Do you come from a country that has, let’s say, a history of environmental disasters or [--1--]? Then your culture is probably “tight”—it has strong social norms and doesn’t tolerate much [--2--] from those norms. And your society is probably autocratic with few political and civil liberties. Or, a happier history probably led to your culture being “l(fā)oose,” with more rights and openness. So says a study in the journal Science. [Michele Gelfand et al, Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study]

Researchers surveyed almost 7,000 people in 33 countries. They asked respondents to scale the truth of statements such, “In this country, if someone acts in an inappropriate way, others will strongly disapprove.” Participants also rated the [--3--] of activities such as kissing in public.

Then the researchers correlated those answers with current and historical data about [--4--], population density, even the prevalence of diseases. They found that the more stresses a society has faced—whether ecological or human-made—the more likely that culture is to be a tight one.

The scientists say that its threat history could explain why a given culture finds others to be alien or immoral. And that appreciating the [--5--] of cultural differences could improve international communication.
【視聽版科學小組榮譽出品】
conquests deviance acceptability ecological and societal threats roots
“威脅”之下的社會文明 你的國家是否有過一段生態(tài)災(zāi)害或者被侵略的歷史？那么你所接受的的文明很可能就是一種“繃緊”的文明——有力的社會準則，不能容忍許多脫離準則的行為。而你所處的社會也可能是少數(shù)政黨專制的社會，不能享受許多公民權(quán)利?；蛘呱晕ⅰ皻g樂”一點的歷史又會讓它的文明變得“寬松”且更加開放，公民也能享受更多的權(quán)利。這項研究發(fā)表在《科學》期刊上。 研究人員對33個國家近7千人進行調(diào)查。他們要求調(diào)查對象對一些言論的真實度進行評估，比如說“你所處的國家中，如果有人行為不當，其他人會強烈反對?！笔茉囌咄瑫r也需為一些行為比如說公眾場合接吻的可接受度做出評判。 接著，研究人員將這些答案與現(xiàn)下和歷史上的生態(tài)社會威脅、人口密度，甚至是流行疾病的數(shù)據(jù)結(jié)合分析，發(fā)現(xiàn)一個社會所面對的壓力越大，不管是天災(zāi)還是人禍，這個社會所形成的文化越為“繃緊”。 科學家們表示這種受到威脅的歷史可以解釋為什么一種已知的文明會認定其他文明為異文明，邪惡的文明。所以，學會欣賞文化根源的差異才能更好的促進各種族的文化交流。