Showing papers by "Chi-Yue Chiu published in 2020"

The Importance of Cultural Tightness and Government Efficiency For Understanding COVID-19 Growth and Death Rates

Abstract: We have withdrawn this preprint as we update analyses with data on later stages of COVID-19. We will post an updated preprint as it is available. In the interim, if colleagues are interested in using the tightness-looseness scores we developed for this paper, we provide them below.

The merciless mind in a dog-eat-dog society: neoliberalism and the indifference to social inequality

Abstract: Neoliberalism asserts that to preserve individual liberty, an effective competitive market must be established to allow individuals to freely choose their economic activities and to reward individuals according to their merits. This ideology has been criticized for condoning social inequality by attributing the presence of social hierarchy to innate or learned personal qualities. We review existing psychological research that has treated neoliberalism as a cluster of personal beliefs and supplement this review with a cross-cultural analysis of 40 societies that differ along two dimensions of neoliberalism: presence of economic freedom and believing in meritocracy. At the individual level, subscription to neoliberalism is positively associated with confidence in personal control, endorsement of system justification, social exclusion of disadvantaged groups, and reluctance to take remedial collective actions that would reduce social inequality. At the society level, the presence of economic freedom and popular support for meritocracy in prototypic neoliberal societies jointly predict greater acceptance of unequal power distribution in these societies, even after controlling for the actual level of economic inequality.

Culturally Polite Communication: Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Localization Strategy

Abstract: Although global brands entering local markets often use localized communication (i.e., incorporation of local cultural elements in their marketing communications), the fundamental question of when and why the local community would react favorably to this strategy is still not fully answered. This research draws on the communication accommodation theory to address this question. Results from four studies show that local consumers evaluate a global brand less positively when it incorporates high-symbolic (vs. low-symbolic) local cultural elements in its marketing communication. Notably, the positive effect of culturally polite communication on consumers’ evaluations of a global brand occurs only in the local market, but not when the communication occurs in another market. Moreover, localization efforts by a global brand result in a strong localness perception, which has a positive effect on brand evaluation. Indeed, a strong localness perception of the global brand could even overshadow the need for culturally polite communication

Growth Mindset as a Personal Preference Predicts Teachers' Favorable Evaluation of Positive Education as an Imported Practice When Institutional and Normative Support for It Are Both Strong or Both Weak.

Abstract: Past research on pathways to cultural influence on judgment has compared the explanatory power of personal preferences, perceived descriptive norms and institutionalization. Positive education is an education movement inspired by Western positive psychology. The present study examined how these factors jointly predict Hong Kong teachers' evaluation of imported positive education programs in their schools. In a field study, we measured teachers' personal endorsement of growth mindset (a positive psychology construct developed in the US) and their evaluation of adopting positive education programs in their schools. We also measured teachers' perception of the extent of institutional and normative support for positive education in their schools. The results show that teachers' personal preferences for growth mindset predict more favorable evaluation of positive education programs when institutional and normative support for positive education programs are both weak, or when they are both strong. We interpret these effects from the perspectives of the strong situation hypothesis and the intersubjective theory of culture.