Cultural Familiarity Research Articles

Methodology of an approach for modifying pictograms showing medication side effects or indication

ABSTRACT Background: Pictograms may improve user-friendliness and comprehension of written or verbal health information. This paper describes a method to modify pictograms to improve their visual clarity, appeal and overall interpretive complexity in order to reduce the cognitive load on the viewer during comprehension. Methodology: Nine pictograms previously tested for comprehension were selected for modification. In phase 1, two participatory design workshops were conducted with (a) three limited literacy, first-language isiXhosa-speaking participants and (b) four university students. Opinions and ideas for improving interpretation were discussed. In phase 2, revised visuals were generated by the graphic artist and subsequently modified in an intensive, multistage, iterative process. Results: As no guidelines for pictogram modification exist, a modification schema was developed based on the process described in this study. Adopting a participatory approach combined with a systematic, intensive modification process enabled the opinions and preferences of the end-users to be heard, ensuring cultural relevance and contextual familiarity of the final product. Careful scrutiny of all individual visual elements of each pictogram, considerations of space, and thickness of lines all contributed to improving the legibility of visuals. Conclusions: The methodology for designing and modifying existing pictograms using a participatory process resulted in nine final pictograms that were approved by all design team members and considered good candidates for subsequent comprehension testing. The methodological schema presented in this paper provides guidance to researchers intending to design or modify pictograms.

Effects of Hallyu on Chinese Consumers: A Focus on Remote Acculturation

Remote acculturation is a modern form of non-immigrant acculturation, which has primarily been used to investigate local people’s acculturation toward one or more foreign cultures. It has been approximately 30 years since the introduction of the first Korean TV drama Jealousy into China in 1993, and China is the birthplace of the Chinese term of Hallyu. Chinese people have experienced a long-term and far-reaching impact of Hallyu and Korean culture. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the effects of Hallyu (e.g., degree of use of Hallyu cultural contents, the Hallyu image, and Hallyu cultural familiarity) on Chinese consumers, with a focus on remote acculturation. A total of 623 Chinese consumers’ survey data were collected, and an analysis of a structural equation model (SEM) was conducted to verify the research hypotheses. The results manifest that the degree of use of Hallyu cultural contents, the Hallyu image, the Hallyu cognitive image, the Hallyu affective image and Hallyu cultural familiarity positively influence Korean cultural orientation, while the Hallyu image, the Hallyu cognitive image and the Hallyu affective image exert a negative impact on Chinese cultural orientation, but the degree of use of Hallyu cultural contents and Hallyu cultural familiarity do not significantly negatively affect Chinese cultural orientation. Moreover, Korean cultural orientation brings about a positive effect on attitudes toward Korea, while Chinese cultural orientation negatively impacts on attitudes toward Korea. Additionally, attitudes toward Korea generate a positive influence on visit intention to Korea, along with the intention to purchase Korean products. Overall, this paper enriches the research objects of remote acculturation, extends the research scope of remote acculturation and provides a new perspective for studies on Hallyu by introducing remote acculturation into the exploration of Hallyu.

Will diners be enticed to be travelers? The role of ethnic food consumption and its antecedents

This study aims to investigate the ethnic food consumption intentions of potential Chinese tourists and how their intention of consuming ethnic food affects their destination preferences. In the present context, ethnic food refers to Turkish food. Research findings are based on data collected from 643 potential Chinese tourists. It is concluded that food awareness and cultural familiarity have a negative effect on food neophobia. While food involvement has a positive effect on ethnic food consumption intention, ethnic food consumption intention is influenced by cultural familiarity and food neophobia negatively. Lastly, country image plays a moderating role in the effect of ethnic food consumption on destination visit intention. Based on the research findings, specific theoretical and practical implications are discussed. • Food awareness and cultural familiarity have a negative effect on food neophobia. • Ethnic food consumption intention is influenced by food neophobia negatively. • Ethnic food consumption intention is influenced by cultural familiarity negatively. • Food involvement has a positive effect on ethnic food consumption intention. • Ethnic food consumption intention affects destination visit intention positively.

