Joanna Schug (@joannaschug) is a social and cross-cultural psychologist at the College of William and Mary. We discuss how the concept of relational mobility helps us understand why cultures differ from one another, and why people can have difficulty adapting to a new culture. For a long time, we’ve described cultures in terms of individualism or collectivism, but there are limitations to those terms. Joanna explains how we can interpret cultural behavior better if we think about high and low relational-mobility cultures.

Related Links:

* Cowboys vs. Rice Farmers: Mapping the Ecology of Cultural Difference, William & Mary News* How to win (and lose) friendships across cultures: Why relational mobility matters by Robert Thomson and Masaku Yuki, In Mind* Relational Mobility Depends on Where You Live, Asian Scientist* Relational Mobility Explains Between- and Within-Culture Differences in Self-Disclosure to Close Friends by Joanna Schug, Masaki Yuki, & William Maddux, Psychological Science* Relational mobility predicts social behaviors in 39 countries and is tied to historical farming and threat by Robert Thomson, Masaku Yuki, Thomas Talhelm, Joanna Schug, and others, PNAS

Here is a transcript of this episode.

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