On the Nature and Importance of Cultural Tightness-Looseness

Cross-cultural research is dominated by the use of values despite their mixed empirical support and their limited theoretical scope. This article expands the dominant paradigm in crosscultural research by developing a theory of cultural tightness-looseness, the strength of social norms and degree of sanctioning within societies, and advancing a multilevel research agenda for future research. Through an exploration of the top-down, bottom-up, and moderating impact that societal tightness-looseness has on individuals and organizations, as well as on variability across levels of analysis, the theory provides a new and complementary perspective to the values approach

Acting professional: An exploration of culturally bounded norms against nonwork role referencing

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99049/1/job1874.pd

Negotiating Relationally: The Dynamics of the Relational Self In Negotiations

Although negotiation research is thriving, it has been criticized as having an arelational bias—emphasizing autonomy, competition, and rationality over interdependence, cooperation, and relationality. In this article, we advance a new model of relationality in negotiation. Drawing on research in social psychology, we describe the construct of relational self-construals (RSC) and present a temporal model of RSC and negotiation. After delineating the conditions through which RSC becomes accessible in negotiation and conditions that inhibit its use, we discuss how RSC affects negotiators\u27 pre-negotiation psychological states, early and later tactics, and negotiation outcomes. We illustrate a number of distinct relational dynamics that can occur based on the dyadic composition of RSC, each of which brings distinct benefits and costs to the negotiation table. Implications for the science and practice of negotiation are discussed

The Moral Foundations of Desired Cultural Tightness

People vary on their desire for strict norms, and the moral underpinnings of these differences have yet to be explored. The current research examined whether and how moral beliefs held by individuals would affect the extent to which they want their country to be tight (i.e., having strict social norms) or loose (i.e., having more permissive social norms). In particular, the effects of the "binding" and "individualizing" foundations, which are moral beliefs focused on the importance of groups and individuals, respectively, were examined. We hypothesized that the binding foundations could predict people's desire for cultural tightness. We also hypothesized that the perception that one's society is threatened may drive this effect. Three studies were conducted using both cross-sectional (Studies 1 and 3) and two-wave (Study 2) designs. Demographic variables and participants' political orientation effects were controlled. In Study 1, only the binding foundations significantly predicted higher desired tightness. In Study 2, binding foundations predicted desired tightness measured at follow-up. In Study 3, the positive effect of perceived threat on desired tightness via the binding foundations was confirmed. From additional within-paper analyses we also have some evidence of significant relationships, albeit unstable across studies, between desired tightness and individualizing foundations

Culture and Egocentric Perceptions of Fairness in Conflict and Negotiation

In this article, the authors advanced a cultural view of judgment biases in conflict and negotiation. The authors predicted that disputants’ self-serving biases of fairness would be more prevalent in individualistic cultures, such as the United States, in which the self is served by focusing on one’s positive attributes to “stand out” and be better than others, yet would be attenuated in collectivistic cultures, such as Japan, where the self is served by focusing on one’s negative characteristics to “blend in” (S. J. Heine, D. R. Lehman, H. R. Markus, & S. Kitayama, 1999). Four studies that used different methodologies (free recall, scenarios, and a laboratory experiment) supported this notion. Implications for the science and practice of negotiation are discussed

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = −0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics

A tight spot: How personality moderates the impact of social norms on sojourner adaptation

When living abroad, how do you navigate the norms of your new culture? Taking an interactionalist perspective, we examine how contextual factors and personality traits jointly affect sojourner's adaptation. We hypothesized that tightness (strong, rigidly imposed norms) of the host culture would be associated with lower levels of adaptation, and that tightness of the home culture would be associated with higher levels of adaptation. Further, we proposed that the impact of tightness should be dependent on personality traits associated with navigating social norms (agreeableness, conscientiousness, and honesty-humility). Longitudinal data were analyzed from intercultural exchange students (N = 889) travelling from and to 23 different countries. Multilevel Modeling showed that sojourners living in a tighter culture had poorer adaptation than those in a looser culture. In contrast, sojourners originating from a tighter culture showed better adaptation. The negative effect of cultural tightness was moderated by agreeableness and honesty-humility, but not conscientiousness

The partition function of interfaces from the Nambu-Goto effective string theory

We consider the Nambu-Goto bosonic string model as a description of the physics of interfaces. By using the standard covariant quantization of the bosonic string, we derive an exact expression for the partition function in dependence of the geometry of the interface. Our expression, obtained by operatorial methods, resums the loop expansion of the NG model in the "physical gauge" computed perturbatively by functional integral methods in the literature. Recently, very accurate Monte Carlo data for the interface free energy in the 3d Ising model became avaliable. Our proposed expression compares very well to the data for values of the area sufficiently large in terms of the inverse string tension. This pattern is expected on theoretical grounds and agrees with previous analyses of other observables in the Ising model.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure