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How a person behaves around others is determined by many different factors. One of particular interest is the examination of cross-cultural altruism as part of cultural norms. Do cultural norms affect how altruistic a person tends to be? If you’ve ever visited another country, you may have found that those who live there behave differently to those who live in your home country. Smiling at a stranger may be considered polite in one place but very odd in another.
Similarly, offering a helping hand is not always the natural thing to do.
Levine et al. (2001) conducted a contemporary study investigating helping behaviour or altruism across different countries and cultures.
What is the meaning of altruism?
Altruism: the act of helping others because you are concerned about them and genuinely want to help them. This concern is unselfish and does not require reciprocation in any form.
A person helping another on crutches walk down the street is an act of altruism, Flixr
There have been many studies comparing helping rates in different communities in a single country. These studies primarily investigated population size as a factor in helping behaviour, the hypothesis being that the larger a cities population, the larger the decrease in helping behaviour.
However, Levine et al. (2001) wanted to cross-culturally investigate other factors that may influence helping behaviour in a city.
Researchers tested three measures of helping in a large city in 23 countries. All had populations of more than 230,000.
All experimenters were male and of university age. One experimenter collected all the data for each city. To control for experimenter effects, apart from all experimenters being male, they all received a detailed information sheet and training in acting out the roles. They all practised their roles together. No verbal communication was required of the experimenters.
A blind man with a walking stick, Flaticon
The following table shows the percentage of helping in each city.
Blind person | Dropped pen | Hurt leg | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | City | Overall helping % | Rank | % | Rank | % | Rank | % |
1 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 93.33 | 1 | 100 | 1 | 100 | 4 | 80 |
2 | San Jose, Costa Rica | 91.33 | 1 | 100 | 7 | 79 | 1 | 95 |
3 | Lilongwe, Malawi | 86 | 1 | 100 | 2 | 93 | 13 | 65 |
4 | Calcutta, India | 82.67 | 6 | 92 | 16 | 63 | 2 | 93 |
5 | Vienna, Austria | 81 | 12 | 75 | 6 | 88 | 4 | 80 |
6 | Madrid, Spain | 79.33 | 1 | 100 | 9 | 75 | 14 | 63 |
7 | Copenhagen, Denmark | 77.67 | 15 | 67 | 4 | 89 | 8 | 77 |
8 | Shanghai, China | 76.67 | 17 | 63 | 9 | 75 | 3 | 92 |
9 | Mexico City, Mexico | 75.67 | 6 | 92 | 17 | 55 | 4 | 80 |
10 | San Salvador, El Salvador | 74.67 | 6 | 92 | 4 | 89 | 20 | 43 |
11 | Prague, Czech Republic | 75 | 1 | 100 | 17 | 55 | 9 | 70 |
12 | Stockholm, Sweden | 72 | 18 | 58 | 3 | 92 | 11 | 66 |
13 | Budapest, Hungary | 71 | 15 | 67 | 8 | 76 | 9 | 70 |
14 | Bucharest, Romania | 68.67 | 6 | 92 | 14 | 66 | 19 | 48 |
15 | Tel Aviv, Israel | 68 | 10 | 83 | 13 | 67 | 16 | 54 |
16 | Rome, Italy | 63.33 | 12 | 75 | 21 | 35 | 4 | 80 |
17 | Bangkok, Thailand | 61 | 23 | 42 | 9 | 75 | 11 | 66 |
18 | Taipei, Taiwan | 59 | 21 | 50 | 15 | 65 | 15 | 62 |
19 | Sofia, Bulgaria | 57 | 11 | 80 | 12 | 69 | 23 | 22 |
20 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 53.67 | 18 | 58 | 19 | 54 | 17 | 49 |
21 | Singapore, Singapore | 48 | 21 | 50 | 20 | 45 | 17 | 49 |
22 | New York, United States | 44.67 | 12 | 75 | 22 | 31 | 22 | 28 |
23 | Kuala Lampur, Malaysia | 40.33 | 20 | 54 | 23 | 66 | 21 | 41 |
The researchers found that economic productivity was the only variable associated with helping behaviour. People tended to help more in countries that had poorer economies. Also, ‘simpatia’ countries were more helpful than non-simpatia countries.
Helping behaviour varies cross-culturally. Countries that have poorer economies may also have a more traditional value system that includes guidelines such as helping strangers. Latin American countries and Spain were more helpful due to the culture of simpatia. Individualism or collectivism made no difference to helping behaviour.
![Cross-cultural altruism [+] one world different cultures [+] StudySmarter](https://studysmarter-mediafiles.s3.amazonaws.com/media/2133044/summary_images/cultures_world.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4OLDUDE42UZHAIET%2F20220629%2Feu-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20220629T223406Z&X-Amz-Expires=90000&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=bbe1da1f8494d7afd0913cbd686db8af3216aabb18e5169bbb57968fd070a982)
Cultures of the world, commons.wikimedia.org
There were both strengths and weaknesses to the Levine et al. study.
The results of this study are generalisable due to the large number of countries and participants tested.
Due to many experimenters, it is hard to be sure if all procedures were standardised or if there were any experimenter effects.
This was a correlational study, so although researchers found a link between poorer economies/simpatia culture, they could not establish cause and effect.
As they collected no qualitative data, we cannot find out why people help.
Culture affects altruism when it is a standard dictated by society. The point is that we learn to be altruistic because of the culture in which we were raised. We may be more altruistic because of the beliefs we grow up with than because of our genes.
Levine et al. conducted their study in 23 countries.
A cross-cultural example is embracing or hugging someone when you see them. In the West, this is a common way to act. However, in East Asian countries it is not something they are accustomed to.
Levine et al. (2001) conducted a contemporary study investigating helping behaviour or altruism across different countries and cultures. They measured helping behaviours in 23 countries and found that
helping behaviour differed depending on economic productivity. People tended to help more in countries that had poorer economies. Also, 'simpatia' countries (a characteristic of Spanish and Latin American cultures, proactive warmth and concern for others) were more helpful than ‘non-simpatia’ countries.
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