Beyond Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) Psychology: Measuring and Mapping Scales of Cultural and Psychological Distance

In this article, we present a tool and a method for measuring the psychological and cultural distance between societies and creating a distance scale with any population as the point of comparison. Because psychological data are dominated by samples drawn from Western, educated, industrialized, rich...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 678 - 701
Main Authors: Muthukrishna, Michael, Bell, Adrian V., Henrich, Joseph, Curtin, Cameron M., Gedranovich, Alexander, McInerney, Jason, Thue, Braden
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.06.2020
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
China
Cognition
Comparative studies
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Cultural differences
Cultural Diversity
Cultural values
Developed Countries
Developing Countries
Evolutionary theories
Fixation
Homogeneity
Humans
Mapping
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Psychoanalytic Interpretation
Psychological Distance
Psychology
Psychology, Social - methods
Research Design
United States
United States
China
United States > US
cultural distance
cross-cultural differences
WEIRD people
replication crisis
cultural psychology
ISSN:0956-7976, 1467-9280, 1467-9280
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this article, we present a tool and a method for measuring the psychological and cultural distance between societies and creating a distance scale with any population as the point of comparison. Because psychological data are dominated by samples drawn from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) nations, and overwhelmingly, the United States, we focused on distance from the United States. We also present distance from China, the country with the largest population and second largest economy, which is a common cultural comparison. We applied the fixation index (FST), a meaningful statistic in evolutionary theory, to the World Values Survey of cultural beliefs and behaviors. As the extreme WEIRDness of the literature begins to dissolve, our tool will become more useful for designing, planning, and justifying a wide range of comparative psychological projects. Our code and accompanying online application allow for comparisons between any two countries. Analyses of regional diversity reveal the relative homogeneity of the United States. Cultural distance predicts various psychological outcomes.
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ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797620916782