A Global Study of Social Axioms

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A Global Study of Social Axioms

• Kwok Leung
• City University of Hong Kong
• Michael Harris Bond
• Chinese University of Hong Kong

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Social axioms

• A social axiom is a generalized belief which is
  central in a person's belief system, and its
  function is to enhance the survival and
  functioning of the person in his/her social and
  physical environment.

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Why are social axioms useful to explain
cross-cultural differences?

• Beliefs are related to a variety of social
  behaviors.
• Social axioms should demonstrate more
  cross-cultural variability than concepts
  frequently used in explaining cultural
  differences, such as values.

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Identification of social axioms

• Western psychological literature
• Qualitative research in Hong Kong and Venezuela
• Open-ended questionnaire
• Interview
• Content analysis of popular songs, newspapers,
  magazines, and primary and secondary school
  textbooks

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The Social Axioms Survey

• 182 items
• Administered in Hong Kong and Venezuela
• Both college students and adults in both sites
• Factor analysis

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Five factors

• Social cynicism
• A negative view of human nature and social events
• Reward for application
• The belief that effort will lead to positive
  outcomes
• Social complexity
• Multiple solutions to problems and the
  uncertainty of events
• Fate control
• a deterministic view of social events
• Religiosity (Previously named as Spirituality)
• the existence of a supreme being and positive
  consequences of religions

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Replication in U.S., Japan, and Germany

• 60 items short form created
• Administered to college students
• Confirmatory factor analysis

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Round the world study

• Over 40 samples
• Students (40 culture)
• Adults (13 cultures)
• Factor analysis based on a meta-analytic
  procedure
• Normalize the correlation matrix for each culture
• Average the matrices across cultures
• Transform the average matrix into a correlation
  matrix again

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Evaluate the factor solution across the two
samples

• Highly similar factor structures across the two
  samples
• High correlations between student and adult means
  for each factor
• The student data is used as the sample size is
  larger

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Social Axioms

• Factor Structure and
• Summary Findings

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Social Cynicism (CYN)
- College student samples from 40 countries
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Social Complexity (PLEX)
- College student samples from 40 countries
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Reward for Application (RA)
- College student samples from 40 countries
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Religiosity (REL)
- College student samples from 40 countries
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Fate Control (FATE)
- College student samples from 40 countries
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Citizen Means of 40 Countries
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Correlations with Social Indicators

• Social Cynicism
• Life satisfaction (-.69)
• View on leadership Charismatic/value based
  (-.65)
• Achievement via conformity (-.62)

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Correlations with Social Indicators (Contd)

• Social Complexity
• Other-referenced performance motive (-.60)
• Percentage of showing interest in politics (.55)
  )
• Percentage of GDP on Health (.41)

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Correlations with Social Indicators (Contd)

• Reward for Application
• Mate preference emphasizing mutual attraction,
  deemphasizing financial prospect (-.74)
• Working hours per week (.51)
• Sources of guidance - superiors (.49)

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Correlations with Social Indicators (Contd)

• Religiosity
• Importance of religion in life percentage of
  very important (.69)
• Hedonic balance (positive negative affect)
  (.47)
• Agreeableness (.59)

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Correlations with Social Indicators (Contd)

• Fate Control
• Suicide rate (.54)
• Heart disease (.52)
• Work ethic enjoyment of working hard (.-54)

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Country-level analysis

• Factor analyze item means of 41 cultural groups

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Future directions

• Convergent and discriminant validity with similar
  concepts
• Origin of social axioms and their acquisition
• Environmental and situational influence on social
  axioms
• Behavioral consequences of Social axioms
• Contrast with values its their impact on
  behaviors