Michele Gelfand: prediction

Transcript context

…How do the categories of loose and tight map onto traditional gender roles? Is there a gender-based difference, say, in how people respond to fear or a sense of threat? I haven’t actually seen much evidence for gender differences in response to threat. I will say that women, minorities, people of lower social power tend to live in tighter worlds. That is how I think about the connection of gender and race to tightness. I think that in the past we’ve thought about power as allowing people to violate norms and to have a lot of latitude. That’s a looseness phenomenon. People who are in high-power positions live in looser worlds. They’re not as accountable, whereas people in lower social statuses are much more accountable. They have to be worried about rule violations to a much greater extent. That might produce more of a prevention-oriented mentality, as mediated by having to survive those tight environments. Is Steven Pinker correct that human progress is improving basic culture basically all the time?…

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