Is Harmonicity a Misnomer for Cultural Familiarity in Consonance Preferences?

OPINION article Front. Psychol., 28 January 2022Sec. Cognition Volume 13 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.802385

The impact of the cultural familiarity of literary texts on learners' attitudes towards reading: A case study on the perceptions of L2 english teachers

The authenticity and familiarity of the reading materials used in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes have received a great deal of attention for some time. The aim of the present study is to report on the qualitative analyses of secondary school EFL teachers' perceptions about the influence of cultural familiarity on reading skills development. With the qualitative nature of the data collection and analysis, a deeper insight is sought into EFL teachers' ideas about the issue with a special focus on the factors affecting their perceptions. The participants were three EFL teachers working in different secondary schools in Turkey. For data collection, in addition to completing prior semi-structured interview forms, the teachers completed posterior semi-structured interview forms after implementing two forms of the same text in both control and experimental groups of students. This also enabled the researchers to zoom in on any possible differences in the teachers' views before and after the implementation process. The results showed that the participant teachers' general perceptions about authenticity or familiarity were neither positive nor negative. Detailed analysis showed that both sides claimed to have some advantages and disadvantages even though cultural familiarity was observed to be favoured relatively slightly against authenticity. Also, each teacher, including the one favouring authenticity, stated that their students were relatively more enthusiastic about participating in activities related to the text familiar to their culture. The lack of sample diversity could be considered a limitation of the study as the number of participants were small and they were all working in the same province.

E-Negotiations in Mergers and Acquisitions: The Importance of Cultural Familiarity in the Western and Arabic Contexts

This paper focuses on the influence of cultural familiarity on getting the most out of an e-negotiation for merger or acquisition based on subjective and objective negotiation behaviors. We examined if cultural awareness could increase the rate of negotiation self-efficacy, shorten the length of negotiation and optimize deal closure results. To do so, firstly we investigate the concept of e-negotiation and its development in the last two decades. Then a series of systematic reviews is performed on the parameters influencing the success in offline and online merger or acquisition negotiations. We also considered the main traits of Western and Middle Eastern Arab cultures on negotiations. The results show that many of the requirements of successful collaboration, or negotiations, with Arab managers can currently happen only through face-to-face meetings.

The Landbound Chicken and the Deliberate Chameleon yet have their Uses: Yorùbá Art History, Language, and Interpretation.

Rowland Abiodun’s Yorùbá Art and Language contains many extremely valuable features, wrapped around a question he raises in its introduction: can foreign scholars ever truly understand a work the way its Yorùbá makers and users do? Language mastery certainly provides the native speaker with access to inestimable insights regarding not only general worldview, but specifics of philosophy, history keeping, and subtleties of knowledge transmission. However, in the attempt to read an artwork and unpack its meaning, cultural in[1]siders also face obstacles as well as advantages, particularly when pieces date from the more distant past. The import of Abiodun’s major contributions regarding Yorùbá art’s history and the validity of his contentions are considered here in light of the varied contributions both foreign and Yorùbá art historians bring to Yorùbá scholarship, in the recognition that working with art of bygone centuries makes all scholars outsiders to a degree.
 
 A kì í gbójú-u fífò lé adìẹ àgàgà; à kì í gbójú-u yíyan lé alágẹmọ. One should not expect the flightless chicken to soar; one should not expect the chameleon to stride.
 
