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This paper examines Croatian national culture value dimensions, employee leadership behavior preferences, and their relationships. The analysis confirms Croatia's cultural homogeneity revealing no statistically notable cultural difference between its two main regions (Adriatic and Continental Croatia). The research highlights cultural inclination towards Individualism, indicating a value for personal autonomy, individual aspirations, and a family-centric orientation. Croatia demonstrated a weak tendency to Uncertainty Avoidance, pointing to a cultural openness towards risks, changes, and new challenges. Some significant relationships between cultural value dimensions and preferences for leadership behaviors are found. Through its significant results, this study contributes to the understanding of Croatian societal values and leadership preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and the steps governments took to combat it tormented societies across the globe. Accordingly, existential positive psychologists have emphasized the importance of self-transcendence in mitigating the distress and agony caused by prolonged and rigorous health measures. In this cross-cultural study, the correlation between self-transcendence, people's confidence in government, and democracy was examined. Based on the findings of an online survey (n = 36,304) conducted in 16 societies in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the multi-level analysis established that self-transcendence had a negative relationship with people's confidence in their own government, especially in less democratic societies. Besides expanding the Schwartz theory of basic values and inspiring theoretical developments for new research, this paper recommends that related institutions obtain community consent before pushing out strict health measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-cultural scientists evaluate constructs across different cultural and linguistic groups. However, to make valid comparisons it is necessary to assure the equivalence of measurement instruments across populations. In this paper we use multidimensional scaling (MDS) to evaluate the structural equivalence of a measure of assertiveness developed originally for Mexican culture across Mexican and Spanish samples. 316 students from the Autonomous University of Yucatan (Mexico) and 316 students from the University of Granada (Spain) responded to the questionnaire. Separate dimensions were needed to account for the structure of the assertiveness questionnaire across the Mexican and Spanish samples. However, the distinction between dimensions was different in both samples. The results suggest that culture determines which assertive behaviors are considered appropriate. The usefulness of MDS for evaluating the equivalence of psychological questionnaires is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic created stressors and uncertainty, particularly for women. This international study explored whether the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's stressful experiences and future expectations is associated with Hofstede's cultural dimension of femininity/masculinity, which refers to the cultural constructions of gender role differences. In total, 1218 women from 15 countries varying in cultural femininity/masculinity provided narrative data by answering open-ended questions via an online survey. Data were analysed using mixed methods, starting with thematic content analysis followed by logistic regression analyses. The findings from the regression analysis indicate that many stresses and expectations that were mentioned in the narratives were unrelated to the cultural femininity/masculinity. However, women from masculine cultures more often expressed disorientation, while women from feminine cultures more often wrote about negative emotions. Additionally, women from masculine cultures had more future expectations regarding daily activities, while women from feminine cultures had more expectations regarding social activities, work and economic revival, and universal social issues. The pandemic seems to confront women in both types of culture with similar challenges. The differences between women from feminine versus masculine cultures indicate that increased societal participation and responsibilities of women in feminine cultures was associated with negative affect during the pandemic, but they also propelled plentiful expectations for the future "after COVID-19". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected 222 countries and territories around the globe. Notably, the speed of COVID-19 spread varies significantly across countries. This cross-cultural research proposes and empirically examines how national culture influences the speed of COVID-19 spread in three studies. Study 1 examines the effects of Hofstede's national cultural dimensions on the speed of COVID-19 spread in 60 countries. Drawing on the GLOBE study (House et al., 2004), Study 2 investigates how GLOBE cultural dimensions relate to the speed of the pandemic's spread in 55 countries. Study 3 examines the effect of cultural tightness in 31 countries. We find that five national cultural dimensions – power distance, uncertainty avoidance, humane orientation, in-group collectivism, and cultural tightness – are significantly related to the speed of COVID-19 spread in the initial stages, but not in the later stages, of the pandemic. Study 1 shows that the coronavirus spreads faster in countries with small power distance and strong uncertainty avoidance. Study 2 supports these findings and further reveals that countries with low humane orientation and high in-group collectivism report a faster spread of the disease. Lastly, Study 3 shows that COVID-19 spreads slower in countries with high cultural tightness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study finds a common statistical pattern in all major quantitative studies of cultural differences, and discusses theories that explain this pattern. 