Loose Cultures Research Articles

Embodied spatial metaphor of cultural concept from the perspective of cultural tightness–looseness: Cultural compatibility concept is closer to the body

AbstractThe body carries culture, with cultural concepts emerging from the dynamic interplay between the body and its environment. By integrating social representation theory and embodied cognition, we explored the use of embodied spatial metaphors in representing cultural tightness–looseness across three studies. In Study 1, 84 participants were randomly assigned to either a tight or loose culture group and tasked with placing cultural words within a spatial context. Participants positioned culturally compatible words closer to themselves and incompatible words farther away, illustrating the use of spatial distance metaphors to represent cultural tightness–looseness. Study 2 used an implicit task, demonstrating that people from both tight and loose cultures exhibited greater accuracy in judging culturally compatible concepts (vs. incompatible concepts) when these words were close to themselves. Study 3 unveiled distinct patterns of embodied spatial metaphors between tight and loose cultures when comparing cultural and irrelevant words. Notably, metaphors depicting nearness for culturally compatible words and farness for irrelevant words emerged exclusively in tight cultures, while such patterns were absent in loose cultures. Overall, our findings empirically support the notion that social representations are embodied, and provide embodied evidence for understanding and representing concepts related to cultural tightness–looseness.

The innovation paradox of global work: Does cultural tightness shape or constrain innovative behaviour?

AbstractDrawing on role identity, dynamic constructivism and the norm‐based model of cultural tightness, we examine the innovation paradox of whether and how congruence of home and host culture in tandem with creative role identity not only enhances but also constrains different facets of innovative behaviour for global workers. Results reveal that the effects of loose home employees' cultural tightness congruence on idea generation and idea realization behaviours depend on creative role identity (Study 1), that idea generation may be more salient in loose cultures (Study 2) and that when exposed to an incongruent tight culture, individuals temporarily switch their innovative identity content to fit the alternative cultural frame (Study 3). Our results paint a complex and dynamic picture of cultural exposure and role identity on innovative behaviour. Our results also suggest that cultural considerations and organizational interventions that shape the content of creative role identity may enhance innovative behaviours for global workers.

The role of the big geographic sort in online news circulation among U.S. Reddit users

Past research has attributed the circulation of online news to two main factors—individual characteristics (e.g., a person’s information literacy) and social media effects (e.g., algorithm-mediated information diffusion)—and has overlooked a third one: the critical mass created by the offline self-segregation of Americans into like-minded geographical regions such as states (a phenomenon called ‘The Big Sort’). We hypothesized that this latter factor matters for the online spreading of news not least because online interactions, despite having the potential of being global, end up being localized: interaction probability is known to rapidly decay with distance. Upon analysis of more than 8M Reddit comments containing news links spanning four years, from January 2016 to December 2019, we found that Reddit did not work as an ‘hype machine’ for news (as opposed to what previous work reported for other platforms, circulation was not mainly caused by platform-facilitated network effects). Rather, news circulation in Reddit worked as a supply-and-demand system: news items scaled linearly with the number of users in each state (with a scaling exponent beta approx 1, and a goodness of fit R^2approx 0.95). Furthermore, deviations from such a universal pattern were best explained by state-level personality and cultural factors (R^2approx {0.12, 0.39}), rather than socioeconomic conditions (R^2approx {0.15, 0.29}) or political characteristics (R^2approx {0.06, 0.21}). Higher-than-expected circulation of any type of news was found in states characterised by residents who tend to be less diligent in terms of their personality (low in conscientiousness) and by loose cultures understating the importance of adherence to norms (low in cultural tightness). Interestingly, the combination of those factors with low levels of education was then associated with the circulation of a particular type of news, that is, misinformation. These results suggest that online interactions are geographically bounded and, as such, news circulation cannot be studied purely as an Internet phenomenon but should be grounded into a user’s offline cultural environment, which has become increasingly segregated over the decades, and is admittedly hard to change.