 Can outsiders ever truly understand a work of art the way its makers and users do? In the introduction to his book Yorùbá Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art, Rowland Abiodun concludes that only those with a mastery of the Yorùbá language and deep cultural familiarity can interpret Yorùbá artworks effectively. His argument produces numerous salie observations and the viewing framework he creates provides an exceedingly valuable set of lenses for interpreting Yorùbá sculpture. However, the question posed above remains intriguing, and is more complex than it appears. Even when an artist and his patron live in the same community at the same time, their interpretations of a commissioned work may not be identical, so when one moves out to the analyses of art historians, Yorùbá or not, one cannot necessarily assume a third party will understand the work just as its maker and user did. Additional corollaries to the question exist as well. What are the parameters of outsider status? Do they constitute a spectrum? Do insider advantages always trump outsiders’ perceptions? These issues become even more pertinent as distance from our own era increases. While the question of outsider/insider status does not constitute the thrust of Abiodun’s book, it is a major aspect of his introduction, and thus worth considering.1 While this paper considers the unique multiple contributions of Abiodun’s book, it also argues that careful considerations of objects and context can be made by outsiders, while insiders, like all researchers, can choose to ignore elements that conflict with their own preconceptions, develop greater interest in one topic than another, generalize their known experience to the whole of Yorubaland or apply it half a millennium into the past. While these perspectives differ, one does not automatically eclipse the other.

40.1 Indigenous Youth Mental Wellness: The Potential Value of mHealth and Cultural Adaptation of the JoyPop App

The JoyPop™ app is a mobile health tool for youth resilience that has been shown to reduce depression and increase positive emotion management over a 30-day use period, with increased gains associated with higher levels of adverse childhood events and higher days of usage. This trauma-informed, positive psychology app includes 7 key features emphasizing positive activities: mood ratings, journaling with prompts, deep breathing, a Tetris-like game, an art draw activity, a SleepEase feature, and a Circle of Trust. Invited by the Six Nations of the Grand River community in Ontario, Canada, we considered how Western psychological science can be adapted to Indigenous science, specifically reflecting a Haudenosaunee holistic health model. We conducted 24 consultations (29% male) with key community stakeholders (eg, elders, health service providers, educators, university students, parents). We shared a 4-minute video summary about the JoyPop™ app (youthresilience.net) and sought feedback on its specific features, what they liked, and places for cultural adaptation. In an open query format, most spontaneously noted a positive response to the app or its features, with 46% of consultants spontaneously mentioning that they liked the app and/or saw a need for it. The most endorsed feature was for the social connecting elements (ie, the Circle of Trust feature connects users to their safe social network). Adaptations included adding local helplines to the helpline drop-down menu in the app. Culturally, importance was given to the need to incorporate traditional colors (42%) and design elements (25%), such as beadwork and nature backgrounds. Nature was a recurring theme; suggestions ranged from incorporating nature sounds in the SleepEase feature (33%) to activities related to nature in general (25%), as well as nature visuals and cultural teachings. Given the emphasis on oral tradition, 42% of consultants recommended simplifying the reading text. Creative expressive elements were praised in the app, with 29% enjoying the art feature and journal prompts. Findings support an adaptation of the JoyPop™ app for Indigenous youth, which integrates sights and sounds from the natural world, as well as elements signaling cultural familiarity.

Between Lifestyle Migration and Comfortable Exit Strategies: Turkish Golden Visa Investors in Greece

This article examines a new phenomenon of affluent Turks investing in Greek real estate following the 15 July 2016 coup attempt in order to obtain residence rights in Greece. Triggered by a sense of social, political, and economic insecurity, Turkish nationals invest to secure an exit strategy and safe haven for family and capital in case of potential economic and political upheaval in the country. Drawing on Hirschman’s (1970) typology of Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, this paper argues that this new form of mobility and comfortable exit of the Turkish upper middle class helps defuse opposition to the AKP government and could have a stabilizing effect for the regime in the long run. Based on data from twenty-eight interviews with investors and Golden Visa brokers taking part in the investment process, two factors, in particular, are making the move from Turkey to Greece an attractive option for Turkish nationals, namely geographic proximity and perceived cultural familiarity.