92 cultural variables from 33 published cross-cultural studies including 125 countries are analyzed with an advanced factor analysis method. The study confirms previous findings that two factors can account for a large part of the variation in all major published cultural variables. While many previously published cultural variables represent arbitrarily rotated factor analysis results, the present study is improving the explanatory power by un-rotating the factors and by incorporating new theories that link cultural values to conditions in the physical and social environment. The first factor, accounting for 34% of the total variance, reflects general effects of development and welfare. This factor is explained by theories of development, modernization, emancipation, and secularization. This includes psychological effects of collective security that are explained by evolutionary psychology. The dimension formed by the first factor has one end in poor and war-torn countries, and the opposite end in North European welfare states. The second factor, accounting for 15% of the total variance, reflects relational mobility, long-term versus short-term orientation, differences in self-construal, and various other effects. Theoretical explanations of these effects are based on differences in subsistence economy, colonial history, ethnic diversity, and religion. The second factor has one end in East Asian countries, and the opposite end in Latin American countries. Analysis of business culture reveals the same two-factor pattern as national culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapport is a fundamental psychological construct and understanding it conceptually, including how it is perceived in social interactions, may have a crucial impact on human relations. Culture may be a key that can disentangle and elucidate dynamic characteristics about the nature of rapport as culture provides different and unique meaning systems. We examined cultural similarities and differences in social perceptions of rapport in a context in which interactants had different cultural/ethnic backgrounds. Observers from three very different culture/language groups rated their perceptions about the quality of rapport along 11 conceptually theorized rapport dimensions in video clips presenting one-on-one interviews that differed in their rapport levels. The observer ratings reduced to the same two dimensions across all observer groups, Positivity and Negativity, and there were considerable cultural similarities, along with some differences, in perceptions of rapport across videos. We discussed these findings concerning future theory and research on rapport in various contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individualism and collectivism are some of the most widely applied concepts in cultural and cross-cultural research. They are commonly applied by scholars who use arithmetic means or sum indexes of items on a scale to examine the potential similarities and differences in samples from various countries. For many reasons, cross-cultural research implicates numerous methodological and statistical pitfalls. The aim of this article is to summarize some of those pitfalls, particularly the problem of measurement non-invariance, which stems from the different understandings of questionnaire items or even different character of constructs between countries. This potential bias is reduced by latent mean comparisons performed with Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis and the Measurement Invariance procedure within a Structural Equation Modeling framework. These procedures have been neglected by many researchers in the field of cross-cultural psychology, however. In this article, we compare 'traditional' (comparison of arithmetic means) and 'invariant' (latent mean comparison) approaches and provide necessary R source codes for replications of measurement invariance and latent mean comparisons within other scales. Both approaches are demonstrated with real data gathered on an Independent and Interdependent Self-Scale from 1386 participants across six countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia and Albania). Our results revealed considerable differences between the 'invariant' and 'traditional' approaches, especially in post-hoc analyses. Since 'invariant' results can be considered less biased, this finding suggests that the currently prevalent method of comparing the arithmetic means of cross-cultural scales of individualism and collectivism can potentially cause biased results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared three types of resilience (individual, community, and national resilience), two indicators of distress (sense of danger and distress symptoms) and wellbeing, among samples from Israel, Brazil, and the Philippines, during the "first-wave" of COVID-19 pandemic. Though significant differences were found among the samples regarding all variables, similarities were also emerged. Individual resilience and wellbeing negatively predicted distress symptoms in each sample, and women of all samples reported higher level of distress-symptoms compared with men. The differences between the samples are presented and discussed. Understanding the similarities and the differences, between these cultures, may help developing efficient countermeasures tailored to each country. This knowledge may promote efficient health policy to foster people's ability to cope with the hardship and to prevent future psychological and health implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research aimed to examine the reasons people are single, that is, not in an intimate relationship, across eight different countries—Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, and the UK. We asked a large cross-cultural sample of single participants (N = 6,822) to rate 92 different possible reasons for being single. These reasons were classified into 12 factors, including one's perceived inability to find the right partner, the perception that one is not good at flirting, and the desire to focus on one's career. Significant sex and age effects were found for most factors. The extracted factors were further classified into three separate domains: Perceived poor capacity to attract mates, desiring the freedom of choice, and currently being in between relationships. The domain structure, the relative importance of each factor and domain, as well as sex and age effects were relatively consistent across countries. There were also important differences however, including the differing effect sizes of sex and age effects between countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and development (R&D) investments are a key issue for companies. In an increasingly competitive economy, R&D can be a source of competitive advantage. Therefore, a profuse research line on the reasons that can motivate firms for R&D investment has emerged. Theoretical frameworks include the resource-based theory, the creative destruction model, the domestic competitive pressure model, and the exposure to international competition model, among others. However, the culture of the country is not widely used as an explanatory