Monthly Archives: April 2022

What Is a Multicultural Community?

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People in the modern world are exposed to a variety of cultures, some of which are more or less compatible with one another. Many countries have mixed cultures that shape multicultural people and mixed cultural identities. These mixed cultures are more conducive to the development of multicultural personalities and multicultural community (Karandashev, 2021).

In the modern world of increasingly mixed cultures and multicultural societies, people encounter other cultures more frequently than ever before. In some countries and regions, it’s more likely for people from different cultures to meet.

Monocultural and Multicultural Countries

Some countries are homogeneous in the races, ethnicities, and religions of their population and in the languages they speak. They can be called relatively monocultural societies. According to the data of 2013, among those are the Comoros, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Haiti, Rwanda, Uruguay, Sweden, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea (Rich Morin, 2013).

Some other countries, on the other hand, are quite heterogeneous in terms of the ethnicities, races, and religions of their population and speak a variety of languages. They are highly multicultural societies. Among those are many African countries, such as Chad, Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria, Togo, and South Africa; several Asian countries, such as India, Indonesia, and Singapore; and many countries in other parts of the world, such as Switzerland, Spain, Canada, and the United States.

See more: How regional is the cultural diversity of countries?

Within-countries’ Diversity of Cultures

In many countries, different regions, states, and provinces have substantially different cultures. Among those are the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, and France. For example, some scholars think that the southern states (the Deep South) and the northern states of the USA have somewhat different cultures in many respects. The northern industrialized regions of Germany culturally differ from Bavaria and other regions of Germany. The southern and northern parts of France have quite different regional cultures.

Besides, some regions of the country can be more multicultural than others. For example, the west and northeast regions of the United States are much more multicultural than the Midwest.

Hawaii is the most multicultural state in the US. The northern parts of Germany are more multicultural than others. The large and densely populated urban areas, such as New York City, Toronto, and Paris, are more multicultural than rural or urban areas, such as the Midwest of the USA.

See more: What is the multicultural diversity of countries?

Culture Mixing in Multicultural Communities

Nowadays, cultural mixing has become widespread. Such cultural mixing is evident in the coexistence of various representative symbols of different cultures at the same time and place (Hao, Li, Peng, Peng, & Torelli, 2016; Harush, Lisak, & Erez, 2016; Martin & Shao, 2016).

The dynamic communities of some regions have large variations in the national and ethnic origins of people living there together for quite a while (e.g., Van de Vijver, Blommaert, Gkoumasi, & Stogianni, 2015).

For example, the cultures of countries along their national borders frequently mix with each other on the same territory. That is sometimes called the cultural borderland (Chang, 1999; Foley, 1995). The Mexican-American borderlands of Arizona, California, and Texas in the US represent such examples of Mexican-American culture.

What Is Multiculturalism?

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Multiculturalism in a society is not simply the presence of various cultural groups living in a country but also the manifestation of positive attitudes by the society and its people towards individuals of other cultures. Such multicultural societies acknowledge and respect their diversity (Karandashev, 2021).

However, multiculturalism is not only about respecting the dominant majority culture toward minority cultural groups. In my opinion, true multiculturalism lies in the abandonment of such notions as “majority” and “minority”, in abandoning public discussion, and in the formal collection of diversity-specific personal information. Society and people should accept the people of other cultures as they are, without the reservations that cultural stereotypes can impose.

Examples of Multicultural Strategies

Some cultural policies in France present good examples of multiculturalism. In many cases, it is prohibited to ask about the ethnicity and sexual orientation of people. It is personal information that is often not pertinent to the reality of public life. Why, then, should they ask? For some reasons, some individuals may not want to identify themselves with their formal ethnicity. Children of multicultural couples simply cannot identify with any ethnicity. Should they do this?

Hawaii presents another good example of multiculturalism. They accept race and ethnicity as natural, not paying much attention to these individual characteristics. The more we see diversity and the less we talk about racial and ethnic differences, the more natural people look. Hawaiians just do not care about the ethnicities of people; they accept people as individuals, not as members of ethnic groups.

In the United States, however, many officials have another cultural policy regarding multiculturalism. In their fight for racial, ethnic, and sexual diversity and equality, they strive to highlight and accentuate these cultural attributes of individuals. Many American surveys obsessively ask about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, presumably with the good intention of reaching and extending the cultural diversity of cultural representation. Sometimes, this looks like an intrusion into a confidential personal life. Why does society strive to sneak into the private lives of couples? Why are surveys interested in who a person’s sexual partner is and what they do in bed when they are alone?

The more we highlight and talk about ethnic differences, the more likely we are to pay attention to them. Therefore, we are more likely to differentiate rather than appreciate people as individuals. They are people with personalities, rather than members of ethnic groups. Hawaiian culture can teach us a lot.

Multicultural Ways of Living

Fair multicultural attitudes in society imply that all races, ethnicities, and cultures deserve special acknowledgment of their cultural differences. These multicultural beliefs are based on the idea that people in the cultural majority don’t think they are the dominant culture and that they treat minorities’ cultures as equal to their own.

Multicultural societies are open to others and inclusive (Karandashev, 2021).

Socially fair attitudes and actions are those that:

(1) acknowledge the multiculturalism and diversity of cultures,

(2) tolerate others’ cultural differences,

(3) respect each other’s cultural differences,

(4) recognize that different cultural expressions are equally valid,

(5) appreciate different cultures as valuable parts of multicultural society,

(6) celebrate cultural differences,

(7) encourage cultural groups to contribute to the common good.

Equity and Equality in Multicultural Societies

Many countries in the world have multicultural diversity. They live in multicultural communities and often follow the policies of multiculturalism.

