Study of 62 countries finds people react similarly to everyday
situations

Date:
June 10, 2020
Source:
University of California - Riverside
Summary:
A new study asserts the world population may have much more
in common than it has differences. The researchers' finding:
'The difference among countries is smaller than expected; and
the difference within countries is much greater.' In other words,
people from different countries aren't that different, and people
within the same country aren't as similar as expected.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The cornerstone of discrimination is the belief that other people,
including people of other races from other countries, are different. They experience life differently; they react differently.


==========================================================================
What if research could demonstrate that's not true? A new study from
UC Riverside asserts the world population may have much more in common
than it has differences.

"Even though individuals within the same country have more similar
experiences than those in different countries, the differences are
barely noticeable," said Daniel Lee, the lead author in the paper
recently published by the Journal of Personality. "The world is a much
more similar and unified place than we once thought." Lee said the
research is the most far-reaching study of everyday situations ever,
teaming with researchers across the globe to include 62 countries. The
aim is determining whether the world's population experiences life very
much the same, or differently.

"This project is unprecedented. Very few international studies look
at relationships between more than two countries, let alone 62," Lee,
a doctoral researcher in the lab of UCR Distinguished Professor David
Funder, and the lead author of the paper "Situational Experience Around
the World: A Replication and Extension in 62 Countries." What's a
situation? Everything we experience. Watching Netflix in the living room
with your family. Or getting a sunburn. There are simple situations: being
in a room that's too warm. There are more complex situations, such as
attending a social event where you encounter a potential romantic partner.



========================================================================== Whether people across the world report the same feelings and emotions in
those situations, or vastly different ones, was the crux of the lab's
study. The study included data from 15,318 members of university and
college communities, 10,771 of them females, 4,468 males. Seventy-nine
did not choose a gender. Most participants were in their early to
mid-20s. Answers were gathered using a 90- question assessment Funder previously developed called the Riverside Situational Q-Sort.

The current study is a much-expanded version of a 2015 study from
Funder's lab called "The World at 7:00: Comparing the Experience of
Situations Across 20 Countries." That study asked participants from
20 countries what they were doing at 7 p.m. the previous night. Then, researchers looked to see how people experienced them.

Their finding: "The difference among countries is smaller than expected;
and the difference within countries is much greater." In other words,
people from different countries aren't that different, and people within
the same country aren't as similar as expected.

While "The World at 7:00" study asked people what they were doing at 7
p.m. the previous day, participants in the current study were asked to
relate an experience they "remember well" from the previous day.

"The World at 7:00" and the current, expanded study both found most
experiences are "mildly positive," meaning people within a country are
more likely to have similar situations than those in different countries,
and that the difference is small in how we experience situations among countries.



==========================================================================
The first finding, about positive experience, happily contradicts previous psychological research about how people remember situations.

"Previous research on memory in general would suggest that negative
events are more memorable than neutral or positive events," Lee said.

There were some differences in the two studies' findings. "The World
at 7:00" found the U.S. and Canada were the two countries most alike in
terms of experiences. In the current study, the U.S. and Australia were
most alike. In "The World at 7:00," the two countries most different in
terms of experiences were South Korea and Denmark. In the current study,
the two countries most different were Malaysia and Jordan.

The country most like the rest of the world in "The World at 7:00"
was Canada.

Four countries tied for that distinction in the current study, including Canada, Australia, Chile, and the U.S.

Two countries registered as the most different from the rest of the world
in "The World at 7:00": Japan and South Korea. In the current study,
Japan was the most different from other countries.

The country most alike within its own borders in "The World at 7:00"
was Japan.

In the current study, people within the borders of the Netherlands were
most like their countrymen; Japan ranked quite low -- No. 56 out of 62 --
in terms of homogeneity, a finding that perplexed researchers.

The country with citizens least alike their own countrymen was South
Korea in "The World at 7:00;" in the current study it was Singapore.

Lee said the findings hold a lesson worth being mindful of in the current climate of unrest during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We can only hope that seeing we're all unified in the challenges we
face during these trying times will give people an increased sense of
global community," Lee said.

The current study represents the first finding published from Funder's
broad- sweeping International Situations Project. Data from this
and other studies related to the International Situations Project is
available online.