variable. Therefore, in this article we will test the extent to which R&D intensity in European countries may be explained by cultural dimensions. Our study included observations from 6,919 firm-year data from 1,517 firms in a sample of 13 European countries. The results support the idea that culture influences R&D intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study whether having several siblings decreases the level of educational performance of adolescents and whether this phenomenon can be compensated by other factors such as the economic or cultural resources of the parents. Based on this compensation model, parental resources should be associated with children’s educational attainments more strongly in families with a higher rather than a lower number of children. We analyzed the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from 20 Western countries and found that better family wealth, an increased level of parental education, and a higher parental occupational status were associated with increased educational attainments more strongly among 15-year-old children who have siblings than among children without siblings. The same effect was not found in the case of family cultural possessions. Although parental resources may matter more in larger families than in smaller families, some types of resources are more important than others regarding compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the connection of love styles with relationship satisfaction on the basis of cross-cultural research, including Bosnia, Germany, Romania, Russia, and German immigrants from Russia and Turkey. Love styles include romantic love, friendship love, game-playing love, possessive love, altruistic love, and pragmatic love. The validation of the measurement model across cultural groups was successful because partial measurement invariance was secured, which allows for the application of correlation, regression, and path analysis. Results indicate that the effects of love styles on relationship satisfaction were consistent across cultures with the exception of game-playing love that negatively predicted relationship satisfaction for Germans, Romanians, and Turkish migrants but not for Bosnians, Russians, and Russian migrants. In addition, cultural variation occurred with respect to the strength of the associations. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to universality and cultural relativity. In general, the effect of love styles on well-being turned out to be manifold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-national research links decline in religiosity with improved living conditions due to economic development. These associations were examined in data from Gallup polls conducted in 50 U.S. states. Correlational analysis found that state religiosity (or importance attributed to religion) declined with economic development (state Human Development Index [HDI]). Positive correlates of religiosity included state hypertension levels (used as an index of psychological stress), Southern location, and the proportion of the population that was African American. Regression analysis found that the largest predictors of religiosity were HDI and African American population. The greater religiosity of states with more African American population was statistically explained in terms of stress (hypertension) and racism (Southern location). This is the first systematic study of state or ethnic variation in U.S. religiosity. Results provide further support for the existential security hypothesis of religious belief and support adaptive environmental explanations of societal variation in religiosity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigated the dimensionality, measurement invariance, and cross-cultural variations of social desirability. A total of 3,471 university students from 20 countries completed an adapted version of the Marlowe–Crowne scale. A two-dimensional structure was revealed in the pooled sample, distinguishing enhancement (endorsement of positive self-description) and denial (rejection of negative self-description). The factor structure was supported in most countries; medium-sized item bias was found in two denial items. In a multilevel analysis, we found that (a) there was more cross-cultural variation in denial than enhancement; (b) females tended to score higher on enhancement whereas males tended to score higher on denial; (c) the Human Development Index, an indicator of country socioeconomic development, was the best (negative) predictor of denial; and (d) both enhancement and denial seemed to be associated with country-level values and personality pertinent to “fitting in.” We conclude that social desirability has a positive and a negative impression management dimension that are meaningfully associated with country-level characteristics, and we argue that social desirability is better interpreted as culturally regulated response amplification. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines home advantage (HA) in association football (soccer). HA is the tendency for teams to perform better when playing on their home ground than when playing away. National variations in HA are found to be related to national cultural and social characteristics. HA tends to be elevated in countries with high levels of collectivism and in-group favoritism, and in countries where governance is prone to corruption and where the rule of law is not strictly adhered to. These findings are consistent with the concept of HA as a social phenomenon that derives from the influence of spectators on the match officials. HA is also found to be elevated in countries with diverse terrain, but the effects of culture persist even when diversity of terrain is controlled for. On the other hand, the hypothesis that HA is elevated in the presence of large crowds or potentially violent spectators was not supported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents a cross-cultural analysis that explores the relationship between the importance of gossip and institutionalization. It is reasoned that as institutionalization increases, so does the difficulty of attaining direct information about events and people that would be consequential for any given individual. As a result, gossip should increase with institutionalization, and complexity generally. This general hypothesis is tested against data from a sample of recent and historical societies. The analysis finds support for the hypothesis and also explores the relationship between gossip and gender autonomy. The results are discussed in terms of understanding gossip as a strategy for