The ultimate ideal of multiculturalism is equality, which treats people of other cultures as equal. Cultural equality is a great idea and an ideal of multicultural society! Yet, in my opinion, the best form of equality is equity. Equity, as providing equal opportunities for people of different cultures, can help achieve the goal of polyculturalism better than the simple equality of equal distribution.

Equal rights must not entail equal needs and obligations. People have the freedom “to be or not to be”—to give and take certain roles. Individual freedom of rights is not the same as a personal commitment to give and take on roles.

Offering people from different cultures equal opportunities and possibilities could be more beneficial for polyculturalism than simply pushing cultural minorities into positions and giving them priority over the cultural majority. In social justice, we should distinguish between social equity and social equality.

In a truly multicultural society, individuals of other cultures should be appreciated not because of their culture, race, ethnicity, gender, or age, but regardless of their culture, race, ethnicity, gender, or age, because of who they are.

Unfortunately, cultural stereotypes still play a role in forming cultural stereotypes. Many individuals in modern societies, as well as in the past, are multicultural persons.

What Is the Multicultural Diversity of Countries?

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Cultures are commonly associated with certain territories and countries. These are national cultures. And cultural borders are viewed as clearly recognizable national, state, or tribal boundaries. These are not quite correct representations of what cultures are. Multicultural diversity exists in many countries around the world.

The multicultural diversity of nations shows how culturally diverse people live in their countries. People living in some countries have long historical traditions of residing together in those territories. Throughout their history, they have maintained homogeneous or heterogeneous populations.

Multicultural Diversity Around the World

The variety of tribal groups in many African countries, such as Chad, Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria, and Togo, are culturally diverse in their origins. Some Asian countries, such as India and Indonesia, and Switzerland in Europe, are also diverse in their ethnic populations. They have long historical traditions of living as close neighbors in those territories.

A modern era of cultural diversity has emerged due to increased mobility, the availability of social media, and mass migration. It is because of these new trends that societies in many European countries, Canada, the United States, and Singapore have become culturally much more diverse than before.

Multiculturalism and multicultural diversity in countries can characterize various characteristics of people, such as racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age, sexual orientation, and the languages they speak. Cultural diversity also encompasses various ways of being for people, such as their cultural values, norms, rituals, dispositions, emotions, and patterns of behavior.

Monocultural Societies

Many countries’ populations are quite homogeneous in their ethnicity, religion, language, and cultural traditions. Due to their historical roots, they have common beliefs, values, norms, and customs of behavior. These countries have monocultural societies. Examples of such monocultural countries are Argentina, Uruguay, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Rwanda, Sweden, Japan, the Comoros, North Korea, South Korea, and some others (The most (and least) culturally diverse countries in the world, Pew Research Center, 2013).

People in such monocultural countries speak their common languages. However, many national societies are less homogeneous than researchers could expect. Besides, individuals have significant typological differences that extend beyond their cultural similarities.

Multicultural Societies

The populations of many other countries are heterogeneous in terms of the languages, ethnicities, religions, and cultural traditions of the people who live there.

Some countries are culturally diverse from their origins, such as, for example, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, the Congo, Togo, South Africa, and some other African countries, due to the historical variety of their tribal groups and languages.

The populations of several Western countries, such as Canada, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, are also multilingual, and people in different regions may speak different languages.

The societies of other countries are heterogeneous because of migration. Canada is the most diverse in this regard. The United States, Russia, and Spain are also quite culturally diverse, though to a moderate degree (The most (and least) culturally diverse countries in the world, Pew Research Center, 2013).

Many multicultural countries, such as Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Singapore, and the United States, have multiethnic populations. People converged on these territories due to migration and other historical events.

A Variety of Relationships in Culturally Diverse Countries

Cultures and people in such multicultural societies may have various relationships with each other. In some cases, they live peacefully in neighboring territories. In other cases, they clash with each other. Sometimes they invade, conquer, and dominate each other. Sometimes, they respect their equality. Human history has witnessed a variety of such intercultural relations.

In some cases, people coexist in certain territories, yet they live in different neighborhoods. In cases of ethnic inequality, they can be segregated. The tendency of people of the same culture to live in proximity to each other and separate from people of other cultures is well-known (Karandashev, 2021). Similarities are attractive.

Generally, cultures and people in multicultural countries can recognize the existence of cultural diversity or not. They can tolerate cultural differences or celebrate them. They can respect each other’s cultural differences and acknowledge that all cultural expressions are valid, or not. They can either appreciate what different cultures contribute to a society or not.

The Regional Diversity of Countries

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What are the national cultures? Does any regional diversity exist in the national cultures? Or are they homogeneous in their national cultures?

National cultures are the cultures that people from specific countries living in certain territories have in common with each other. National cultures have evolved over time due to various historical events. They can share historical origins, languages, ethnicities, religions, social institutions, cultural norms, traditions, practices, and many other things, but primarily they belong to the same nationality.

People belonging to national cultures are Italians, Greeks, Finns, Swedes, Brits, French, Austrians, Germans, Moroccans, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Indonesians, Americans, and Canadians. These are national cultures because they consist of people from the same country within national borders. If people reside abroad but keep their nationality and cultural identity, they can be considered to belong to their nationality of origin.

Do national cultures exist as something cultural that they have in common? Cultural studies have demonstrated that people of specific nationalities have similar beliefs, attitudes, values, cultural norms, practices, and behaviors.

