Michele Gelfand: evaluation

Transcript context

…But can we trust what Kiwis say? I think of New Zealand as a place where conformity is relatively strong. There’s a phrase, “cutting down tall poppies.” You don’t stand out too much. They might deviate a lot on small things, but there’s oddly little radicalism there. To me, they seem a bit cautious. They have lots of impulse control, and they’re extremely polite. Does that make them loose or tight? It’s a great question. All cultures have tight and loose domains. New Zealand is a place, like you said, that has some domains that are pretty tight. Some of these domains evolve for good reasons. The value of egalitarianism is really important in New Zealand. Tall poppies are cut down because that threatens that value. In all cultures, I would argue that some domains evolved to be tight because they’re really important in that culture. The United States is a great example. Privacy is a very important domain here, so we tend to be pretty regulated about it. If I just show up at someone’s house — even if it’s a close friend — unannounced, I’ll get some pretty strong feedback. Even in the United States, which is relatively loose, we have some domains that are tight. What would be a social phenomenon that the degree of tightness or looseness in a culture or country might explain?…

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