Scientific Definition
Cultures vary in how strictly norms are enforced and deviance punished.
Plain-English Definition
Cultures vary in how strictly norms are enforced and deviance punished.
Feynman Explanation
Some rooms have rules. Some rooms are rules.
Core Principle
Cultures vary in how strictly norms are enforced and deviance punished.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Cultures vary in how strictly norms are enforced and deviance punished.
Pending editorial review.
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Tight vs. loose dimensions predict innovation, compliance, and conflict patterns.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Some rooms have rules. Some rooms are rules.
Examples
- Gelfand's cross-cultural research; tight cultures emerge under historical threat.
- Tight vs. loose dimensions predict innovation, compliance, and conflict patterns.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Match cultural tightness to the task: tight for safety, loose for creativity.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
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The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Match cultural tightness to the task: tight for safety, loose for creativity.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Each value system (Beige through Green) believes itself to be the only valid one and dismisses the others.
The relative weight a culture gives to individual goals vs. group cohesion.
The combination of historical, social, and existential pressures that activates the next vMeme.
How much hierarchical inequality a culture accepts as normal.
Yellow and Turquoise vMemes — first systems that recognize the legitimacy of all earlier value systems.
A developmental model of human value systems (vMemes) emerging in response to life conditions.
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic — a tiny, atypical psychological sample.
Judging phenomena by the standards of one's own culture.
How will I feel about this in 10 minutes / 10 months / 10 years?
Basics first (health/finances), then depth (mastery/impact), then altruism (widening circle).
A group decides on a course of action that nobody actually wants, because everyone assumes others prefer it.
Inattention or forgetfulness caused by low attention, hyperfocus, or distraction.