Throughout the history of cultural research, scholars have classified national cultures into groups according to cultural similarities between nations. Western and Eastern cultures were among the earliest transnational cultural divisions. Researchers usually attribute Western societies to individualistic cultures, while Eastern cultures are attributed to collectivistic cultures. Some core differences between Western and Eastern cultures certainly exist.

African and Latin American cultures combine with other large transnational groups of cultures. European cultures are often divided into East-European and West-European cultures (Karandashev, 2021).

Regional Diversity of National Cultures

National cultures can be monocultural, multicultural, or regionally specific in terms of their subcultures. For decades, cross-cultural studies have primarily focused on the comparisons between national cultures, neglecting regional variations within each country. Therefore, researchers investigated, for instance, the residents of New York City and Paris as representatives of American and French national cultures. Besides, undergraduate students from the middle class have been typical participants in the studies.

There are plenty of regional cultures within many national cultures. In this regard, it may not be quite adequate to treat the United States of America, Switzerland, India, and other large, multiregional, and multiethnic countries as unitary, monolithic, and monocultural national cultures (Smith & Bond, 1999). Such an approach can conceal the diverse nature of their subcultures, or even different cultures unified under one national unit.

Territorial regions of some countries with historically distinct cultures strive to retain their social and cultural identities. Among well-known examples, are Scotland in the United Kingdom, Bavaria in Germany, Catalonia in Spain, Quebec in Canada, and Texas in the United States.

Regional Diversity of Cultures in France

France is a country with a relatively modest territory. Nevertheless, the French people of northern France are quite different from the people of southern France. The cultures of the northern and southern regions of France shaped their regional cultures due to the impact of surrounding countries and the climate.

The culture of northern France may look, to some extent, like the neighboring north European cultures of Germany and Belgium. People in northern France are a little more reserved and less flamboyant than southerners.

The culture of southern France can remind you of the Mediterranean cultures of Spain, Portugal, and Italy. People in the south of France are more extraverted and flamboyant.

Regional Diversity of Cultures in Germany

German culture also has significant cultural diversity between its regions. Distinct differences exist between southern, northern, and eastern Germany.

The industrialized regions of northern Germany, such as Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt, are culturally more transnational. This can be due to their historical international trade relations with other countries (Hall & Hall, 1990).

Some German regions have their own cultural origins and prefer to follow their cultural heritage. For example, the cultural understanding of work ethics and time systems in Mannheim is quite different from Munich. Many German territories are Protestant. That is different from the Catholic German south.

Bavarians feel quite different culturally from other parts of Germany. The Bavarian German language has a strong regional dialect. Historically, Bavaria is traditionally Catholic. However, the number of Catholics has recently declined.

Regional Diversity of Cultures in the USA

The United States of America is a country with a great regional diversity of population. Since its origins, the USA has been a country of immigrants, with colonists from various countries settling in different parts of its large territory. Immigrants of the same origin preferred to reside close to others of the same nationality.

American demographers tend to speak of Americans as being people of Western and Northern European roots. These European Americans are the cultural majority. Native Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, and Asian Americans are usually viewed as the cultures of minorities. One can see an obvious European-centric notion of American culture, which contrasts with others (Karandashev, 2021).

It is worthy of note that immigrants from different European countries, such as Sweden and Italy, have many cultural differences. The same can be said about Asian Americans. Despite their general Asian similarity, they are culturally diverse.

Another major facet of American regional diversity is the socially noticeable cultural distinctions between the southern and northern states. Many researchers consider the northern and southern parts of the USA to have different cultures (e.g., Cohen, 1996; Vandello & Cohen, 1999; Vandello, Cohen, & Ransom, 2008).

The Culture of the American South States

Generally, people living in southern states are more conservative and more collectivistic in many regards. Collectivist tendencies are stronger in the Deep South. Southerners tend to consider social stratification fair and favor patriarchal gender roles. They are more intolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty in many situations. Therefore, they prefer the established order in life. They highly respect the cultural tradition, stressing the value of honor.

The Culture of the American North States

Commonly, people living in northern states are more liberal and individualistic in many respects. Individualist tendencies are stronger in the Mountain West and Great Plains. Northerners tend to favor social justice and gender equality. They are more tolerant of situations of ambiguity and uncertainty in life. They emphasize the value of pride less than southerners.

Cultural and Individual in Cross-cultural Comparisons

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Many countries around the world have a diverse population in terms of races, ethnicities, religions, languages, and historical and cultural backgrounds of the people living in their territories. So, researchers widely investigate cross-cultural comparisons.

Even though people in many countries speak a common language, many others are multilingual. Among those are Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Serbia, Moldova, Zimbabwe, India, and Singapore.

Even though people in many countries share a common history, cultural heritage, and ethnicity, many others are multiethnic. Throughout history, various cultural factors have compelled them to remain together on common lands. Among those are Bolivia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Canada, and the United States of America.

Do National Cultures Exist?

Cross-cultural comparisons show that despite the heterogeneity in languages, ethnicities, and other cultural characteristics, many nations share a common cultural background. Their sub-cultural variations, which compose their diversity, let them have some common national attributes and live peacefully together for centuries.

Cross-cultural comparisons have demonstrated that on such cultural parameters as Power Distance, Individualism-Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-Term Orientation versus Short-Term Orientation, various in-country regions of 28 countries in the Anglo world, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast and East Asia clustered homogeneously along the national lines of 28 countries. The cases when those regions intermixed between borders were relatively uncommon.

Even in Mexico and Guatemala, or Malaysia and Indonesia, in which each pair of countries has common ethnic groups, religions, and official languages, the cultural divisions were along their national borders. Even the parts of African countries that are close to each other, like Ghana, Mali, and Burkina Faso, do not mix in clusters of cultural parameters (Minkov & Hofstede, 2012).