In additional to Lee and Funder, authors on the current study included
Erica Baranski and Gwendolyn Gardiner, both doctoral researchers in
Funder's lab.

To take the same survey as the participants, visit ispstudy.ucr.edu,
click on the U.S. flag, enter USA1.ENG for the study ID, and C2NAX99
for the participant ID.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_California_-_Riverside. Original written by
J.D. Warren. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Daniel I. Lee, Gwendolyn Gardiner, Erica Baranski, David C. Funder,
Maite
Beramendi, Brock Bastian, Aljoscha Neubauer, Diego Cortez,
Eric Roth, Ana Torres, Daniela S. Zanini, Kristina Petkova,
Jessica Tracy, Catherine Amiot, Mathieu Pelletier‐Dumas,
Roberto Gonza'lez, Ana Rosenbluth, Sergio Salgado, Yanjun Guan,
Yu Yang, Diego Forero, Andre's Camargo, Emmanouil Papastefanakis,
Georgios Kritsotakis, Irene Spyridaki, Evangelia Fragkiadaki,
Željko Jerneić, Martina Hřebi'čkova', Sylvie
Graf, Pernille Stro/baek, Anu Realo, Maja Becker, Christelle
Maisonneuve, Sofian El‐Astal, Vladimer Lado Gamsakhurdia,
John Rauthmann, Matthias Ziegler, Lars Penke, Emma E.

Buchtel, Victoria Wai‐Lan Yeung, A'gota Kun, Peter Gadanecz,
Zolta'n Vass, Ma'te' Smohai, Anagha Lavalekar, Abhijit Das, Meta
Zahro Aurelia, Dian Kinayung, Vanessa Gaffar, Gavin Sullivan,
Christopher Day, Eyal Rechter, Marco Perugini, Giulio Costantini,
Augusto Gnisci, Ida Sergi, Vincenzo Paolo Senese, Tatsuya Sato,
Yuki Nakata, Shizuka Kawamoto, Asuka Komiya, Marwan Al‐Zoubi,
Nicholas Owsley, Chaning Jang, Georgina Mburu, Irene Ngina,
Girts Dimdins, Rasa Barkauskiene, Alfredas Laurinavicius, Marijana
Markovikj, Eleonara Serafimovska, Khairul A. Mastor, Elliott Kruse,
Naira'n Rami'rez‐Esparza, Jaap Denissen, Marcel Van Aken,
Ron Fischer, Ike E. Onyishi, Kalu T. Ogba, Siri Leknes, Vera
Waldal Holen, Ingelin Hansen, Christian Krog Tamnes, Kaia Klaeva,
Rukhsana Kausar, Nashi Khan, Muhammad Rizwan, Agusti'n Espinosa,
Maria Cecilia Gastardo‐ Conaco, Diwa Malaya A. Quin~ones,
Paweł Izdebski, Martyna Kotyśko, Piotr Szarota,
Joana Henriques‐Calado, Florin Alin Sava, Olga Lvova,
Victoria Pogrebitskaya, Mikhail Allakhverdov, Sergey Manichev,
Oumar Barry, Snežana Smederevac, Petar Čolović,
Dusanka Mitrović, Milan Oljača, Ryan Hong, Peter Halama,
Janek Musek, Francois De Kock, Gyuseog Han, Eunkook M. Suh, Soyeon
Choi, David Gallardo‐Pujol, Luis Oceja, Sergio Villar, Zoltan
Kekecs, Nils Arlinghaus, Daniel P. Johnson, Alice Kathryn O'Donnell,
Clara Kulich, Fabio Lorenzi‐Cioldi, Janina Larissa Bu"hler,
Mathias Allemand, Yen‐Ping Chang, Weifang Lin, Watcharaporn
Boonyasiriwat, S. Adil Saribay, Oya Somer, Pelin Karakus Akalin,
Peter Kakubeire Baguma, Alexander Vinogradov, Larisa Zhuravlova,
Mark Conner, Jason Rentfrow, Alexa Tullett, Kyle Sauerberger,
Naira'n Rami'rez‐Esparza, Douglas E. Colman, Joey T. Cheng,
Eric Stocks, Huyen Thi Thu Bui. Situational Experience around the
World: A Replication and Extension in 62 Countries.

Journal of Personality, 2020; DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12558 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200610102721.htm

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