It is very easy to fall into the trap of assuming that everyone from a given culture thinks similarly. Psychologists have been doing it for years! Last month, we blogged about Drs. Takano and Osaka’s research challenging the “common sense” idea that Japanese are invariably and typically collectivist in their thinking, while Americans are individualists.…
Read MoreCollective or Individual Culture?
It is almost a common sense view that people living in the United States are much more individualist than those in Japan, but this view may be deeply flawed. In a recent article in the Asian Journal of Social Psychology, Drs. Yohtaro Takano and Eiko Osaka contend that there is no solid evidence to support…
Read MoreBody Posture Is Important Part of Nonverbal Communication
While research into cross-cultural non-verbal communication often focuses on facial expressions, body posture is also an important consideration. This may seem intuitive, as we all have experienced the role that body posture has in communicating emotions, but it has been neglected in most research, at the expense of its valuable potential for effectively reading people.…
Read More