Individual Variations Within Cultures and Cross-cultural Comparisons

While people living in countries have common national cultures and maintain the diversity of subcultures, they still substantially vary in terms of social classes and individual and typological personality traits (Karandashev, 2021). These differences can expand beyond their national and cultural resemblances.

So, what do cross-cultural comparisons of country-averages of various individual variables, such as perceptions, emotions, attitudes, traits, and beliefs, tell us about national cultural differences? I believe they tell us many things, yet we shall take them with reservations, counting on possible limitations. The average scores of individual variables at the country level can mask and even conceal the individual variety of people within a country.

Many cross-cultural studies tend to average the variables they collect from cultural samples in several countries and compare their statistical means. This way, they presumably compare cultural similarities and differences between countries. Do they? But what if a within-country variation is higher than a between-country variation?

Methodological Pitfalls of Cross-cultural Comparisons

According to some experts, individual variation in some attributes within a country can be significant, while certain categories of people between nations can be similar to each other (Minkov & Hofstede, 2012).

Research has demonstrated that within-country variations in studies often exceed between-country variations (Karandashev, 2021).

A meta-analysis of multiple cross-cultural studies comparing love emotions and love attitudes across countries, for example, revealed that cross-cultural differences are frequently minimal (if any), statistically significant in many cases, but practically too small to be meaningful and scientifically worthwhile (Karandashev, 2019).

So, a question arises: how informative for cross-cultural analysis is a comparison of the statistical means of individual variables between countries? Sometimes, these statistical measures can be mindless (Gigerenzer, 2004; 2018). The aggregation of individual variables for a country’s sample of participants should be done with care. It is important to avoid a methodological fallacy, which I call “the average body temperature of the patients in a hospital.” It appears that not all statistics in cross-cultural research are meaningful.

For example, such aggregation showed that participants from an American sample had a high average score on the personality trait of extraversion. Thus, the USA seems like an extraverted culture, despite the subcultural and individual variety of the American people. Many of them have introverted personalities.

Therefore, what is cultural and what is individual should not be confused in research. Extraversion and introversion are personality traits, not cultural ones. When we say things like “extraverted” Americans or “hot” Italians, we should keep in mind that these are metaphorical cultural stereotypes rather than literal implications.

Corrections for the statistical artefacts related to methods can be valuable for obtaining valid results in cross-cultural studies and avoiding cultural bias. A meta-analysis of 190 studies of emotions conducted from 1967 to 2000 showed that

“a correction for statistical artefacts and method-related factors reduced the observed cross-cultural effect sizes considerably.”

(Van Hemert, Poortinga, van de Vijver, 2007, p. 913)

Country-level and Individual-level Cross-cultural Comparisons

Some scholars advocate the use of multilevel analysis in cross-cultural studies. Such multilevel methodology requires researchers to examine cultural variables at both the individual and national levels as distinct but interacting variables (Fischer, & Poortinga, 2018; Smith, Fischer, Vignoles, & Bond, 2013; Van de Vijver, van Hemert, & Poortinga, 2008).

For example, it is inadequate to assume that all participants from the United States are individualistic because they live in an individualist country. Similarly, it is not adequate to think that all individuals from East Asian countries are “collectivistic” (Fischer & Poortinga, 2018). Their individualistic and collectivistic values and attitudes on an individual level can vary.

For example, such multilevel cross-cultural analysis can describe cultural factors with corresponding sets of variables (Karandashev, 2021):

  • at the country level, these can be power distance, individualism of society, relational mobility, or context differentiation.
  • at the individual level, these can be personality traits, intensity, prevalent emotional valence, expressivity, or idiocentrism (psychological variable of individualism).

Thus, it is important to differentiate between cultural and individual variables. We shall recognize what is cultural and what is individual in a culture and treat them separately in research, even though we shall acknowledge that culture affects individual differences among people. American culture can certainly determine the prevalence of extraverted or introverted personalities in a society by their selective promotion or another way.

What Are the National Cultures?

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The article comprehensively reviews the concept of national cultures and its validity for cross-cultural research.

The concept of national culture is widespread in cultural and cross-cultural research. It is believed that the residents of certain countries or people of certain nationalities share certain values, beliefs, customs, norms, and patterns of behavior. In this respect, scholars are used to speaking about, for example, British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Moroccan, German, Austrian, American, Canadian, Japanese, or Chinese cultures.

What are those similarities and shared characteristics? These are frequently the language, ethnicity, religion, historical, and cultural traditions of people residing in certain territories. Such an understanding of national cultures appears quite simple and straight out of common sense. However, …  

Do people in national cultures speak their common languages?

What about language? People in such countries as India, South Africa, Switzerland, Canada, and the Netherlands are multilingual and do not share their language as a cultural commonality. Can we then speak about Indian, South African, Swiss, Canadian, and Dutch national cultures?

Do people in national cultures share their common ethnicities?

What about ethnicity and cultural heritage? Many countries, such as the United States, India, Indonesia, Singapore, and Nigeria, are multiethnic and have emerged due to the conversion of various historical and cultural influences. Can they be considered American, Indian, Indonesian, Singaporean, or Nigerian national cultures?

People in national cultures can be diverse in many ways

Thus, one can see that national cultures can be less homogeneous in terms of languages, ethnicities, cultural history, and other cultural characteristics than researchers expect. Their (sub)cultural variations may expand beyond presumably common national characteristics.

Besides, when people live in countries and likely share national cultures, they can have substantial individual and typological differences that may stretch beyond national similarities.

Do national cultures exist?

