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> Instead, it was those countries with greater uncertainty avoidance that had larger differences in interests in people/things between men and women. Uncertaint

> Instead, it was those countries with greater uncertainty avoidance that had larger differences in interests in people/things between men and women. Uncertainty avoidance refers to the degree to which a culture teaches its members to feel unpleasant in situations that are new, not previously known, surprising, or generally just different from usual. I wouldn't mind seeing a ranking of countries by uncertainty avoidance. That sounds interesting enough itself.

vlabakje90 4y ago
A ranking of countries by uncertainty avoidance is part of Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimensions_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimens...). There is a website where you can easily compare countries (https://www.hofstede-insights.com/ https://www.hofstede-insights.com/).
- guerrilla 4y ago
  Thanks... This seems pretty counterintuitive though. Sweden: 29 United States: 49 Switzerland: 58 Thailand: 65 Italy: 75 Portugal: 99 > The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the score on Uncertainty Avoidance. My experience is that those numbers pretty much rank in reverse when it comes to actual risk taking. It seems weird to me that this metric as described would not correlate to that. Swedes and the Swiss are pretty (extremely) risk averse compared to all Italians and Portuguese I've ever met and observed... And Thailand ranks above Sweden? That's nonsensical... > Countries exhibiting high Uncertainty Avoidance maintain rigid codes of belief and behaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas. In these cultures there is an emotional need for rules (even if the rules never seem to work) time is money, people have an inner urge to be busy and work hard, precision and punctuality are the norm, innovation may be resisted, security is an important element in individual motivation. Decisions are taken after careful analysis of all available information. I feel like whoever made this up hasn't been to any of these countries.
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    When I compare various countries on the "masculinity" index, it seems to me that they're all completely backwards.
    - ShredKazoo 4y ago
      Remember when that hypermasculine Russian military recruiting commercial went viral? They only give Russia 36 on the masculinity index. (US gets 62) Here's the construct description: >The Masculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material rewards for success. Society at large is more competitive. Its opposite, Femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life. Society at large is more consensus-oriented. >In the business context Masculinity versus Femininity is sometimes also related to as “tough versus tender” cultures. https://www.hofstede-insights.com/models/national-culture/ https://www.hofstede-insights.com/models/national-culture/ I checked a bunch of countries -- I couldn't find a country ranked as more masculine than Austria, or less masculine than Sweden.
      - midoridensha 4y ago
        Austria ranks 79 on masculinity. Japan ranks 95, probably one of the highest. >The Masculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material rewards for success. This definitely does not sound like the Japan I live in, almost the opposite in fact. Japanese people are absolutely not known for assertiveness in particular; it's very much the opposite, they're infamous for being passive-aggressive. Heroism is definitely not a thing here. Achievement is so-so: being a reliable company workers and breadwinner is definitely highly valued, but not being a high achiever the way American culture, for instance, would value. Material rewards are valued though, but even here not as much as in America (which only ranks 62 somehow). >Its opposite, Femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life. Society at large is more consensus-oriented. This is absolutely Japan in a nutshell, for the most part, especially the part about being consensus-oriented. Japanese business culture is completely based on this: no decisions ever get made quickly or unilaterally; they require tons of boring meetings to build consensus before something big gets done. Caring for the weak and quality of life isn't as big as some western European nations, at least in terms of government policy, but it's still there, especially with, for instance, respect for elders (there's even a national holiday just for this). By contrast, America ranking only 62 here seems like a bad joke. American culture is all about achievement, heroism (hello, Marvel movies!), assertiveness (even when you're completely wrong), and certainly material rewards for success. Caring for the weak? Americans hate that: that's why they vote against social programs any time they can. "Quality of life" isn't a concern in America. If these people got these two countries SO completely and obviously wrong on the masculinity index, I really have no trust in their rankings for anything else.

vlabakje90 4y ago

A ranking of countries by uncertainty avoidance is part of Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimensions_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimens...). There is a website where you can easily compare countries (https://www.hofstede-insights.com/ https://www.hofstede-insights.com/).

guerrilla 4y ago
Thanks... This seems pretty counterintuitive though. Sweden: 29 United States: 49 Switzerland: 58 Thailand: 65 Italy: 75 Portugal: 99 > The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the score on Uncertainty Avoidance. My experience is that those numbers pretty much rank in reverse when it comes to actual risk taking. It seems weird to me that this metric as described would not correlate to that. Swedes and the Swiss are pretty (extremely) risk averse compared to all Italians and Portuguese I've ever met and observed... And Thailand ranks above Sweden? That's nonsensical... > Countries exhibiting high Uncertainty Avoidance maintain rigid codes of belief and behaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas. In these cultures there is an emotional need for rules (even if the rules never seem to work) time is money, people have an inner urge to be busy and work hard, precision and punctuality are the norm, innovation may be resisted, security is an important element in individual motivation. Decisions are taken after careful analysis of all available information. I feel like whoever made this up hasn't been to any of these countries.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  When I compare various countries on the "masculinity" index, it seems to me that they're all completely backwards.
  - ShredKazoo 4y ago
    Remember when that hypermasculine Russian military recruiting commercial went viral? They only give Russia 36 on the masculinity index. (US gets 62) Here's the construct description: >The Masculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material rewards for success. Society at large is more competitive. Its opposite, Femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life. Society at large is more consensus-oriented. >In the business context Masculinity versus Femininity is sometimes also related to as “tough versus tender” cultures. https://www.hofstede-insights.com/models/national-culture/ https://www.hofstede-insights.com/models/national-culture/ I checked a bunch of countries -- I couldn't find a country ranked as more masculine than Austria, or less masculine than Sweden.
    - midoridensha 4y ago
      Austria ranks 79 on masculinity. Japan ranks 95, probably one of the highest. >The Masculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material rewards for success. This definitely does not sound like the Japan I live in, almost the opposite in fact. Japanese people are absolutely not known for assertiveness in particular; it's very much the opposite, they're infamous for being passive-aggressive. Heroism is definitely not a thing here. Achievement is so-so: being a reliable company workers and breadwinner is definitely highly valued, but not being a high achiever the way American culture, for instance, would value. Material rewards are valued though, but even here not as much as in America (which only ranks 62 somehow). >Its opposite, Femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life. Society at large is more consensus-oriented. This is absolutely Japan in a nutshell, for the most part, especially the part about being consensus-oriented. Japanese business culture is completely based on this: no decisions ever get made quickly or unilaterally; they require tons of boring meetings to build consensus before something big gets done. Caring for the weak and quality of life isn't as big as some western European nations, at least in terms of government policy, but it's still there, especially with, for instance, respect for elders (there's even a national holiday just for this). By contrast, America ranking only 62 here seems like a bad joke. American culture is all about achievement, heroism (hello, Marvel movies!), assertiveness (even when you're completely wrong), and certainly material rewards for success. Caring for the weak? Americans hate that: that's why they vote against social programs any time they can. "Quality of life" isn't a concern in America. If these people got these two countries SO completely and obviously wrong on the masculinity index, I really have no trust in their rankings for anything else.