Bleeding cultures a cross-cultural exploration into the behavioral outcomes of tight and loose cultural contact zones

In the era of increasing global interconnectedness and decreasing cultural insularity, investigating how individuals navigate conflicting cultural norms and behavioral choices is increasingly important. This paper focuses on the impact of the contact between religiously tight cultures and industrialized, liberalized loose cultures on menstruation-related practices and traditions. In-depth interviews conducted in Jerusalem and Mumbai revealed that the nature of contact between these two conflicting ecologies impacted which traditions are adopted and how they are molded. Diffused contact, as was witnessed in Jerusalem, leads to more hybridized behaviors, and religious and non-religious practices are performed simultaneously. Whereas a more concentrated contact, as was seen in Mumbai, leads to the performance of religious norms only in situations where figures of authority can issue sanctions. Moreover, it was also found that individuals used considerable self-reflection to decide how and which practices to adopt. These findings imply that individuals are agentic operators, and that they exert considerable influence on their environment and how they adopt the cultural norms that surround them. This paper leaves scope for further research on the nature of cultural contact zones and the role of self-reflection in the collaborative co-construction of cultural norms. This paper also hopes to provide insight towards helping resolve intra-group conflict.

Individual uniqueness in trust profiles and well-being: Understanding the role of cultural tightness-looseness from a representation similarity perspective.

This paper provides a unique perspective for understanding cultural differences: representation similarity-a computational technique that uses pairwise comparisons of units to reveal their representation in higher-order space. By combining individual-level measures of trust across domains and well-being from 13,823 participants across 15 nations with a measure of society-level tightness-looseness, we found that any two countries with more similar tightness-looseness tendencies exhibit higher degrees of representation similarity in national interpersonal trust profiles. Although each individual's trust profile is generally similar to their nation's trust profile, the greater similarity between an individual's and their society's trust profile predicted a higher level of individual life satisfaction only in loose cultures but not in tight cultures. Using the framework of representation similarity to explore cross-cultural differences from a multidimensional, multi-national perspective provide a comprehensive picture of how culture is related to the human activities.

Understanding cultural factors in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: when collectivism meets a tight culture.

The long-standing pathogen prevalence hypothesis suggests that collectivism can protect from epidemics and pandemics in terms of psychological well-being. However, studies exploring the protective mechanism induced when collectivism meets cultural tightness (the strength of social norms and tolerance for deviant behavior) are few. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the protective effect of collectivism in detail considering loose and tight cultural contexts. The sample comprised 2001 Chinese participants (Mage = 18.41 ± 2.388 years; 50.2% female). Moderated regression analyses indicated that more perceived risk of COVID-19 predicted severe mental health responses (i.e., depression and anxiety), collectivism moderated this positive relationship but individualism did not. Notably, the protective effect of collectivism is especially evident in tight cultures but ineffective in loose cultures. This study emphasized that the protective effects of collectivism on mental health during a pandemic should be considered within the framework of cultural tightness. This study’s findings may advance knowledge about the relationship between cultural type and mental health during epidemics.

Social Dominance, Sexual Double Standards, and Violence Against Women in Tight and Loose Cultures

Sexual double standards are associated with adverse consequences for women, including violence. However, little research examines sexual double standards across cultures that vary in tight or loose sexuality norms. Therefore, using social dominance theory, this study examined sexual double standards and violence against women in the United States of America (U.S., a loose culture) and Pakistan (a tight culture). We hypothesized that social dominance orientation is associated with violence against women via endorsement of sexual double standards for both the U.S. and Pakistan. We recruited 315 people in total from the U.S. ( N = 169; women = 56.3%; Mage = 29 ± 5.6 years) and Pakistan ( N = 138; women = 73%; Mage = 26 ± 5.3 years). After establishing measurement invariance for our measures, we used structural equation modeling to analyze our theoretical model in two cultural settings. Multigroup path models found support for social dominance theory’s proposition that people higher on social dominance orientation justify violence against women through their endorsement of sexual double standards in both countries, above and beyond more general attitudes toward women (i.e., ambivalent sexism). We also found that the processes (i.e., social dominance and sexual double standards) supporting violence against women are similar in the two countries. A sexual double standard is found to be strong predictor of justification of violence even after controlling for gender, ambivalent sexism, and cultural tightness/looseness for both countries. Discussion focusses on a sexual double standard may be a risk factor for violence against women in different parts of the world.