In the social sciences, researchers tend to believe that people of such national cultures share certain cultural values, attitudes, personalities, identities, emotional experiences, expressions, and patterns of behavior. These are common assumptions of traditional cross-cultural studies that expect such within-country homogeneities. Extensive cross-cultural research has demonstrated the validity of this assumption. An abundance of findings showed that cultural samples of people from national states have many similar characteristics that are different from the characteristics of people in other cultural samples from other countries (Karandashev, 2019, 2021).

Validity of cross-national comparisons

National cultures exist, and people in those countries share many things. A comprehensive cross-cultural analysis of the data from the World Values Survey demonstrated that the global division of values across national cultures is valid. Researchers found that:

299 in-country regions from 28 countries in East and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Anglo world overwhelmingly cluster along national lines on basic cultural values, cross-border intermixtures being relatively rare. This is true even of countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, or Mexico and Guatemala, despite their shared official languages, religions, ethnic groups, historical experiences, and various traditions. Even the regions of neighboring African nations, such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Mali, do not intermix much when they are clustered on the basis of cultural values.

(Minkov & Hofstede, 2012, p.133)

Thus, we can see that the country-average data and results are worthwhile for cross-cultural research. Three other studies, which examined cultural differences between different states of Brazil, supported the notion that national cultures are meaningful units for cross-cultural research. The studies utilized the Hofstede cross-national dimensions and revealed that the Brazilian national culture is common on those parameters across Brazil’s states. It turns out that those cultural dimensions are the same in every state of Brazil, but they are very different from other countries in Latin America as well as other countries around the world.

Thus, one can see that the country-average data and results are worthwhile for cross-cultural research. Three other studies, which examined cultural differences between different states of Brazil, supported the notion that national cultures are meaningful units for cross-cultural research. The studies utilized the Hofstede cross-national dimensions and revealed that the Brazilian national culture is common on those parameters across Brazil’s states. It turns out that those cultural dimensions are the same in every state of Brazil, but they are very different from other countries in Latin America as well as other countries around the world (Hofstede et al., 2010).

Therefore, these findings show that the cultural borders between countries are valid in Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. These findings support the validity of cross-national comparisons.

Limitations of cross-national cultural comparisons

The validity of these findings, however, can have limitations, which social scientists should keep in mind to avoid the pitfalls of generalization. Averaging the data collected from selected samples of people of given nationalities can lead to somewhat misleading conclusions. The simple statistical means of variables collected in cultural samples can hide substantial individual and typological variations. variations within countries (Karandashev, 2021).

Scholars of culture and the general public can also be interested in a large collection of publications titled “What is National Culture,” presented by IGI Global Publishing House.

The Cultures Beyond the Global Western and Eastern Societies

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For a very long time, scholars interested in cultures and their comparison have focused on Western and Eastern societies as distinctively different types of cultures. Such a cultural dichotomy was simple and easy to understand and explain in terms of philosophical, social, and psychological phenomena of culture.

The Categories of Western and Eastern Cultures

The concepts of West and East were quite vague and mainly exemplified with Western European and Northern American countries as typical instances of Western cultures and India, China, and Japan as typical examples of Eastern cultures.

The discovery of individualism and collectivism (Hofstede, 1980/1984), as the cultural characteristics that are different in those societies, became a widespread explanatory framework that overshadowed multiple other cultural differences between those countries.

Individualistic Western and Collectivistic Eastern Cultures

Individualistic Western societies are those located in North America and Western Europe, while collectivistic Eastern societies are those located in India, China, and Japan. All other countries in the world presumably fit into one of these global groups.

See more on Western versus Eastern cultures and on Western individualistic cultures and Eastern collectivistic cultures in other blog articles.

Further studies, however, indicate that several other cultural concepts can be useful in explaining social and psychological differences between countries. Several cross-cultural studies have also demonstrated the diversity of both Western and Eastern societies that extends far beyond the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, China, India, and Japan (Schwartz, 2014; Schwartz & Ros, 1995).

Researchers also found that many other countries and cultures don’t fit into either the Eastern or Western groups. They are more distinctive than the simple East-West dichotomy (Karandashev, 2021).

See more on the 5 differences between Western and Eastern cultures and on the Diversity of Western and Eastern cultures in other blog articles.

The time has come to look at the diverse societies of the world beyond the global West and East. Researchers revealed the complex, multifaceted, and multilayered natures of individualism and collectivism. They uncovered and identified the diversity of social and cultural factors beyond collectivism and individualism. Besides, societies and their cultural dimensions change, evolve, and transform over time (see review in Karandashev, 2021).

All these factors require an open-minded and flexible approach to modern cultural and cross-cultural studies.

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede identified and explored six cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 2011). These are

  • Individualism-Collectivism,
  • Power Distance,
  • Masculinity vs. Femininity,
  • Uncertainty Avoidance,
  • Long-Term Orientation vs. Short-Term Orientation,
  • Indulgence vs. Restraint.

Extensive cross-cultural studies have demonstrated the explanatory power of these dimensions that extends beyond individualism-collectivism and the West-East divide (see Karandashev, 2021).

Trompenaars’ Cultural Values

Another Dutch cross-cultural researcher, Alfonsus Trompenaars, proposed two country-level groups of values:

(1) egalitarian commitment versus conservatism,

(2) utilitarian involvement versus loyal involvement.

The author and his colleagues extensively investigated these values across many societies (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1998; see for review, Karandashev, 2021).

Schwartz Cultural Value Orientations

Social psychologist Shalom Schwartz created the theories of personal and cultural value orientations and extensively explored them across many countries in the world. Cultural values that characterize societies are in focus here.