Cultural-Loaded Words in Journalistic Translation Between Arabic and English

An increasing number of contributions have appeared in recent years on culturally loaded words. This translation needs familiarity with cultural, linguistic and semantic features. Some news is full of culturally loaded words, strange terms and one of them is the religious or in general term ‘political words’ which play a key role in journalism translation through times. The cultural terms in journalism translation are definitely difficult and controversial to some journalist translators. This difficulty maybe because of the differences between different cultures, religions, ideologies, and beliefs. Translation of political writing or journalistic article needs great cultural familiarity with L1 and L2 and the targets receivers by the translator. Therefore; effective methods were provided to solve culture-bound problems in journalism translation from Arabic into English.
 This article suggests an article from CNN News translated into Arabic entitles“ Islamists Take Foreign Hostages in Attack on Algerian Oil Field” will be taken as a case study. The researcher applies some examples in the languages of English and Arabic to make the statements more clear. The main objective of this present paper is to show the problem of culturally loaded words in journalistic writing and explain different translations used in this article from English to Arabic. After analyzing all the samples, it has been also determined that the ideologies and politics influence the way used in journalistic translation which means that the journalist translator is not free but under the censorship of CNN Agency. Moreover; in this paper, the various cultural words must be translated in their own context in order to establish their significance when translated into another language and culture and the target audiences and amateurs must be convinced of this type of translation.

Sweetness is in the ear of the beholder: chord preference across United Kingdom and Pakistani listeners.

The majority of research in the field of music perception has been conducted with Western participants, and it has remained unclear which aspects of music perception are culture dependent, and which are universal. The current study compared how participants unfamiliar with Western music (people from the Khowar and Kalash tribes native to Northwest Pakistan with minimal exposure to Western music) perceive affect (positive versus negative) in musical chords compared with United Kingdom (UK) listeners, as well as the overall preference for these chords. The stimuli consisted of four distinct chord types (major, minor, augmented, and chromatic) and were played as both vertical blocks (pitches presented concurrently) and arpeggios (pitches presented successively). The results suggest that the Western listener major-positive minor-negative affective distinction is opposite for Northwest Pakistani listeners, arguably because of the reversed prevalence of these chords in the two music cultures. The aversion to the harsh dissonance of the chromatic cluster is present cross-culturally, but the preference for the consonance of the major triad varies between UK and Northwest Pakistani listeners, depending on cultural familiarity. Our findings imply not only notable cultural variation but also commonalities in chord perception across Western and non-Western listeners.

Migrants working for migrants: dependence and discourse in Chinese-owned small commercial businesses in South Africa

The nature of work and employment relations of small Chinese migrant businesses in South Africa remains largely under-researched, despite the significant growth of these businesses since the 2000s. Based on 90 interviews with Chinese business owners and their African workers, we found that, although employment relations were largely transactional and adversarial, they sometimes also incorporated symbiotic accommodations with third-country undocumented immigrant workers and pockets of de facto responsible autonomy. Material imbalances of power were notably alleviated through workers’ superior local language skills and cultural familiarity, enabling them to carve out space as intermediaries with customers and other local stakeholders to counter the power of employers. However, this autonomy is relatively small in scope, in large part due to the precarious nature of the employment and the workers’ immigration status.

Cross-cultural effects on graphical password memorability and design

PurposeThis study aims to examine the impact of cultural familiarity with images on the memorability of recognition-based graphical password (RBG-P).Design/methodology/approachThe researchers used a between-group design with two groups of 50 participants from China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, using a webtool and two questionnaires to test two hypotheses in a four-week long study.FindingsThe results showed that culture has significant effects on RBG-P memorability, including both recognition and recall of images. It was also found that the login success rate depreciated quickly as time progressed, which indicates the memory decay and its effects on the visual memory.Research limitations/implicationsCollectively, these results can be used to design universal RBG-Ps with maximal password deflection points. For better cross-cultural designs, designers must allow users from different cultures to personalize their image selections based on their own cultures.Practical implicationsThe RBG-P interfaces developed without consideration for users’ cultures may lead to the construction of passwords that are difficult to memorize and easy to attack. Thus, the incorporation of cultural images is indispensable for improving the authentication posture.Social implicationsThe development of RBG-P with cultural considerations will make it easy for the user population to remember the password and make it more expensive for the intruder to attack.Originality/valueThis study provides an insight for RBG-P developers to produce a graphical password platform that increases the memorability factor.

