Cultural and Religious Values: A Cross-Cultural Study In Austria,South Africa and Egypt

This article compares religious values found on the basis of the lexical approach in three cultures. Lists of human values in Austria (German), South Africa (Northern Sotho) and Egypt (Arabic) were compiled. These terms were rated by 456, 400 and 773 participants respectively as personal guiding motives in life. Factor analyses yielded orthogonal dimensions reflecting the specific values of each culture. In all three cases, a dimension pertaining to religious issues emerged. For Austria, a distinct dimension was found, which only comprised religious terms. In South Africa religious values were interrelated with mutual support, while in Egypt, religiosity was highly correlated with political concerns and Arabic nationalism. While only about 25% of the Austrian sample gave positive evaluations to religious values, most of the South African and Egyptian participants rated religiosity positively. Results suggest that religious values are ubiquitous and religious convictions are influenced by the ethical concepts in each culture.     

Gender Differences in Wayfinding Strategies and Anxiety About Wayfinding: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Two studies examined gender and cultural differences in wayfinding strategies and anxiety about wayfinding. Men in both Hungary and the United States reported greater preference for a strategy of orienting to global reference points, whereas women reported greater preference for a strategy based on route information. A higher level of wayfinding anxiety was reported by Americans, and women in both countries reported greater wayfinding anxiety than did men. Women in the United States, but not in Hungary, reported less childhood wayfinding experience than did men; women in both countries reported feeling less safe than did men. Feeling of personal safety and wayfinding strategy preferences mediated the gender difference in wayfinding anxiety.     

Representation of Gender in South African Television Advertising: A Content Analysis

This paper examines how gender is represented in South African television advertising. It provides a foundation upon which changes in representation over time may be mapped; contributes toward a cross-national literature that considers differences in representation; and tentatively examines how representations intersect with other key social categories. A sample of 5,803 advertisements was collected during 2003 that included 1,633 primary visual actors and 2,350 narrators. These were analysed by means of content analysis. A coding scheme was developed that was partly based on existing research, including McArthur and Resko??s (1975) influential study, but also research within non-Western contexts. Content categories included attributes of the primary visual actor (i.e., age; portrayal; race; and social class) as well as advertisement attributes (i.e., actors; primary narrator; products; and setting). Hypotheses predicted that males and females would be represented differently in television advertisements and that these differences would reflect traditional hierarchical relations in society. Findings largely supported these hypotheses. Males were represented as dominant. They were of primary focus; appeared most frequently within the socially valued public-work arena; and were represented as occupying positions of greater social authority. Females were represented as subordinate. They were of secondary focus; appeared most frequently within the socially undervalued private-domestic arena; and were most often represented as occupying positions of social subordination. This subordination was reinforced through findings that imply their sexualisation. Interesting patterns also emerged in findings indicating possible change in representations of gender. The implications of findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.     

Gender Comparisons of Fat Talk in the United Kingdom and the United States

This study compared different forms of body talk, including ??fat talk,?? among 231 university men and women in central England (UK; n?=?93) and the southeastern United States (US; n?=?138). A 2 (gender) by 2 (country) repeated measures ANOVA across types of body talk (negative, self-accepting, positive) and additional Chi-square analyses revealed that there were differences across gender and between the UK and US cultures. Specifically, UK and US women were more likely to report frequently hearing or perceiving pressure to engage in fat talk than men. US women and men were also more likely to report pressure to join in self-accepting body talk than UK women and men.     

Interconnecting Race and Gender Relations: Racism, Sexism and the Attribution of Sexism to the Racialized Other

This article analyzes the way that attitudes about gender and race relations are interconnected. Based on a survey study conducted in Switzerland with a sample of 273 Swiss nationals (125 men and 148 women), it shows that the attribution of a higher level of sexism to “racialized Others” than to Swiss individuals is a racist process resulting in the justification and naturalization of the ordinary Swiss sexism seen in the gendered division of labor. However, this study also shows that the attribution of a higher level of sexism to the Other can be countered by simultaneously adopting both feminist and non-racist attitudes.     

Benevolent Sexism Toward Men and Women: Justification of the Traditional System and Conventional Gender Roles in Spain

The present study aimed to explore sexist attitudes in young people and to investigate the role of these ideologies in the contribution of boys and girls to housework. For this purpose, 139 Spanish high school students (67 females and 72 males) responded to the ASI and AMI scales (Glick and Fiske in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70:491–512, 1996, Psychology of Women Quarterly 23:519–536, 1999) and assessed their contribution to housework in tasks considered traditionally done by women (highly gender-typed) or more neutral tasks (sex-neutral). Results showed that girls contributed significantly more to housework than boys. In addition, correlation analyses showed that benevolent sexism toward women, men and hostility toward men were significant related to highly gender typed tasks only in the female sample. This result shows the relevance of sexist ideologies in maintaining established differences between genders.     