His theory included seven country-level types of values. The author organizes these cultural values into three dimensions:

  • embeddedness versus autonomy,
  • hierarchy versus egalitarianism,
  • mastery versus harmony

The author depicts these seven cultural value orientations in a quasi-circumplex structure (Schwartz, 2014; see for review, Karandashev, 2021).

The Diversity of World Cultures

In recent years, researchers have delved deeper into the global cultural variation of societies beyond the traditional East-West cross-cultural dichotomy. The extensive exploration of various cultural factors and dimensions, which I noted above, allowed researchers to construct a more diverse cultural classification of world societies.

For example, cross-cultural studies found significant variations within West and East societies in terms of six of Schwartz’s cultural value orientations (Schwartz, 2014; Schwartz & Ros, 1995).

The data collected across many countries revealed eight global transnational cultural regions of the world that are distinctively different in terms of their cultural value orientations. These are

(1) English-speaking,

(2) West European,

(3) East Central and Baltic European,

(4) Orthodox East European,

(5) Latin American,

(6) South Asia,

(7) Confucian influenced, and

(8) African and Middle Eastern.

Typical patterns of cultural values describe these eight transnational regions of the world. Researchers noted, however, that these eight types of cultures do not exactly fit into defined regions.

Many studies have shown that these cultural dimensions determine people’s experiences and expressions of emotions and cultural models of love. They bring cross-cultural research beyond widely accepted individualism and collectivism (Karandashev, 2021, 2022).

The Diversity of Western and Eastern Cultures

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For a long time, the cultural distinction between Western and Eastern cultures has been the subject of public debate and academic study.

Western cultures have usually been thought of as those of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States of America, and other partner countries. The origins of Western culture are regarded as being in ancient Greek and Roman cultures.

Eastern cultures have been deemed those of Japan, China, and India, which have long been thought of as Eastern cultures. Eastern cultures are believed to have their origins in ancient Confucian and Buddhist traditions.

Such a West versus East comparison of the world’s major cultures had historical foundations. And this distinction seems reasonable. Therefore, most previous cultural studies sought to understand how the “East” is different from the “West.”

Many researchers wanted to learn about the mysterious and unknown “East” and compare the unknown East with the known West. These cross-cultural comparisons have revealed several cultural differences between Western and Eastern societies, demonstrating that such global, geographically regional cultures exist.

There are 5 differences between Western and Eastern cultures that I presented in another article.

How Diverse Are Western and Eastern Cultures?

Many studies, however, reveal that such a simple division of the world’s societies into the West and the East is too simplistic and does not capture the real diversity of Western as well as Eastern cultures. After initial fascination, researchers realized that Western and Eastern cultures are somewhat diverse in terms of, for example, emotional experience and expression (Karandashev, 2021).

In the 20th century, cross-cultural researchers of emotions conducted their studies by usually comparing one Western country with one Eastern country. The USA was taken as a representative of Western cultures and compared with China or Japan as a representative of Eastern cultures.

The United States and Western Europe have long been seen as typical “Western individualist” cultures. Can the USA be viewed as representative of all so-called Western cultures? Can Japan or China be considered representatives of other so-called Eastern countries? Scholars realized that such a Western-Eastern contrast was too global and overgeneralizing. It looks like this broad generalization may not be enough to show how different the cultures are in each of these global regions.

How Diverse Are Western Cultures?

There are many differences between North American and West European cultures. For example, many West European countries, such as France, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, substantially differ from the United States and Canada. The USA and Canada are also different, although all are commonly considered Western societies.

There are diverse cultural distinctions between different West European countries. What about southern, presumably western-European countries? Spain and Portugal, for example, are among those that can be categorized in different ways. The cultures of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece are even more different from those of the USA and traditional western European countries. For example, many findings indicated differences in cultural values in the “West” (Schwartz, 2014). 

How Diverse Are Eastern Cultures?

Eastern societies are even more diverse in terms of global cultural regions. For instance, there are many differences between East-Asian and South-Asian cultures. The East Asian countries are very distinct from the South Asian and Central Asian ones. The cultures of Japan and China are quite different from those of India, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. Thus, the East is a very diverse set of various cultural traditions.

The Diversity of Individualism and Collectivism in the West and East

Empirical cross-cultural studies of the West and East revealed that individualism and collectivism explain many of the cultural differences between these global cultures. The United States, the Netherlands, and, on rare occasions, other European countries (as Western cultural representatives) were frequently compared to China and Japan (as Eastern cultural representatives). Researchers found that the cultural differences between these two world cultures are often about individualism and collectivism.

Many other studies, however, have demonstrated that both individualism and collectivism are multifaceted and complex cultural characteristics that can be quite different in various societies. For instance, Schwartz (2014) suggested that multiple findings showed that the general characteristic of Western cultures as individualistic does not adequately reflect the diversity of individualism.

What about the individualism and collectivism of southern European countries? For instance, are Spain and Portugal individualistic or collectivistic cultures? Studies have shown that they can be categorized in both ways (Karandashev, 2021).

A Variety of Western Cultural Orientations

Several cultural orientations considerably vary within the West. For example, Schwartz and Ros (1995) found significant differences between the samples in the US and those in Western Europe in six cultural value orientations. Mastery, embeddedness, and hierarchy were valued more highly in the United States, while intellectual autonomy, egalitarianism, and harmony were valued more highly in Western European countries.

What about southern European countries such as Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal? To which cultural group do the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania belong?

Researchers began to delve into a variety of cultural characteristics that describe and explain, for example, people’s emotional experiences and expressions in various societies (Karandashev, 2021).

