Japan ranked first in an experiment comparing 'whether or not to care for strangers' in 31 countries



Showing compassion for 'a stranger who is not a friend or acquaintance' can depend not only on an individual's personality and beliefs, but also on culture. A new international research team of researchers from 31 countries has announced the results of a survey of '8354 subjects living in 31 countries' regarding their tendency to consider strangers.

Social mindfulness and prosociality vary across the globe | PNAS

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/35/e2023846118

Social mindfulness varies across the globe --Leiden University
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2021/08/social-behaviour-niels-van-doesum

Not All Cultures Are Equally Mindful of Strangers – Here's How Your Country Ranks
https://www.sciencealert.com/not-all-cultures-are-equally-mindful-of-strangers-here-s-how-your-country-ranks

In recent years, 'mindfulness ' has been emphasized to pay attention to what one is experiencing now, but in contrast to this, paying attention to the situation and intentions of others is ' social mindfulness'. Mindfulness) '. People with strong social mindfulness think about how their choices affect others and change their behavior according to 'what others may want'. There is a tendency.

An international research team consisting of a total of 64 researchers from 31 countries conducted experiments to examine the degree of social mindfulness in subjects living in each country. In the experiment, the subject was asked, 'Choose one from a bowl of one red apple and two blue apples and bring it. Then, someone you don't know chooses one of the two left in the same bowl. He presented a fictitious situation, such as 'take it,' and asked which apple or other object to bring.



If the subject brings a blue apple, the next person to choose can choose from 'one red apple and one blue apple', but if the subject brings a red apple, the next person The person has no choice but to take one out of 'two blue apples'. In this situation, a subject who chooses a blue apple and leaves the choice for the next person is considered to have 'social mindfulness.' The research team measured the social mindfulness of the subjects by presenting similar situations multiple times by changing the apples into other objects or changing the number of apples.

The subjects in this experiment were mainly students aged 18 to 25, and a total of 8354 valid responses were obtained from 31 countries. The breakdown of the participating countries is the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Romania, Greece, Russia, Japan and South Africa.・ China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Turkey, South Africa, Australia and Israel.

The results of the experiment are as follows. 'SoMi' (green bar) indicates the degree of social mindfulness.



The countries with the highest degree of social mindfulness are Japan, Austria, Mexico, Israel, Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Singapore in order from the first place ...



The lowest countries are the United States, Canada, South Korea, Greece, Hong Kong, South Africa, India, Turkey and Indonesia.

Niels van Doesum, a psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who is the lead author of the treatise, said, 'We do not value research results. The important thing is that there is a difference. That is us. Was expected, but it wasn't scientifically proven. ' He said that this result shows cultural differences and does not give a superiority or inferiority such as 'a country with high social mindfulness is superior'.



This experiment involved very little material cost, and the measured social mindfulness was accompanied by 'little attention and kindness.' In his treatise, the research team said, 'Collaboration with others at low cost is a fairly common phenomenon, but it has received little empirical attention.' Claims that it needs to be studied.

The difference in social mindfulness is thought to be influenced by 'trust in others,' 'level of education,' 'economic status,' and 'religious values.' Further research is needed to understand. The research team believes that research such as social mindfulness is important for deepening understanding of 'how people treat others' and for thinking about issues such as immigration and diplomacy.



in Note, Posted by log1h_ik