Measurement of expressive vocabulary in multilingual children using the dual-Focus approach method for test development

ABSTRACT Vocabulary tests administered on multilingual populations should take into account the unique linguistic and cultural makeup of the population by adopting test development methods that allow responses in several languages. Our aims were to develop a picture-naming test for multilingual Lebanese school-age children (L1: Lebanese, L2: French and/or English) using the dual-focus approach for test development in order to obtain test items in several languages simultaneously and examine sources of variability in performance across gender, age, and type of schooling. The test compiled pictures with high cultural familiarity, high name agreement, an age of acquisition between 3 and 9 years, and varying frequency of use based on the ratings of 8 indigenous Lebanese experts on the test content. The test was administered to 74 multilingual Lebanese children aged 3 to 9 years. Results showed that older age, studying at a private school and being female contributed to better test performance, although gender was not a significant variable when inserted in a regression model. Psychometric properties of the test revealed excellent levels of internal reliability, good item parameters and sources of validity. This study delineates a method of test construction that accommodates to multilingual individuals in a resource-limited setting.

Traditional Japanese confection overseas: Cultural difference and retronasal aroma affect flavor preference and umami perception

Food cultures differ among countries and regions. Yokan, a traditional Japanese confection, is culturally familiar to Japanese people but unfamiliar to Westerners. We investigated the effect of cultural differences and retronasal aroma on flavor preference for and taste perception of yokan among Japanese and German participants. As a control food, we also used the marshmallow, which is culturally familiar to both Japanese and German participants. Participants evaluated their preference for flavor as well as the intensity of the five basic taste qualities and retronasal aroma under the nostril-open and nostril-closed conditions. The retronasal aroma of a culturally familiar food significantly increased preference for flavor, whereas the retronasal aroma of a culturally unfamiliar food did not affect preference for flavor. Moreover, for all taste qualities, retronasal aroma induced a similar magnitude of taste enhancement between culturally familiar and unfamiliar foods, suggesting that cultural familiarity with a food does not affect taste perception. However, the retronasal aroma induced significantly greater umami enhancement in Japanese participants than in German participants, suggesting an effect of cultural familiarity with specific taste qualities on taste perception. These findings indicate that cultural differences and retronasal aroma affect flavor preference for and umami perception of food.

Harmonic organisation conveys both universal and culture-specific cues for emotional expression in music.

Previous research conducted on the cross-cultural perception of music and its emotional content has established that emotions can be communicated across cultures at least on a rudimentary level. Here, we report a cross-cultural study with participants originating from two tribes in northwest Pakistan (Khow and Kalash) and the United Kingdom, with both groups being naïve to the music of the other respective culture. We explored how participants assessed emotional connotations of various Western and non-Western harmonisation styles, and whether cultural familiarity with a harmonic idiom such as major and minor mode would consistently relate to emotion communication. The results indicate that Western concepts of harmony are not relevant for participants unexposed to Western music when other emotional cues (tempo, pitch height, articulation, timbre) are kept relatively constant. At the same time, harmonic style alone has the ability to colour the emotional expression in music if it taps the appropriate cultural connotations. The preference for one harmonisation style over another, including the major-happy/minor-sad distinction, is influenced by culture. Finally, our findings suggest that although differences emerge across different harmonisation styles, acoustic roughness influences the expression of emotion in similar ways across cultures; preference for consonance however seems to be dependent on cultural familiarity.