They started to realize that the cultural configurations of European societies should be based on several cultural dimensions, not just individualism. Exploration of cultural diversity in both Western and Eastern societies is on the way (Karandashev, 2021).

5 Differences Between Western and Eastern Cultures

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The cultural opposition of Western and Eastern societies has been widely recognized in public discourse and scholarship. This division of the major world cultures had historical roots, valid justification, and adequacy.

Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States of America, and other allied countries were traditionally viewed as having Western cultures. It is thought that ancient Greek and Roman cultures are the origins of Western cultures.

China, Japan, and India have traditionally been considered Eastern cultures. The ancient Confucian and Buddhist cultures are thought to be at the origins of Eastern cultures.

See more in Western versus Eastern cultures.

The scholarly significance of cultural comparisons between the West and the East

Most cultural studies of the past have focused on learning how the “East” is different from the “West”. Since many believed that they knew their own “Western” culture pretty well, they were interested in learning about the mysterious and less-known “East”. Therefore, such cultural opposition has become popular among scholars. Being ethnocentric, Western researchers were interested in knowing how similar or different the unknown East was from the well-known West. The first interest was to search for cross-cultural universality, while the others were more interested in learning about how much the East deviates from our traditional western knowledge. This is why those other societies were often called “nonwestern cultures.”

For comparative cultural studies, the in-group (West) versus out-group (East) dichotomy worked well. This division was basic and straightforward. As I noted above, the approach was largely ethnocentric because the West was viewed as “we” (in-group) and the East was viewed as “they” (out-group).

These cross-cultural comparisons have been valid in many regards, indicating several cultural differences between Western and Eastern societies (Karandashev, 2021). Here are the five main distinctions:

1. Philosophical and Folk Worldviews

Western folk and scholarly worldviews are linear, logical, analytical, and dichotomous, and have a dualistic view of the world and mental life.

Western logical beliefs acknowledge the existence of binary oppositions, such as positive and negative human emotions. According to dualistic Western cultural philosophies, the mind and body are in dualistic relations, and the mind ­(rational) and the heart (emotional) are in a dichotomy with each other.

Eastern folk and scholarly worldviews are nonlinear, wholistic, dialectical, and have a monistic view of the world and mental life.

Eastern dialectical beliefs accept natural contradictions and complementarity of opposition, such as positive and negative emotions. According to monistic Eastern cultural philosophies, the mind and body are in monistic united relations, and the mind (rational) and heart (emotional) are not in dichotomy with each other but rather in wholistic relations.

See more about this in Western versus Eastern cultures and in Perception of a person in relationship contexts.

2. Perception of Social Relationships as Independent Versus Interdependent

Eastern and Western models of social relationships define how the self and others are related.

The individualistic view of Western cultures perceives social and relationship contexts as a free association of independent individuals. Western cultural norms suggest individualistic personhood and individualistic construals of the self and others. These cultural norms impose an independent model of self and culture. These cultural factors determine the person’s self-focused perception and emotional experience.

Eastern collectivistic cultures perceive social and relationship contexts as a strongly and intricately connected network of interdependent members. Eastern cultural norms suggest collectivistic personhood and relational construals of the self and others. These cultural norms impose an interdependent model of self and culture. Cultural factors determine a person’s other-focused perception and emotional experience.

See more about this in Perception of a person in relationship contexts.

3. Individualism Versus Collectivism in Society

The most well-known cultural difference between the West and the East is the distinction between individualistic Western societies and collectivistic Eastern ones. Individualism and collectivism describe how an individual and a group relate to each other in a society.

Western societies are considered to be independent, individualistic cultures. Individualism in a society is defined by cultural values such as personal liberty, initiative, autonomy, and self-reliance.

Eastern societies are considered to be interdependent, collectivistic cultures. The cultural values that go along with collectivism are kinship priority, family unity, in-group integrity, and loyalty to relationships.

See more in Western individualistic cultures and Eastern collectivistic cultures.

4. High-Context Versus Low-Context Cultural Styles of Communication

The concepts of high-context and low-context cultures differentiate the types of cultures that accentuate the importance of implicit versus explicit messages in people’s relationships and daily interactions.

In high-context Eastern cultures, people prefer to use messages that largely convey meanings and connotations via implicit nonverbal codes, the contexts, culturally implied forms of speech, expected patterns of behavior, and the contextual settings of a situation and social relations.

In low-context Western cultures, people prefer to use messages in which the meanings and connotations are primarily expressed via explicit verbal codes, direct words spoken or written, and overt facial and body expressions with evident meaning, like an open smile.

See more in Western low-context versus Eastern high-context interaction style.

5. High-Contact and Low-Contact Cultures

Western and Eastern cultures have certain differences in the cultural dimension of contact versus non-contact cultures. People in non-contact cultures keep their distance in communication and avoid tactile and olfactory sensory modes of interaction, while people in high-contact cultures communicate with a shorter interpersonal distance and higher engagement of tactile and olfactory sensory modes.

Societies from North America, Northern Europe, and Asia tend to be low-contact, whereas societies from Southern Europe, the Middle East, and South America tend to be high-contact cultures. So, we see that this division has a more complex configuration than just West versus East.

See more in Cultural proxemics and immediacy of interpersonal communication.

Western Communication Style vs Eastern Communication Style

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The key point of this article are that Western communication style vs Eastern communication style differ in their cultural norms. Western cultures value low-context communication, whereas Eastern cultures value high-context communication.

As I have previously stated on this website, Western and Eastern cultures differ in their ways of life and social organization in a variety of ways. They differ in their worldviews and perceptions. They differ in the norms of relationships between people, in the personal construal of self, and in the tendencies toward more individualistic or collectivistic structures in their social lives.