Media Exposure and Risk Perception as Predictors of Engagement in COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors: Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior Across Two Cultures

Abstract Purpose This study examined the psychological and social factors that affect the performance of preventive behaviors toward COVID-19, by testing a model based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Our model featured media exposure and social networking site (SNS) involvement, and we tested it in two highly contrasted cultures regarding COVID-19 attitudes: U.S. and Japan. Method An online survey collected 300 samples for each culture. Participation was voluntary, for monetary compensation through crowd-sourcing platforms. Findings Overall, the results showed a good fit of our TPB model in each culture. Media exposure was a major predictor of risk perception in both cultures, while engagement in SNS predicted intention to perform preventive behavior for the Japanese only, and personal hygiene was found to be a significant predictor of protective behavior once again only for the Japanese. Implications and Value While there were differences in the variables affecting preventive behaviors, overall, our proposed model proved to be robust across both cultures. Implications were made on differences between tight and loose cultures, as represented by Japan and the US, regarding COVID-19 preventive attitudes.

Erratum to: Safe Together, Vulnerable Apart: How Interstitial Space in Text Logos Impacts Brand Attitudes in Tight versus Loose Cultures

Erratum to: Safe Together, Vulnerable Apart: How Interstitial Space in Text Logos Impacts Brand Attitudes in Tight versus Loose Cultures

Social, Moral and Legal Rules, Biopolitics and the Covid-19 Crisis

Abstract The article relies on the social and legal perspective not only to better understand how norms are created and change through interactions among agents, but also to shed light on how norms are internalized in social practice. The article is organized as follows. Initially the article explores the basic assumption that deontic operators acquire their meaning via social conventions generating “personal rules” having a “mental content” which belongs to a wider “normative mind”, a mind that obviously encompasses all sorts of choices. The article then describes the different types of personal rules, distinguishing social, moral, and legal rules across the normative mind, focusing on social rules within institutions, conceived as sets of rules in equilibrium. The core of this study puts to the test the taxonomy of personal (social, moral, and legal) rules within the normative mind by exploring a situation of “dense normativity” addressed by a 2021 Lancet paper concerning findings about “tight–loose cultures” during the Covid-19 crisis, and, for the sake of explanation, focuses on one of the main normative constraints that epitomizes the challenge of the Covid-19 crisis to “tight–loose” cultures: the “wear-mask rule”. These observations can be extended to other normative constraints of that crisis, but in essence they parse the interplay between the different types of personal rules, which not only are social, but also moral and legal, drawing conclusions that complement the findings of the Lancet paper with some critical observations. The article critically concludes with remarks about the co-existence of different normative systems of personal rules in a context of biopolitics and suggests that individual morality appears to be the core of normativity to address collective threats such as those caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

Being a tough person in a tight world: Cultural tightness leads to a desire for muscularity

Compared to loose cultures, tight cultures are characterized by stronger norm adherence and sanctioning of norm deviant behavior. In the current research, we proposed that culture tightness (vs. looseness) triggers a desire for physical formidability (being big and muscular), and interpersonal dominance. Fives studies converged to support our hypotheses. Through the analysis of archival data of over 1.6 million American residents, Study 1 showed that compared to those in loose states, individuals living in tight ones have a bigger body size (higher BMI), a correlate of muscle mass and strength. Studies 2–5 (N = 1626) further demonstrated a causal relationship. As such, placing people in a simulated tight society increased their drive for muscularity of the self (but not for body fat, Studies 2 and 3, nor for others' muscularity, Study 3). This effect was further replicated in the following studies using a different manipulation method for cultural tightness (Studies 4 and 5). In addition, we found that a desire for dominance acted as a mediator in this process (Studies 4 and 5). We also differentiated dominance from a related concept – prestige (Study 5), and discussed contributions of these findings for the understanding of culture tightness-looseness.

