Two Key Studies of Culture & its Influence on Behaviour: Smith & Bond (1996) & Levine & Norenzayan (1999) (HL IB Psychology)

Key Study: Smith & Bond (1996)

Aim: To investigate conformity as a product of culture

Participants: The study was a meta-analysis which in total comprised 133 studies, from 17 countries which represented both collectivist and individualistic cultures. The countries included France, Fiji, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK, and the USA

Procedure:

• A meta-analysis is a quantitative research method which uses the data from previously published studies on the same topic, in this case conformity rates as measured via the Asch paradigm (1951)

• This meta-analysis used statistics to analyse the findings of cross-cultural replications of Asch’s original study (which in itself had nothing to do with culture)

• Smith & Bond combined the findings of these studies to draw an overall conclusion about rates of conformity in collectivist cultures compared to individualistic cultures

• The findings are expressed as an effect size, in the case of this study this was linked to overall rate of conformity per country

Asch (1951) is a classic study of conformity; the procedure is as follows:

• A naïve participant is asked to state which of three lines to the right of a card is the same length as the line on the left of the card, for example:

• The participant is tested individually in a room with seven confederates and is always seated towards the end of the group
  The experimenter then asks each participant in turn to state which of the three lines on the right of the card are the same length as the target line on the left of the card

• In the critical trials the confederates always give the same wrong answer, so the dependent variable is measured as the number of conforming answers to the wrong answer

• Giving the wrong answer is evidence of normative social influence as, Asch concluded, the participants give the wrong answer to an easy task in order to be accepted and liked by the majority

Results:

• The highest rates of conformity were seen in more collectivist countries: the effect size from studies in Fiji was the highest at 2.48; Hong Kong scored 1.93 and Japan scored 1.42

• The lowest rates of conformity were found in individualist countries: the effect size from studies in France was 0.56; The Netherlands scored 0.74; the USA scored 0.90

Conclusion: Conformity may be affected by culture with collectivist cultures showing more conformity than individualistic cultures.

Evaluation of Smith & Bond (1996)

Strengths

• A meta-analysis provides a large amount of quantitative data from which researchers can extract information highlighting patterns and trends in behaviour which should be reliable due to the statistical power of large numbers

• Using replications of Asch’s conformity research means that the researchers had access to the results of studies which used a standardised procedure which should ensure that there is in-built reliability

Limitations

• The reliability of the findings is compromised somewhat by the fact that there was no consistency in terms of numbers of Asch replications per country: the meta-analysis used only two studies from France and Fiji but used 79 from the USA

• A meta-analysis is a rather ‘cold’ method to use for investigating human behaviour as it is purely statistical and cannot provide any explanation as to why conformity might occur more in collectivist cultures

Key terms:

• Meta-analysis

• Asch paradigm

• Effect size

Key Study 2: Levine & Norenzayan (1999)

Aim: To investigate the cultural dimension of individualism/collectivism on pace of life i.e. how quickly/slowly people and organisations move, in a sample of large cities across the world

There were four hypotheses:

1. Cities with a higher level of economic vitality and wealth will have a faster pace of life

2. The hotter the city, the slower the pace of life will be

3. Individualistic cultures will be faster than collectivist cultures

4. The larger the city, the faster the pace of life

Participants: Cities from a sample of 31 countries across the world, both individualistic e.g. USA and collectivist e.g. Japan

Procedure:

• The researchers recruited students travelling abroad or returning home and other psychologists in the field of cross-cultural research to observe and collect data for the study.

• There were three specific categories of behaviour to be observed:

  • Walking speed of pedestrians

  • Speed of service at the post office

  • Accuracy of clocks in banks, selected at random

Results:

• The fastest pace of life was observed in Switzerland with countries in Western Europe and Japan also having high scores

• The countries with scores from the middle of the list included the USA, Eastern European countries, and more recently industrialised Asian countries

• The slowest pace of life was seen in Latin American countries, the Middle East, and non-industrialised Asian countries

• Therefore, the four hypotheses were supported by the results, for example, the hotter countries were slower; economic vitality and affluence predicted the pace of life, with the wealthier countries being faster

Conclusion: The individualistic/collectivist cultural dimension does appear to be a good predictor of the pace of life in cities

Evaluation of Levine & Norenzayan (1999)

Strengths

• There were some clear differences between individualistic and collectivist cultures in the findings which means that the study has internal validity

• The study is high in ecological validity as it was conducted in real-world settings using covert naturalistic observation

Limitations

• Myriad extraneous variables could affect the validity of the findings e.g. people may walk slowly if they are tired or have a disability; some post officer workers might simply wish to finish their shift on time and so may hurry more than at the start of their shift

• There may simply have been too many observers, spread too far across the globe e.g. one observer’s estimation of ‘fast’ or ‘slow’ is unlikely to have been identical to every other observer which would mean a lack of inter-rater reliability

Key terms:

• Pace of life 

• Economic vitality 

• Inter-rater reliability