Large-Scale Psychological Differences Within China Explained by Rice Versus Wheat Agriculture

@article{Talhelm2014LargeScalePD,
  title={Large-Scale Psychological Differences Within China Explained by Rice Versus Wheat Agriculture},
  author={Thomas Talhelm and Xuemin Zhang and Shigehiro Oishi and Cao Shimin and Dongyuan Duan and Xuezhao Lan and Shinobu Kitayama},
  journal={Science},
  year={2014},
  volume={344},
  pages={603 - 608}
}
Individualism Rules? On a diverse and large set of cognitive tests, subjects in East Asian countries are more inclined to display collectivist choices, whereas subjects in the United States are more inclined to score as individualists. Talhelm et al. (p. 603; see the Perspective by Henrich) suggest that one historical source of influence was societal patterns of farming rice versus wheat, based on three cognitive measures of individualism and collectivism in 1000 subjects from rice- and wheat… 
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Commentary: Large-scale psychological differences within China explained by rice vs. wheat agriculture
TLDR
The hypothesis that activities which require more intensive collaboration foster more collectivist cultures are tested, and a measure of collectivism correlates with the proportion of cultivated land devoted to rice paddies, is demonstrated.
Rice versus Wheat Cultures in China: An Investigation into Self Enhancement and Cultural Tightness
Talhelm et al. (2014) hypothesized that Chinese from northern provinces (traditionally wheatgrowing regions) are more independent or less interdependent than those from southern provinces…
Teens in Rice County Are More Interdependent and Think More Holistically Than Nearby Wheat County
China’s smallest province Ningxia sits in North Central China. Surrounded by herding cultures to the north and wheat farmers to the south, Qingtongxia is a small outpost of rice farming fed by the…
Emerging Evidence of Cultural Differences Linked to Rice versus Wheat Agriculture
  • T. Talhelm
  • Psychology, Medicine
    Current opinion in psychology
  • 2019
Rice, Psychology, and Innovation
People in wheat-cultivating areas of China are more individualistic and analytical than those in rice-cultivating areas. [Also see Research Article by Talhelm et al.] By the late 18th century, the…
Historically rice-farming societies have tighter social norms in China and worldwide
TLDR
Comparisons of nearby provinces that differ in rice and wheat, but share the same ethnicity, religion, and national government suggest that China’s agricultural past still shapes cultural differences in the modern day—and perhaps explain why East Asia has tighter social norms than the wheat-growing West.
Making sense of positive self-evaluations in China: The role of sociocultural change
Recent research points to Chinese people's elevated tendency to make positive self-evaluations, despite the general claim that East Asians do not self-enhance. We present three studies in support of…
Historical Sustenance Style and Social Orientations in China: Chinese Mongolians Are More Independent Than Han Chinese
TLDR
Compared to Han Chinese, Mongolian scored higher on independent – self subscale, had greater levels of self-symbolic inflation and were less likely to give common names to their babies, suggesting that Mongolians are more independent than Han Chinese.
Middle School Students From China’s Rice Area Show More Adaptive Creativity but Less Innovative and Boundary-Breaking Creativity
The present study aimed to conduct a cross-cultural comparison of creative thinking among Chinese middle school students from the rice- and wheat-growing areas in China through the lens of the rice…
Crossing the rice-wheat border: Not all intra-cultural adaptation is equal
TLDR
Further support is lent to the theory that ecological factors impact how individuals cope with the acculturative stress of moving to a new environment as secondary coping was found to buffer the negative effects of stress on sociocultural adaptation for students from wheat-farming regions who were studying at universities in rice-Farming regions.
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