Emotion as a Mediator of the Influence of Gender on Advertising Effectiveness: Gender Differences in Online Self-Reports

This study featured a mixed-model repeated measures ANOVA design wherein subjects were exposed to three emotional and three nonemotional public service advertising appeals. The results showed that in online self-reporting situations where message recipients report on their emotions immediately after exposure to an affectively charged advertising appeal, women reported significantly stronger emotions than their male counterparts only in response to the three emotional ads. The findings also showed that even when individual differences in affect intensity were accounted for, emotion was clearly the factor that mediated the influence of gender on advertising effectiveness in all three emotional ads.     

Working Hours and Life Satisfaction: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Latin America and the United States

This paper compares the life satisfaction and working hours of Latin Americans and U.S. Americans using the AmericasBarometer and General Social Survey. While there are many common determinants of happiness, hours worked is not among them. Differences in cultural values, especially the distinction between collectivism (familism) and individualism that has long been a foundation of social development theory, may be why married Latin American males are less happy than married U.S. American males when working longer hours. The distinction is not apparent among females or the unmarried.     

Motivation for Solitude: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Adolescents from Collectivist and Individualist Cultures in South Africa

Solitude during adolescence is a potentially double edged sword. Involuntary (non-self-determined solitude) is associated with loneliness, which is known to predict many forms of psychological ill-being. In contrast, freely chosen (self-determined solitude) is associated with healthy developmental outcomes. It is possible that cultural attitudes towards solitude could influence the way adolescents think about and engage in solitude. The present study examined whether South African adolescents from individualist and collectivist cultures differ in their motivations for solitude, using the Motivation for Solitude Scale (MSS-SF). Respondents included 426 adolescents from collectivist and 266 from individualist cultures, between 14 and 18 years of age (mean age?=?15.7). For valid cross-cultural comparisons, measurement equivalence was established using invariance and differential item functioning analysis. Results for the measurement invariance analysis (MI) marginally failed to support scalar invariance. Given criticism that MI is overly restrictive, Rasch analysis was used to test for uniform DIF, which supported invariance. Next, Bayesian analysis was used to investigate group differences. There was no difference between the cultural groups for non-self-determined solitude, but, adolescents from individualist cultures were less likely to engage in self-determined solitude. Results support the cross-cultural application of the MSS-SF, and point to a possible cultural bias against self-determined solitude in individualist cultures, despite its potential benefits.     

The Effect of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: A Cross-National Comparison Between Canada,Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States

This paper investigates the effect of unemployment on life satisfaction from a comparative perspective. It also tests whether the link between unemployment and life satisfaction is moderated or reinforced by contextual unemployment across regions within a country—either through a negative spillover or a positive social-norm effect, or both. The results suggest that noticeable non-pecuniary costs are associated with unemployment in the four countries studied. Cross-national differences also emerged in the impact of the moderating factors. Regional unemployment is a strong moderating factor of own unemployment in Canada and to a lesser extent in the United States; the effect is ambiguous in the United Kingdom and exacerbating in Germany. The results also support a negative spillover effect of regional unemployment on the employed in the United States and Germany, no spillover effect in the United Kingdom and, surprisingly, a positive overall spillover effect in Canada. Sensitivity testing further revealed that this Canadian anomaly was a phenomenon mainly in Atlantic Canada, not across the whole country.

     

The Academic Conference as a Chilly Climate for Women: Effects of Gender Representation on Experiences of Sexism,Coping Responses,and Career Intentions

Across many disciplines, women are underrepresented in faculty positions relative to men. The present research focuses on the academic conference as a setting because it is a gateway to an academic career and a context in which women might experience sexism. We surveyed 329 presenters (63% women) from three U.S. national academic conferences, which differed in women-to-men ratios, about their perceptions of the conference climate, their coping tactics (e.g., gender performance, silence, or voice), and their intentions to exit the conference or academia. The greater the representation of women at the conference relative to men, the less likely were women to perceive sexism and to feel they had to behave in a masculine manner in that setting. In contrast, women who perceived the conference as sexist and felt silenced also expressed increased intentions to exit from academic careers. Men’s perceptions of sexism predicted increased intentions to exit from that particular conference, but not from academia. Because conferences signal the norms of a discipline, it is important to explore their climates as they relate to gender. Perhaps especially for new and aspiring female academics, they may signal devalued status and lack of fit and as such play an inadvertent role in the “leaky pipeline.” We discuss strategies that conference organizers could implement to mitigate sexist climates, including broader inclusion of women in speaking and leadership roles and explicit attention to cues that women belong.     

Gender and Deviance: A Comparison of College Students in Japan and the United States

Although evidence abounds in American criminology that young males are more prone to deviance than females, relatively little is known about the magnitude of the gender gap in deviance across cultures. Drawing on the literature concerning “risk taking” in power-control theory and on theory and research concerning cultural variability in “uncertainty avoidance,” we offer a rationale for predicting that the gender differences in levels of deviance are less among Japanese youth than Americans. Among Japanese, the level of male deviance should be closer to that of females because “uncertainty avoidance” is a strong component of Japanese culture that affects socialization of both males and females. Analysis of identical survey data from college students in Japan and the United States provides strong support for our argument.     

