TightLooseCultures

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Created: 2023-03-29

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cultures that have threats need rules to coordinate to survive (think about how incredibly coordinated Japan is in response to natural disasters). But cultures that don’t have a lot of threat can afford to be more permissive and loose.”

when people perceive threat — whether real or imagined, they want strong rules and autocratic leaders to help them survive.

tightness encourages conscientiousness, social order and self-control on the plus side, along with close-mindedness, conventional thinking and cultural inertia on the minus side.

Looseness, Gelfand posits, fosters tolerance, creativity and adaptability, along with such liabilities as social disorder, a lack of coordination and impulsive behavior.

Just World Bias

just-world bias (the belief that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, therefore if a bad thing happened to you, you must be a bad person).

It seems psychologically necessary for anyone who wants to advocate for keeping things the way they are, that the haves should keep on having, and the have-nots have got as much as they deserve. I don’t see how you could advocate for such a position while simultaneously viewing yourself as moral (and almost everyone believes that they themselves are moral) without also believing in the just world.

Conversely, if you generally believe the world is not just, and you view yourself as a moral person, then you are likely to feel like you have an obligation to change things.

The Psychology of Just World Bias

It’s a combination of factors. Conservatives are likelier to be married, patriotic, and religious, all of which make people happier. They may be less aggrieved by the status quo, whereas liberals take on society’s problems as part of their own personal burdens. Liberals also place politics closer to their identity and striving for meaning and purpose, which is a recipe for frustration.

  • Unhappy and threatened and conservative - radical
  • Happy and conservative - status quo
  • Happy and liberal - social justice but not radical
  • Unhappy threatened and liberal - radical

What are the Threats

  • undocumented immigration;
  • white supremacy,
  • climate change, and

  • patriarchy;

  • loyalty

  • authority