attaining information when direct information gathering is inhibited by one’s social structural circumstances. The article closes with a discussion of possible implications for contemporary societies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The personality stereotypes of two Finno-Ugric ethnic groups, Erzians and Mokshans, who live together with Russians in the Republic of Mordovia, Russian Federation, were studied. As in previous studies, we found little support for the idea that ethnic personality stereotypes describe accurately, or even in an exaggerated manner, actual personality dispositions to think, feel, and behave in a characteristic way. The mean self-reported personality traits of participants were mostly identical, irrespective of the ethnic group they belong to. Erzians’ personality stereotypes about a typical Mokshan and, in turn, Mokshans’ stereotypes about a typical Erzian were socially less favorable compared with the way in which both ethnic groups perceived a typical Russian and, especially, a representative of their own ethnic group. As both in-group and out-group personality stereotypes were largely unfounded, there was no support for the primordial or essentialist account of ethnic stereotypes. The main function of the polarization of personality stereotypes may, thus, be symbolic self-identification and differentiation from other very similar ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study aims to develop a short form of the Perceived Political Self-Efficacy scale (PPSE-S). The psychometric properties of the short form were first investigated in an Italian sample (n = 697), and compared with those of the extended version. The cross-cultural replicability of the short form was then investigated in Spain (n = 354), and Greece (n = 270). Finally, the relations between the PPSE-S and several indicators of political participation were assessed in each country. Results from confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) supported the unidimensionality of the PPSE-S. Reliability and criterion validity of the short- and the full-length scales were found to be substantially equivalent. Multigroup CFA provided evidence of measurement invariance across Italy, Spain, and Greece. Perceived political efficacy was positively related to political engagement in a stable and consistent way across the three countries. In light of these results, the usefulness and applicability of the PPSE-S for large-scale surveys were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied collective identity and psychological well-being in Bulgarian adolescents (305 mainstreamers, 278 Turkish-Bulgarians, and 183 Muslim-Bulgarians). Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian minorities (ethnic Bulgarians converted to Islam during the Ottoman Empire) have been subjected to severe assimilation policies until recently. A multigroup confirmatory analysis showed that ethnic, religious, and familial identities were significantly and positively related to a single underlying factor we labeled collective identity. Bulgarian identity was unrelated to collective identity in the Turkish-Bulgarian group. As expected, mainstream adolescents showed a stronger Bulgarian and weaker religious identity than Turkish-Bulgarian and Muslim-Bulgarian adolescents. In all groups, individuals with a stronger collective identity reported higher levels of well-being. We conclude that the concept of collective identity is useful to link various identity components to well-being of youth from different ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moderator role of perceived parental power and prestige in relation to perceived parental acceptance and adolescents' psychological adjustment was analyzed in this study. The sample consisted of 306 adolescents (45% males) within the age range of 16 through 20 years (M = 17.23). Measures used were the child versions of Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the youth version of Parental Power-Prestige Questionnaire, and the youth version of Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Results showed that both maternal acceptance and paternal acceptance were significantly correlated with youth's psychological adjustment, regardless of sex. Neither power nor prestige was significantly correlated with psychological adjustment. Power and prestige were, however, correlated with maternal acceptance among females, but not among males. In addition, parental prestige was negatively correlated with paternal acceptance among females. After controlling for the effects of age, hierarchical multiple regression showed that only perceived maternal acceptance made a unique contribution to the psychological adjustment of females, and only perceived paternal acceptance made a unique contribution to the adjustment of males. However, interpersonal power moderated the relationship between perceived maternal acceptance and females' psychological adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the relationship between perceived paternal and maternal acceptance, parental power and prestige, and psychological adjustment, having in mind national and international gender equality indicators. The sample consisted of 785 Portuguese college students, 44% of whom were men. The participants ranged in age from 18 through 62 years (M = 22.38). Measures used were Portuguese translations of the adult versions of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, and the Personality Assessment Questionnaire, as well as the Parental Power-Prestige Questionnaire. Gender differences were found only in perceived parental power, with men perceiving fathers as being more powerful than did women. The study concluded that parental power (especially paternal power) moderated the relation between perceived paternal acceptance and women's psychological adjustment. However, parental prestige (especially paternal prestige) moderated the relation between perceived paternal acceptance and men's psychological adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of 168 children ages 7 through 12 years (M = 10.49 years) from Northern Greece (47.9% boys) was drawn to explore whether interpersonal power or prestige moderated relationships between paternal and/or maternal acceptances and children's psychological adjustment. Child versions of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (mother and father forms), the Personality Assessment Questionnaire, and the youth version of the Parental Power-Prestige Questionnaire were used. Both boys' and girls' psychological adjustment was significantly correlated with perceived paternal acceptance, but only girls' adjustment was significantly correlated with maternal acceptance. In addition, girls' perceptions of parental prestige were negatively correlated with paternal acceptance. