AlexEnglish_Psych

Cultural Psychologist, China Scholar & World Traveler

[AlexEnglish_Psych @AlexEngPsych]

@ThomasTalhelm @chicagoboothrev It was a fun study to run for sure!!

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

@SmartAirFilters @wileypublishing Credit to @AlexEngPsych for leading the project and the massive longitudinal data collection! 👏

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

The rice theory would predict higher collectivism in rice-farming areas, but check it out. Thirty years ago, it's not significant. Uh oh!

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

My team created a collectivism index uses data on living alone, living with extended family, divorce rates, and other factors. @NaturePortfolio https://t.co/8Z3ZTRROcD

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

Census data to the rescue! Researchers have used Census data to estimate collectivism, and we can get data in China going back to the 1980s. Perfect!

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

Northern and southern China have different cultures (I think) because rice required more labor and coordination than wheat in northern China. That could explain why southern China has tighter social norms and more nepotism. https://t.co/TTOyFoKUxq @AlexEngPsych @PNASNews

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

That sounds logical, but I have a hard time squaring that with this. I analyzed rice-wheat cultural differences within China over time...

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

Is this political? Maybe it has something to do with geo-political rivalries and politicians fanning the flames of culture wars.

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

People around the world used to agree more about things like the morality of suicide and the importance of teaching children perseverance. Now people agree less than they used to.

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

But there's some evidence that cultural differences are actually becoming larger! 🧐 For example, if we look at all 40 values questions in the World Values Survey going back to the 1980s, cultures have become *more different*, not more similar. Weird! https://t.co/mQuXwcSk1i

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

...and that's making cultures more similar.

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

People have the strong intuition that modernization is erasing cultural differences. The idea is that people around the world have Netflix and Starbucks now...

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

New study out in PNAS Nexus! 🚨Is modernization driving cultures farther apart?? Here it is in 60 seconds. 🧵 https://t.co/hmwSpd3gWT

[AlexEnglish_Psych @AlexEngPsych]

New Pub: With Dr. Agnes Szabo: Understanding cultural identity processes and pathways to psychological adaptation for foreign residents in China
https://t.co/uPROIi1aDA

[AlexEnglish_Psych @AlexEngPsych]

@ThomasTalhelm Maybe it's the uptick in wind in winter that makes it more noticeable?🤔

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

@blockbuster Credit to my hard-working co-authors! @liuqing_wei @AlexEngPsych 👏

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

The full text is available without a paywall. Have at it! https://t.co/8Z3ZTRRgn5

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

Fellow researchers: Use my data! 📢 The whole point of the journal Scientific Data is to validate and share datasets for other researchers to use. It's all available on the Open Science Framework: https://t.co/1HrmFjWbDO

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

And here's a taste of the types of analyses you can do with this data. Why are some places more collectivistic than others? If you know me, you guessed it--a history of rice farming! 🌾

[Thomas Talhelm @ThomasTalhelm]

But wait, is this just measuring economic development? After all, people need money to live on their own (and get divorced). It *is* correlated with GDP per capita, but not as strongly as people might think. It's just r = .04 in the latest province data! 😮