Is your culture aware of other cultures, even strangers?
Individual mindfulness is different from social mindfulness because money is not involved and there is no reward to consider. This leaves the qualities of kindness and helping others to stand alone.
A small-scale, low-cost, and sustainable cooperation that is essential for a healthy community has not received much scientific attention in past. However, a new study compares 31 countries to find significant differences in social mindfulness.
In their new paper, the researchers write that social mindfulness is usually a small act of kindness or attention at little to no cost. "Even though it is quite common, this low-cost cooperation has not received much empirical attention."
Researchers say this type of mindfulness should be studied independently from behavior when there are costs (e.g. time, money or effort).
A series of experiments was conducted with 8,354 participants in 34 countries. They used an experiment to test social mindfulness. Participants were asked to select between objects of minor importance, and they knew that someone else would be choosing from the same list.
What is the trick? You can influence the choice of what item is chosen by others. It is socially more mindful to give them the choice.
Participants were given two red apples and one green apple in one of the choices. Volunteers could show social mindfulness by choosing a green apple and leaving the next person with the option of a red or green apple. They leave no choice for the next person if they pick the only red apple.
24 trials were conducted with random objects. Participants were asked to show kindness toward strangers. Some of the items presented 'controls', which were identical or offered an equal selection. Additional tasks were performed before and after the test to validate and compare.
Here's an example of the object selection task. (van Doesum et al., PNAS, 2021)
Japan, Austria and Mexico were the top social mindfulness participants.
At the bottom of this table was Argentina, Canada, South Korea and South Korea.
The researchers found significant differences in social mindfulness between some countries. However, they are careful not to judge any country or claim that one nation is better than the other in terms of considering the perspectives and experiences of others.
Niels van Doesum, a psychologist at Leiden University in The Netherlands, says that "we don't attach any value judgment to the results of research." "The most important thing is that there are some differences. This is what we expected, but it wasn't scientifically supported."
Table of countries with social mindfulness at the right. (van Doesum et al., PNAS 2021)
These differences could be explained by the trust societies place in strangers and education levels. Economic prosperity (or lack thereof) or the presence of religious values. However, further research will be necessary to fully understand the reasons.
These psychological studies will help us understand how we treat others, not just when we pick apples from a bowl but also when it comes to larger issues such as immigration and diplomacy.
The team found a correlation between increased social mindfulness and greater concern for protecting the environment in a country. However, these findings alone are not enough to prove that either is the cause.
Van Doesum says that it is still necessary to determine exactly what this relationship is. "Our research doesn’t tell us anything about that."
The research was published in PNAS.