The relationship between cultural tightness–looseness and COVID-19 cases and deaths: a global analysis

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis, yet certain countries have had far more success in limiting COVID-19 cases and deaths. We suggest that collective threats require a tremendous amount of coordination, and that strict adherence to social norms is a key mechanism that enables groups to do so. Here we examine how the strength of social norms—or cultural tightness–looseness—was associated with countries' success in limiting cases and deaths by October, 2020. We expected that tight cultures, which have strict norms and punishments for deviance, would have fewer cases and deaths per million as compared with loose cultures, which have weaker norms and are more permissive.MethodsWe estimated the relationship between cultural tightness–looseness and COVID-19 case and mortality rates as of Oct 16, 2020, using ordinary least squares regression. We fit a series of stepwise models to capture whether cultural tightness–looseness explained variation in case and death rates controlling for under-reporting, demographics, geopolitical factors, other cultural dimensions, and climate.FindingsThe results indicated that, compared with nations with high levels of cultural tightness, nations with high levels of cultural looseness are estimated to have had 4·99 times the number of cases (7132 per million vs 1428 per million, respectively) and 8·71 times the number of deaths (183 per million vs 21 per million, respectively), taking into account a number of controls. A formal evolutionary game theoretic model suggested that tight groups cooperate much faster under threat and have higher survival rates than loose groups. The results suggest that tightening social norms might confer an evolutionary advantage in times of collective threat.InterpretationNations that are tight and abide by strict norms have had more success than those that are looser as of the October, 2020. New interventions are needed to help countries tighten social norms as they continue to battle COVID-19 and other collective threats.FundingOffice of Naval Research, US Navy.

When guiding principles do not guide: The moderating effects of cultural tightness on value-behavior links.

Ample research documented the effects of guiding principles in people's lives, as reflected in personal values, on a variety of behaviors. But do these principles universally guide behaviors across all cultural contexts? To address this question, we investigated the effect of cross-cultural differences in the strength of social norms (i.e., tightness-looseness) on value-behavior relationships. Using the archival data from the World Value Survey for 24 nations (N=38,924; 51.40% female; Mage =44.98, SD=16.87), a multi-level analysis revealed that cultural tightness moderated the effects of individual differences in personal values on behaviors from different life-domains. As hypothesized, the relationships between self-transcendence values with civic involvement and pro-environmental behaviors, and between conservation values with religious behavior were significantly stronger in loose cultures that have weak norms and were almost nonexistent in tight cultures that have strong norms, even when controlling for individualism-collectivism or GDP. Thus, despite the common belief that people behave in line with their guiding principles, our findings suggest this might not be the case in cultural contexts that put a strong emphasis on norms.

Culture and extrinsic moral motives: comparisons of Japan residents and Japanese sojourners in individualistic and loose countries

Dominant theories assume that moral judgments reflect the individual’s personal beliefs, but cross-cultural findings on morality suggest that people in collectivistic and tight cultures may rely on social expectations to evaluate morally relevant actions. Moreover, moral attitudes are flexible, and people may adapt moral values in line with what the members of the host culture value. In the current research, self-construal, tightness-looseness, and extrinsic moral motives (perceptions that moral acceptability of a given action is something that people are expected to go along with others) were investigated. Japan residents who had never been abroad (n = 73) and Japanese sojourners in individualistic and loose cultures (the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy; n = 50) participated. Results showed that compared with Japan residents, Japanese sojourners reported lower extrinsic moral motives on morally relevant actions concerning communal values. Cultural tightness, but not self-construal, mediated the relationship between culture and extrinsic moral motives ratings. Among sojourners, assimilation and cultural tightness predicted higher extrinsic moral motives ratings, whereas length of residence negatively predicted the motives. These results show that people in tight cultures may make moral judgments based on what is perceived as socially appropriate, but not on what is personally important. Also, the research highlights the importance of considering the role of extrinsic moral motives in shaping moral judgments.

Cultural tightness-looseness: Its nature and missiological applications

The focus of much missionary work concerns sharing the gospel with others so that they may put their faith in Jesus Christ. However, members of some cultures are much more resistant to this than are members of other cultures. The concept of cultural tightness-looseness helps explain why some cultures are more closed to the gospel than are others. Tight cultures, in contrast to loose cultures, have strong social norms, violations of which are met with intense sanctions. Numerous recent studies reveal the antecedents, consequences, and the geographical distribution of cultural tightness-looseness. There are important missiological implications at the societal level, the individual level, and the organizational level when missionaries work in host cultures which are tighter than their home cultures. Understanding these implications can help the missionary better love and respond to the needs of members of their host culture.

