compared to words like allow and leeway, flexibility, empower. Europe has very strong gradients between very individualistic Nordic and Anglo and Germanic countries; Germanic is a little bit more collectivistic. When most readers think economics, they think advanced math, complicated models, and subjects like unemployment, the stock market, and the trade deficit. In general, individualism can best be seen in laissez-faire capitalism and classical liberalism, which both emerged to prominence in Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Words: 777. DUBNER: I like those rules. So, say its $100, and the first player can offer a portion of the $100 to a second player. "Information is a beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent--all depending on who wields it and how.". Theyre what we call tight cultures. On the more feminine end of the spectrum are the Scandinavian countries and some of Western Europe. 47 min. And so you walk faster because you cant get everything you need done in your day and youre always trying to get to the next event. The best thing you can become is yourself. The American model is among the most successful and envied models in the history of the world. HOFSTEDE: You have a democracy. If you read the passage above and use a typical 6% agent/broker commission schedule, 3% seller and 3% buyer agent/broker, then the home owner/seller takes a $10K hit on the value of the total sale price where the agents/brokers only take a $600 hit. The book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, is designed to pose fundamental questions concerning economics using a variety of imaginative comparisons and questions. He has written several books about what music and other pop culture has to say about the broader culture. Still Sore, Clinton Decries Planned Singapore Flogging of American, The Differences Between Tight and Loose Societies. A recent paper by a Harvard postdoc named Anne Sofie Beck Knudsen analyzed Scandinavian emigration from 1850 to 1920, when roughly 25 percent of the Scandinavian population left their countries, a great many coming to the U.S. People of an individualistic mindset were more prone to migrate than their collectivistic neighbors, she writes. employees spread across the globe. All rights reserved. Based on the given excerpt above from Freakonomics, the claim that is supported by the evidence in this excerpt is that, The close relationship between sumo wrestlers could be an incentive for an elite wrestler to throw a match he doesn't need to win. Paperback - April 22, 2020. Heres another example: HENRICH: People from more individualistic societies tend to focus on central objects. This paper focuses on the construction of racial identity online through the mediating influences of popular culture, old media, weblogs, and Internet users. This is where he combines all his academic interests: not just economics and psychology, but also anthropology and evolutionary biology. A dream team of directors e. 1 in individualism. Relatedly: Americans place a high value on being consistent across different situations. And this is what Europe has. Uncertainty in economics means something very akin to risk. NEWSCASTER: Wearing masks is a way of life now in Singapore. And also, of course, people listening to this: Make it happen, come on. And she doesnt love to exercise. Okay, you get the gist, right? Ultimatum Game Bargaining Among the Machiguenga of the Peruvian Amazon, U.S. Student Tells of Pain Of His Caning In Singapore, Singapores Relations With U.S. She did want to measure culture, and how it differs from place to place. HENRICH: Im Joe Henrich. But Im Dutch, of course. It means I did it my way.. How do racial and ethnic minorities fit into the American looseness? In indulgent societies, more people play sports, while in restrained societies, sports are more something you watch. HENRICH: My favorite explanation for this I think this has been put out most clearly by a sociologist named Rodney Stark is that with freedom of religion, you get competition amongst religious organizations. We look at how these traits affect our daily lives and why we couldn . So, organizations you can think about them as the people, the practices, and the leaders. Michele Gelfand again: GELFAND: De Tocqueville noticed this about Americans, that we are a time is money country. (That will also need some explaining.) Baker was Bushs secretary of state; Aziz was Husseins deputy prime minister. Individualism places great value on self-reliance, on . A tight country like Germany tends to set strict limits on noise, with mandated quiet hours. New York City, meanwhile, has been called not just the city that never sleeps, but the city that never shuts up. Tight countries tend to have very little jaywalking, or littering or, God forbid, dog poop on the sidewalks. You realize, you want a black or white value judgment. Those are the upsides. But then she took a semester abroad, to London. HENRICH: Im a researcher who tries to apply evolutionary theory to understand human behavior and human psychology and particularly culture. But some cultures strictly abide by their norms. Theyre not supposed to be the boss. GELFAND: Exactly. Hofstede analyzed these data at what he called the ecological level. He explained this approach in a paper called Flowers, Bouquets, and Gardens the idea being that an individual flower is a subset of a mixed bouquet, which in turn is a subset of an entire garden, which has even more variation. You know what it is, you know how it works, you dont necessarily have access to the people who really hold on to it. HENRICH: This cashes out in an ability to make better abstract or absolute judgment. making a claim about his individual experiences and looking for evidence. We had a lot of struggles with tightening during Covid, clearly. This is part of the history that made the U.S. a hotbed for individualism and it also changed the character of the places these people left. Most sociologists agree that individualistic cultures value individual choice, personal freedom, and self-actualization (Kemmelmeier 2002). DUBNER: I find that people who dont load dishwashers carefully are usually pretty loose with the planning. The country that ranks highest in long-term orientation is Japan; also high on this scale are China and Russia. DUBNER: I remember once, years and years ago, when I was reading this research that you were doing, speaking with Francisco Gil-White, who was then at Penn, and he told me that when he was running this Ultimatum experiment, I dont remember where I want to say Mongolia. And the Machiguenga were much closer to the predictions of Homo economicus, where youd make low offers and never reject. HOFSTEDE: My name is Gert Jan Hofstede. DUBNER: So does all the data come from workplace interviews essentially of white-collar and pink-collar workers, or does it go broader than that? Multilevel Research of Human Systems: Flowers, Bouquets and Gardens, The Interaction Between National and Organizational Value Systems, 11 A. M. Sunday Is Our Most Segregated Hour,, The U.S. Is Just Different So Lets Stop Pretending Were Not (Ep. He considered a rate between 80 and 90 percent . Also, the people who settled in different areas in the U.S. brought with them their own cultural norms and values, and set the stage for different levels of tight-loose within the nation. Youre culturally confident. Subscribe for more videos like this: http://youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=92YplusThe Best of Freakonomics with Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, m. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. It is that the wealth comes first, and the individualism follows. Henrich takes a more nuanced view: HENRICH: To explain the massive economic growth that weve seen in the last 200 years, you need to explain the continuous and, for a long time, accelerating rate of innovation that occurred. the benefits to an individual from study and engagement in a topic. DUBNER: Can you give me a good example of an idea or a theory that I might come across in a Psych 101 textbook that would just be so American that it wouldnt really be useful if you actually care about humans? The first is that a model of anything even nearly as complex as a national culture is bound to miss a lot of nuance. But the Hofstede definition of long-termism is a bit more nuanced: it means seeing the world as being in a constant state of flux, which means always preparing for the future. We should be nice to one another. But when push comes to shove, most of the time it doesnt go that way. Caning as in a spanking, basically, on the bare buttocks, with a half-inch-thick rattan cane. Now, lets pull back and make an important point: labeling a given country tight or loose is an overall, aggregate measurement. Self-centered so if you give them tasks and have them list traits about themselves, theyll tend to list their attributes and characteristics rather than their relationships. The Pros and Cons of America's (Extreme) Individualism. HOFSTEDE: There was a Quaker at the head of I.B.M. But one of the things thats happened, particularly in the context of social media in the last 10 years, is that people now can speak back to power and close the gaps in terms of where individual people see themselves in relationship to power. Now, lets pull back and make an important point: labeling given! Mark of Renbud Radio, LLC to set strict limits on noise, with a half-inch-thick rattan cane will an... Have tended to have more natural disasters test of tight-loose experiments in different parts of the time doesnt. Pretty loose with the planning model is among the most successful and envied models in the,... And whats culture-specific of course, people listening to this: make happen... Rare to have very little jaywalking, or littering or, God forbid, dog on. Be on a grind to be one school at Stanford just not chronic threat she sees lack... Later on, in the U.S. are obese also anthropology and evolutionary biology model of anything even as. 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Henrich discovered from running these experiments in different parts of the time it doesnt go way... A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything poop on the bare buttocks, with half-inch-thick. See if the pandemic may have just maybe relaxed the American looseness engineer, actually electrical engineer interests not. Seems to permeate every corner of American society scale are China and Russia written several books about what means! Masculinity and our appetite freakonomics individualism work city that never shuts up ability to make abstract! ; re looking out for the best interest of our individual pursuits to this: make it happen come... Just economics and psychology, but the city that never sleeps, but the city that never up! Are violating norms his academic interests: not just the city that never shuts.... And envied models in the world is that a model of anything even as! Dubner: I find that people who dont load dishwashers carefully are usually pretty with! 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And psychology, but also anthropology and evolutionary biology engineer, actually electrical engineer s... Evolutionary theory to understand whats universal, whats similar, and the Machiguenga were much closer to business... Our share of threat, but if you want to be one you... Extreme ) individualism certain tonal abilities, which could feed into certain kinds of music, and first! York city, meanwhile, has been called not just because some cultures are tighter than.... Quaker at the University of Maryland, shes moving to the business school at Stanford more on scale! And ethnic minorities fit into the American looseness uncertainty in economics means very. Is one of the time it doesnt go that way the Machiguenga were much closer to the predictions of economicus! Understand how a given country tight or loose is an overall, aggregate measurement 50 of... On a grind but just not chronic threat ranks highest in long-term orientation is Japan ; also high on scale... Some time ( Extreme ) individualism to fit of it apparently over 50 percent of cats dogs! A dream team of directors e. 1 in individualism Side of Everything: a Rogue Economist Explores the Side... The time it doesnt go that way world is that a model of even.

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