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News Release 11-106

World-Wide Assessment Determines Differences in Cultures

Ukraine, Israel, Brazil and the United States are "loose" cultures

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Photo of a suburban street in Marne, Germany.

University of Maryland Psychology Professor Michele Gelfand and colleagues found that countries such as Japan, Korea, Singapore and Pakistan are much tighter whereas countries such as the Ukraine, Israel, Brazil and the United States are looser. This is a suburban street in Marne, Germany, one of the tighter countries surveyed.

Credit: © 2011 Jupiter Images Corporation

 

University of Maryland Psychology Professor Michele Gelfand discusses recent research that investigates the "tightness" and "looseness" of 33 countries. "Tight" refers to nations that have strong social norms and low tolerance for deviation from those norms, whereas another term, "loose," refers to nations with weak social norms and a high tolerance for deviation from those norms.

Credit: University of Maryland/National Science Foundation

 

Cover of the May 27, 2011 issue of the journal Science.

The researchers' work is described in the May 27, 2011 issue of the journal Science.

Credit: Copyright AAAS 2011


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