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You will see differences in human social behavior when you compare them at the country level. The highest score is in Japan, while the Netherlands has a score that's just above average. This is what psychologist Niels Van Doesem found in his research with 64 colleagues from 61 industrialized nations. The results were published in PNAS.
Japan received the highest score for social mindfulness, a specific type of social behavior that was the focus of the comparative research. This measures how mindful people are of others they don't know. The Netherlands scored just above the average. The research involved 64 researchers from 31 industrialized nations. The article's first author and co-initiator was Niels van Doesum, a psychologist from Leiden University.
Helpful and friendly
There has been a lot of research into how people behave when money is involved. How open are they to sharing this information with family, friends, or strangers? Van Doesum studied what happens when money doesn't play. It is then about taking into consideration others, the immaterial, which in essence is basic characteristics like being friendly and helpful. This research examined the extent to which people are aware of other people's choices. Social mindfulness is therefore different from individual mindfulness.
Ryan Murphy was at the University of Zurich at the time, while Van Doesum was at the University of Amsterdam as Ryan Murphy. Van Doesum also initiated the research with Paul van Langer (Professor of Psychology at VU Amsterdam). Van Doesum's research falls under the Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology section at Leiden University and its affiliated Knowledge Centre for Psychology and Economic Behaviour.
8.354 Participants: Dilemmas
The apple test is one example of a dilemma the 8,354 participants in this study were presented with. You will need to picture a bowl with two red and one green apple. While you can choose which one to take, you know someone will follow you. The person who comes after you will not have the option to choose between the red or green one. The person following you can still choose between a red or green apple if you choose the green one.
On a computer, 12 hypothetical choices were displayed to the participants. Because industrialized countries are at a similar stage in their economic development, the researchers selected them. This allows for better comparison. There were significant differences in the results between countries and individuals. The average score of each individual was calculated for each country. Japan topped the list, while India, Turkey, and Indonesia were in the bottom three.
Do you think it is better to be more social?
Does this mean the countries that ranked high in the rankings are considered 'better'? Van Doesum: "No, that's not possible. The research results are not subject to a value judgement. There are differences. This is what we expected, but science hasn't proven it. This could be due to a variety of reasons.
Researchers compared social mindfulness at the country level to a variety of global indexes including a ranking of countries' progress towards achieving global climate goals. "Here, we found a clear positive relationship. However, that does not mean there is a causal connection with social mindfulness. We still need to find out what exactly this relationship is. Our research does not reveal anything.
Learn more Mindfulness can help you be selfish.
Niels J. for more information. Van Doesum and colleagues, Social mindfulness, prosociality, and other factors vary around the world, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). Information from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Niels Journal. Van Doesum and colleagues, Social mindfulness, prosociality, and other factors vary around the world, (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2023846118