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that boys' adjustment was marginally predicted by their perception of paternal (but not maternal) acceptance, whereas girls' adjustment was uniquely and significantly predicted by their perception of maternal (but not paternal) acceptance. Finally, parental prestige moderated the relationship between perceived maternal acceptance and both boys' and girls' psychological adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explored the effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance, parental power, and parental prestige on adolescents' psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 269 high school students (48% boys) ages 15 through 19 years (M = 15.75) from Zagreb, Croatia. The measures used were the child versions of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the youth version of the Parental Power-Prestige Questionnaire, and the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Perceived maternal and paternal acceptances were significantly correlated with youth's psychological adjustment. Paternal acceptance, power, and prestige were positively intercorrelated among males. Maternal acceptance, power, and prestige were negatively intercorrelated among females. Neither power nor prestige was correlated with youth's psychological adjustment. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both perceived maternal and paternal acceptance made significant independent contributions to the psychological adjustment of both males and females. Finally, parental power made an independent contribution to females' (but not males') psychological adjustment. Neither power nor prestige moderated the relation between perceived parental acceptance and youth's psychological adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explored the effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance, power, and prestige on children's psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 254 children (59% boys) ages 9 through 12 years (M = 10.88) from Bangladesh. The measures used were the child versions of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, the youth version of the Parental Power-Prestige Questionnaire, and the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Results showed that perceived maternal and paternal acceptance were significantly correlated with children's (both boys' and girls') psychological adjustment. However, neither power nor prestige was significantly correlated with either maternal or paternal acceptance, or with children's psychological adjustment. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both perceived maternal and paternal acceptance made significant independent contributions to children's psychological adjustment. In addition, perceived maternal (but not paternal) power significantly moderated the relation between perceived maternal acceptance and children's psychological adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines commonalities and differences in the value theories proposed by Ronald Inglehart and Shalom Schwartz. A systematic review of previous findings was conducted. Then, we showed, with a joint multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis, that Schwartz’s Embeddedness versus Autonomy dimension tends to lie at the diagonal of the Inglehart Cultural Map of the World, suggesting that in order to be autonomous/open, individuals need to have both self-expressive and secular-rational values, whereas being embedded /conservative involves both traditional and survival values. Two distinct regions of Schwartz’s values (one at each level) which are missed by Inglehart’s instrument were identified. At the same time, an MDS plot revealed that, at the individual level, Inglehart’s Survival values are not captured by the Schwartz’s items included. The obtained structures at the two levels of analysis were shown to be remarkably similar (Tucker’s Φ > .90). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin color is one of the first features that we notice in another person and, therefore, it plays a significant role in the mate selection process as well as in the assessments of attractiveness of others. However, almost all modern research showing a preference for lighter skin tone (particularly in women) was conducted within populations of relatively light skin color. The current study was conducted among the Yali people, who are dark-skinned and native to the isolated highlands of West Papua. We found that for both males (n = 53) and females (n = 53) preferred skin tone was either average or slightly lighter than the average. At the same time, we found that the male preference for lighter skin tone in females was correlated with contact with other cultures. We discuss our results in the context of social and biological theories explaining skin tone preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study aims to compare the value structure of university students from postcommunist Turkic republics and Turkey within the framework of Schwartz and Bardi’s (1997) acclimation and compensation hypothesis. Participants from four Turkic republics (N = 269; Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan) and Turkey (N = 286) completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire. The results indicated that students from postcommunist countries reported higher levels of embeddedness and lower levels of intellectual autonomy, affective autonomy, and egalitarianism than Turkish students. No difference was found regarding mastery, harmony, and hierarchy values. This study provided support for the acclimation and compensation hypothesis, except for the hierarchy values. The findings were discussed considering the continuous social change in these countries and its implications for the dynamism of value structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sports have been frequently explored in cross-cultural studies, yet scant attention has been paid to female participation. Here we coded the occurrence of sports and related activities for males and females in the societies comprising the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) probability sample. We then tested several predictions derived from evolutionary theory. As predicted, in all 50 societies with documented sports, there were more male sports than female sports; hunting and combat sports were almost exclusively male