Türkiye’deki Suriyelilerin Kentsel Yaşam Deneyimleri: Gaziantep ve İzmir Örneği

The civil war in Syria resulted in a massive population influx into the neighboring countries since 2011. Geographical proximity of Turkey and its position as a gateway to Europe have made Turkey a host country for most Syrians refugees. Prolonging civil war in Syria and difficulties to get access to Europe compelled them to stay in Turkey. The reason why they have settled down in certain cities and difficulties that they have encountered in their everyday life merit attention to understand the very issue of refugee problems in Turkey. On that purpose, we conducted a sociological research on Syrians who settled in Gaziantep and İzmir. This paper tries to examine the degree to which Syrians are integrated into the local labour market and problems that Syrians endure in everyday life activities. The research is drawn from a fieldwork conducted on 30 semi-depth interviews in Gaziantep and 27 in İzmir. The results show that the reasons for Syrian to make a living in Gaziantep are its proximity to Syria, cultural familiarity and opportunities for Syrians entrepreneurs to do business. As for İzmir, Syrians stated its closeness to Europe, availability of jobs and better life prospect.

Seeing Red: Visuality, Violence, and the Making of Textiles in Early Medieval Enigmatic Poetry

This essay explores a group of thematically related, enigmatic poems in Old English, Anglo-Latin and Old Norse that play with gender through their representations of violent textile production. The tenth-century Exeter Book’s Riddle 56, eighth-century archbishop Tatwine’s Enigmata 11 and 13, and the traditional eddic-style poem Darraðarljóð merge the highly gendered activities of textile production and warfare, questioning binaries and naturalized categories in the process. This process ends with the containment of gender play during the act of solving and interpreting the enigmatic, which restores the status quo. In analysing the space that enigmatic poetry provides for subversive gender play, this essay argues that both types of gendered labour feed into a culture of spectacle, making witnessing and sight essential to the way the texts navigate both domains. Exploring the visibility of both textile production and violence in early medieval England, it further emphasizes that the latter encompasses not only warfare, but also criminality and martyrdom, disability, and sexualized violence. Ultimately, the visceral and highly visual nature of the poetic representations reflects a cultural familiarity with both textile-making and violence that readers with temporal distance risk overlooking.

Connecting with my Brothers: exploring Black men’s community, bonding and identities in college

ABSTRACT The current study relies on in-depth interviews with 65 Black males to explore their experiences in a Black Male Initiative (BMI) program at three different higher education institutions in the US. In discussing their narratives, the students articulate the qualitative contributions that BMI had on their sense of self and connectedness on campus. In particular, BMI helped the men formulate a micro-community, which was centered on their shared experiences and cultural familiarity and provided opportunities for them to learn more about themselves. The research findings detail the men’s bonding experiences, including ways their identities matter in how they relate to one another, connect and engage with other Black men, and learn about their race and gender identities. These findings challenge deficit projections of Black male students as underachieving and uncaring about their education (and future) and highlight some benefits they attribute to and accrue from being in community.

Nativized Texts: Cultural Clues' Role in Improving EFL Undergraduates' Reading Comprehension

Even though many studies were carried out regarding the role of cultural background knowledge in reading comprehension, still rare studies were carried in the surrounding area. Accordingly, this study aimed at exploring the potential effect of cultural clues on Al al- Bayt University undergraduates' reading comprehension at three levels: literal, inferential, and evaluative. To achieve this, seven passages, each with two versions: the original and nativized, were selected from the textbook taught at Al al- Bayt University, situated in Mafraq in the north of Jordan. The researcher used pre-experimental design (i.e., One-group pretest-posttest design). In this design, a single case is observed at two-time points (repeated measures), one before the treatment (O1), and one after the treatment (O2). Subjects were thirty-eight EFL undergraduates selected by the researcher from Al al- Bayt University in the second semester of the academic year 2019/2020.To carry out the study, all expressions and clues that carry cultural aspects in the original passages were replaced by other expressions reflecting the Jordanian culture in the nativized ones. The students then were asked to read the two versions and answer different types of questions to collect the data aimed at measuring literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension over the two versions of each passage. The collected data were analyzed using quantitative analyses. The study's findings revealed that cultural familiarity through applying nativization positively affected students' reading comprehension. More interesting is that text nativization did affect the literal level of comprehension and the inferential and evaluative ones. The current study would be fruitful for instructors and teachers in Jordan to help them develop reading comprehension in a way that would improve students' comprehension.