Sexism and the Effectiveness of Femvertising in China: A Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective

The present study draws on theories and prior research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and gender attitudes (i.e., sexism) to understand young Chinese peoples’ responses toward women-empowering advertising (i.e., femvertising). We conducted two experiments in which male and female Chinese college students (232 in Study 1 and 231 in Study 2) were exposed to either women-empowering or control advertisements (traditional ad in Study 1 and gender-irrelevant ad in Study 2) and reported their attitudes about the ads as well as their purchase intentions toward the advertised products (shampoo and smartphone, respectively). In line with our predictions, both experiments showed that messaging about women’s empowerment in advertising can induce perceptions of CSR, thereby increasing favorable responses such as enhanced positive ad attitudes and increased purchase intentions toward the advertised products. Moreover, hostile sexism was negatively associated with consumer responses toward femvertising such that the lower participants’ hostile sexism, the more positive ad attitudes and stronger purchase intent participants they reported. However, benevolent sexism was not predictive of consumer responses toward femvertising. These results offer insights into people’s responses toward women-empowering advertisements and also have practical implications for advertisers and marketers who are interested in using such an advertising tactic to promote products and services.

     

Ethical Beliefs Toward Academic Dishonesty: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Undergraduate Students in Ukraine and the United States

Little work has been done on beliefs toward academic misconduct in Ukraine. This study explored the beliefs of Ukrainian students toward various forms of academic misconduct and compared the results to the U.S. undergraduate students (N?=?270). Twenty-two forms of cheating, plagiarism, and questionable academic behaviors were grouped in five categories: unilateral cheating, collective cheating, falsification gaining favoritism, and performing extra work to receive better grades. Cross-cultural comparisons of beliefs were pivotal in this study. Results indicated that, in general, Ukrainian students are less likely to believe that academic misconduct is wrong compared to their U.S. counterparts, as well as seem to have different beliefs on what is and isn’t academic misconduct. Recommendations are proposed to help students change their beliefs and to reduce academic dishonesty. These recommendations also have application purposes outside of Ukraine.     

Attitudes Toward and Beliefs about Transgender Youth: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the United States and India

Using an internet-based survey, we examined attitudes toward transgender youth in the United States and India, two cultures with differences in conceptualizations of gender and treatment of transgender individuals in society, law, and religion. We found generally positive attitudes toward transgender youth in our U.S. (n = 218), but moderately negative ones in our Indian (n = 217), sample. Consistent with the literature on prejudice against transgender adults in many Western societies, general social conservatism in the form of religious beliefs and political ideology, gender-specific conservatism in the form of gender binary belief, and endorsement of environmental rather than biological causes of transgender identity were the best predictors of U.S. participants’ attitudes, although personal contact with gender and sexual minorities also played a role at the bivariate level. These findings suggest that the processes underlying prejudice against transgender youth are similar to those that foster adult-directed transphobia in that cultural context. In contrast, religion-based disapproval and environmental causal attributions were the best predictors of Indian respondents’ attitudes, whereas gender binary belief played only a minor role, and political conservatism and personal contact no role at all. Our regression analyses accounted for considerably more of the variability in U.S. than in Indian participants’ attitudes, highlighting the need for additional (qualitative) work to identify the factors that promote transprejudice in India. We discuss these findings in light of cross-cultural differences between the two countries in terms of our predictors and consider implications for efforts to reduce prejudice against transgender youth.     

Age and Cultural Gender Equality as Moderators of the Gender Difference in the Importance of Religion and Spirituality: Comparing the United Kingdom,France, and Germany

A range of research studies has found that women report greater importance of religion and spirituality in their lives than men do. This study extends the literature on this phenomenon, and the theories that aim to explain it, by looking at whether gender differences in the three European countries (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) differ by adult age group (young adults 18–39, midlifers 40–59, and older adults 60+), and by the cultural gender equality of the countries in question. Participants provided data on the importance of religiosity and spirituality to their life. Significant gender differences were found within all three countries, for each of the three age groups. In line with predictions based on Global Gender Gap Report 2016, Germany showed the smallest difference, followed by France and the United Kingdom. Gender differences were smaller in the young adult samples than for midlife adults or older adults.     

Protestantism,authoritarianism and democracy: A comparison of The Netherlands,The United States and South Africa

Protestantism took on a similar Calvinist cast among ascendent Dutch during the Reformation to the Puritans in America, and the Afrikaners in South Africa. These three societies, however, developed very different political systems. The social and historical reasons for these differences are traced. Elements in Protestantism that could potentially lead to different forms of liberal democracy on the one hand, or to authoritarianism on the other, are explored. The different patterns of secularization, or lack thereof, are also delineated in each of the cases.     

Attitudes to Marriage and Sexual Behaviors: A Survey of Gender and Culture Differences in China and United Kingdom

This paper reports a survey carried out among 505 university students in China and 338 students in the United Kingdom. The survey included questions on attitudes toward mate-selection preferences, marriage, and sexual behavior. The findings show that traditional values in mate-selection preferences persist more in China than in the United Kingdom and indicate that, despite a profound social revolution over the last two decades, a relatively conservative sexual culture still exists in China today. Traditional morality and attitudes prevail especially among women. Gender and culture differences are discussed.