activities; and the sex difference in sports was greater in patriarchal than in nonpatriarchal societies. These results show that a robust sex difference in direct physical competition co-occurs with meaningful variation in its expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the changes in attitudes about sexuality, gender equality, and intimate partner violence within the context of modernization. Revised modernization theory predicts that increasing development leads to greater levels of egalitarian gender values and liberal sexual mores as part of a larger change in society. Our analysis leads to the conclusion that although both these sets of attitudes are a part of the movement towards postmaterialist values, in the context of intimate partner violence, different dynamics prevail at different levels of development. Using regression analysis and data from the fifth wave of the World Values Survey, we find a significant relationship between attitudes towards intimate partner violence, egalitarian gender values and liberal sexual mores. In general, liberal attitudes towards sexuality do not necessarily mean a lower tolerance for intimate partner violence. Crucially, the relationship between these three sets of values depends on the level of development. We find that in agrarian and industrial societies, higher levels of liberal sexual mores with lower levels of egalitarian gender values lead to a higher level of support for intimate partner violence against women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current meta-analysis examines cross-national differences in justice-work attitude and behavior associations to identify underlying justice motives, that is, when and why people pay attention to justice. A three-level meta-analysis with 54,100 participants from 36 countries was conducted. Income inequality and cultural values were used as moderators after statistically controlling for unreliability of measures. Systematic cross-national differences in justice effects were found. Associations of justice with other work variables are stronger if there is greater income inequality, people expect their leaders and institutions to foster commitment and loyalty (institutional collectivism) and individuals identify with their close in-groups (in-group collectivism). This suggests that belongingness (collectivism) and control (income inequality) motives are important. Implications for justice theories and cross-cultural research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It was hypothesized that societies that put greater emphasis on men being rigidly committed to culturally accepted models of masculinity (nations with high Hofstede MASculinity scores) would report higher mean national levels of masculine gender role stress (MGRS) than societies that emphasize such to a clearly lesser extent (low national MAS scores). Supporting this expectation, a large country-level correlation of +.64 (p = .01) was found across 13 countries (n = 6,420) between national MAS scores and national MGRS scores. In line with previous findings, Hofstede’s MAS measure was found to be conceptually distinct from Bem’s measure of instrumentality. Implications for intervention and further studies are briefly pinpointed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to the uncertainty hypothesis, religion declines as the quality of life improves. Replicating an earlier study with religious disbelief as the DV, it was predicted that religiosity would decline in developed countries due to greater existential security, including income security (income equality and redistribution via welfare states) and improved health. This study used a uniform data source, improving on the heterogeneous surveys tapped in the earlier work. Predictions were tested by correlation and regression analysis of 114 countries that controlled for Communism and Islamic religion. Religiosity declined with economic and social development (measured by lower agricultural employment and third-level enrollment). income security (low Gini coefficient, high personal taxation tapping the welfare state), and health security (low pathogen prevalence, marginally significant in the regression analysis). Results show that religiosity declines as material security increases, consistent with the uncertainty hypothesis, replicating the earlier study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Compliance-without-pressure techniques have been widely studied in North America and West Europe. Among these techniques, the “but you are free” (BYAF) is a verbal compliance procedure that solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling a person that he or she is free to accept or refuse the request. This technique is interpreted with the commitment theory and the psychological reactance theory which are more relevant in individualistic cultures than in collectivist cultures. So, four studies compared the efficiency of the BYAF technique in collectivist cultures (Ivory Coast, Russia, and China) and in individualist cultures (France and Romania). As suggested in the hypothesis, our analysis indicated that the BYAF technique will be much less successful in more collectivist cultures. Such results underline the importance of considering specific cultural contexts in social influence studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human culture appears to build on itself—that is, to be to some extent cumulative. Whether this property is shared by culture in the common chimpanzee is controversial. The question previously has been approached, qualitatively (and inconclusively), by debating whether any chimpanzee culture traits have resulted from individuals building on one another’s work (“ratcheting”). The fact that the chimpanzees at different sites have distinctive repertoires of traits affords a different avenue of approach: determining whether the traits accumulate, site to site, in a structure more orderly than would be expected by chance. Here we use Guttman scalograms and a gamma-type statistic to bring the first quantitative evidence to bear on the question. We show that while traditional methods provide apparent support for a cumulative tendency, our more rigorous methods do not. This may be because cumulativeness requires human-like social-learning mechanisms, or because culture generally is not sufficiently unidimensional to scale well. A cumulative tendency would be expected, however, under rather weak assumptions; therefore it seems more likely that chimpanzee culture is cumulative, but this data set is simply too small to evidence it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]