Let us consider the differences in the ways people in Western and Eastern societies prefer to communicate their verbal and nonverbal messages. It should be noted that the divisions in communication patterns frequently lie along lines that are different from the traditional divisions of Western and Eastern cultures.

Cultural Differences in Low-content Versus High-context Communication

The Western communication style vs eastern communication style differ in their values of low-content versus high-context communication.

While individuals differ in their relative personal preferences and orientations regarding the content or context of messages in communication, societies, their values, and cultural norms also differ in this regard. These cultural differences are evident in both verbal and nonverbal communication.

A question of interest once again is whether the content or context of messages is more important for people in their verbal and nonverbal communication. Some cultural traditions can encourage their members to rely more on the content or context of their interpersonal communication.

People mainly convey the content of a message verbally, while they express the context of the message mostly nonverbally. Therefore, low-context cultures favor verbal ways of interaction, while high-context cultures prefer nonverbal ways of communication.

Low-context Versus High-context Cultures of Communication

American anthropologist Edward Hall introduced the concepts of low-context and high-context cultures. Distinguishing these cultures, he emphasized the importance of explicit versus implicit messages in people’s daily communication. In low-context cultures, people convey the main message’s meaning in their explicit verbal codes. In contrast, people in high-context cultures tend to choose messages in which they embed the meaning mainly in the context of the interaction, such as the settings and participants (Hall, 1989; McKay‐Semmler, 2017).

Consequently, people in low-context cultures tend to speak openly, directly, explicitly, and in words with precise meaning. In contrast, people in high-context cultures prefer to talk indirectly, implicitly, and with words that have hidden meanings.

What Is the Origin of Low-Context Cultures?

Due to several cultural features, Western societies tend to be low-context cultures. People in individualistic cultures prefer lower-context messages (Gudykunst & Matsumoto, 1996; Karandashev, 2021).

Many scholars believe that the ancient Greek and Roman cultures (with the philosophies of Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates) are the origins of modern Western culture. Therefore, it is logical to assume that they subscribe to the principle of universal meanings and the importance of reasoning. These philosophical beliefs encourage analytical and rational thinking and suggest expressing ideas and thoughts logically, clearly, and persuasively.

What Are the Low-Context Cultures?

In these philosophical cultural traditions, the content of the message is more important than its context. Then, when they talk with someone about something, they need to elaborate on the details of their message and expect that their partner will do the same. This pattern of communication is prevalent in so-called low-context cultures (Gudykunst & Kim, 1984; Hall & Hall, 1990).

People in western North American countries, such as the USA and Canada, and northern European countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, pay less attention to the intricate details of the context in which people communicate.

Men and women choose to be open and transparent in their messages. People say everything explicitly in their words without making implicit assumptions, attempting to avoid unspoken or hidden nonverbal or contextual messages. They tend to compartmentalize their interpersonal relationships. They believe that people should express any messages openly, elaborately, and directly.

When people from high-context Eastern cultures provide insufficient details in their messages, and people from low-context Western cultures feel confused or even lost in their misunderstanding. Perceiving too little information, they can feel left out. People of Western cultural origins consider the long-lasting absence of sound and a pause in a conversation awkward. They feel that such conversation is uneasy (Hasegawa & Gudykunst, 1998; Morsbach, 1976; Oliver, 1971).

What Are High-Context Cultures?

Due to several cultural characteristics, Eastern societies are more likely to be high-context cultures. People in collectivistic cultures prefer the higher-context messages (Gudykunst & Matsumoto, 1996; Karandashev, 2021).

For people in high-context-dependent cultures, in addition to the content of a message, its context is highly informative in terms of its implicit, unspoken, and hidden cultural connotations. Therefore, they put special emphasis on the circumstances of a situation, status relations, invited people, rituals, elaborate greetings, and many other contextual details. They convey their messages mostly through contextual expressions. They convey more meaning than they say. The recipient just needs to be able to decode unspoken messages. They are very polite to everyone. How well they can say “no” without saying “no” can be superb (Karandashev, 2021).

The typical societies of the high-context cultures are China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, the so-called Oriental cultures (Hall, 1984).

The Iberian cultures of Spanish and Portuguese societies, as well as Latin American cultures, are also high-context cultures. Societies of the southern and eastern Mediterranean and Indian cultural regions, such as the Turks, Greeks, and Arabs, also belong to high-context cultures.

In the United States, high-context cultures characterize certain cultural groups, such as Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans (Andersen, Hecht, Hoobler, & Smallwood, 2003; Hall, 1976, 1984; Lustig & Koester, 1999; see for review, Karandashev, 2021).

Variations in Low-context and High-context Cultures

Generally, Western individualistic societies tend to be low-context cultures, while Eastern collectivistic societies are high-context cultures, even though this division is not strictly along West-East lines. As we’ll see below, there is variation within those so-called Western and Eastern societies.

For example, European cultures, however, vary in their cultural norms in this regard. For example, the Germans and other northern Europeans are much lower in context-dependency than the Mediterranean, Spanish, Italian, and French people. This aspect of their communication and interaction affects many situations and relationships in their lives.

The Mixture of Low- and High-context Communication Styles

Many cultures have mixed styles of communication, which can depend on the types of relationships and areas of interaction. For instance, the cultures of England, France, and Italy have characteristics of both low-context and high-context cultures mixed with each other. People in those countries are less explicit in their communication than in other Western European and North American countries. Nevertheless, they are more explicit than people in Eastern countries like Japan and China, for example.