Mortality salience induces men's mating strategy toward body attractiveness in long-term mating context

Sexual attitudes are influenced by social norms, with an open sexual attitude in loose cultures (e.g., United States), and a conservative sexual attitude in tight cultures (e.g., China). Previous studies have found that men prefer women's face in long-term mating context and prefer women's body in short-term mating context in loose culture. However, whether men in tight culture prefer women's body in one-night stand mating context is unknown. Moreover, previous studies have shown that mortality salience has an influence on human's reproductive behaviors, however, it is unclear how mortality salience affects men's mating preferences. Experiment 1 replicated the previous findings showing that men prefer women's face in long-term mating context (girlfriend), and prefer women's body in short-term mating context (one-night stand) in tight culture. Moreover, experiment 2 found that after priming with death, men in the long-term context prefer women's body more than that in control priming group, and they also rated higher importance of body in mating selection than that in control group. Our results suggested that mortality salience induces men's mating strategy toward body attractiveness in long-term mating context.

Book review: Rule makers, rule breaker: How tight and loose cultures wire our world

Book review: Rule makers, rule breaker: How tight and loose cultures wire our world

Reaction to norm transgressions and Islamization threat in culturally tight and loose contexts: a cross-cultural comparison of Germany versus Russia

Prior research shows that North Americans and Western Europeans react to threats with defensive strategies based on behavioral approach vs. inhibition systems (BAS/BIS)—i.e., a desire to approach a goal or to avoid a threat. In the present research, we explored whether this phenomenon is more pronounced in tight cultures (e.g., Germany) as compared to loose cultures (e.g., Russia), testing how Germans and Russians respond to societal threats. We expected that due to the higher levels of cultural tightness, Germans would show stronger defensive reactions to threats than Russians. Additionally, we investigated the role of need for tightness (i.e., need for strict regulation of social order) in threat management processes. In Study 1, Germans recalling violations of societal norms produced stronger rightward bias on the line bisection task than Russians, indicative of greater BAS activation in Germans than in Russians. In Study 2, we used frontal alpha asymmetry, providing the first cross-cultural test of BIS-BAS reactions utilizing neuronal markers. In this study, presentation of societal threat in a video portraying Islamic immigration as a large-scale violation of social norms led to higher BIS activation among Germans than among Russians, if their need for tightness was high. We discuss the role of tightness, need for tightness, and type of threat for cross-cultural particularities of threat-induced motivational shifts.

A tale of two cultures: Social networks and competitive advantage

To study how firm networks function in different cultures, we employ meta-analysis methods to examine the impacts of tightness-looseness and individualist-collectivist cultures on the links between network centrality/structural holes and competitive advantage. Based on a sample from 74 studies encompassing 30,930 samples, we find that network centrality has a stronger positive impact on competitive advantage than structural holes. In addition, the findings indicate that the positive impacts of both network centrality and structural holes on competitive advantage are higher in loose cultures than in tight cultures. We also find that the positive impacts of both network centrality and structural holes on competitive advantage are higher in individualist cultures than in collectivist cultures.

The effect of cultural tightness–looseness on fraud perception in insurance services

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how cultural tightness may influence consumers’ attitudes toward insurance services and occurrence of insurance fraud.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on Gelfand et al.’s (2011) theory of tight and loose cultures, the authors theorize that perceived wrongness of insurance fraud, fraud occurrence and perceived risk of being caught depend on the cultural tightness. Using field data from a global European social survey (ESS), the authors investigate these differences across two fairly different European countries – Norway (i.e. tight culture) and Ukraine (i.e. loose culture).FindingsConsumers from tight culture report less tolerance for insurance fraud (inflating insurance claim) are less likely to commit an insurance fraud, and they perceive higher level of risk of being caught than their counterparts from loose culture (Ukraine).Practical implicationsUnderstanding cultural variability in attitude toward insurance fraud, the occurrence of insurance fraud and the sensitivity to the risk of being caught could enrich the authors knowledge about how to prevent insurance fraud.Social implicationsConsumer protection agencies, consumer educators and policymakers could all benefit from understanding cultural variability in attitude toward fraud. This will potentially help to design effective learning and education programs to sensitize customers to the illegal and unethical aspects of fraudulent behaviors.Originality/valueInsurance fraud is a universal issue and exists in many European countries, yet no previous work has investigated the effect of cultural tightness–looseness on fraud perception.