Open Collections

Sahakari, Sakshi S.

University of British Columbia

Tightness-looseness characterizes cultural variation across and within societies through the strength and reinforcement of social norms. Although tightness-looseness has common correlates across cultures, within-country explorations in China and the US have also identified culture-specific aspects to it. The present study maps cultural tightness across a populous nation that remains largely psychologically uncharted: India. Using archival regional data for 28 states and 3 union territories, in Study 1 we construct a tightness-looseness index across India with 10 etic (culturally universal indicators, e.g., access to alcohol) and 9 emic (culturally unique indicators, e.g., caste-related laws) items (α = 0.93). In Study 2 and 3, we examine known influences (e.g., diseases prevalence) and correlates, or potential outcomes (e.g., discrimination), of cultural tightness, as well as underexplored associations such as geography (e.g., surface temperature) and culturally unique norms (e.g., arranged marriages). We tested these associations through specification curve analyses, and machine learning approaches (conditional random forests and SHAP values), with a weight of evidence approach to summarize findings across these complementary analyses. The analyses revealed multifaceted results – some aligning with, and others diverging from prior tightness literature. These findings document tightness-looseness in an overlooked geographic region and contribute to a richer understanding of the construct in diverse cultural contexts.

Text

2024-08-06

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88881

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/