Abstract:

Cultural tightness-looseness, which characterizes cultural variation across and within societies through the strength and reinforcement of social norms, has been shown to be an influential construct with societal downstream consequences such discrimination, innovation and election outcomes. Notably, within-country explorations in China and the US demonstrated nuances to Tightness when applied to different cultural contexts. Expanding on this, here we map Tightness across an equally globally significant and psychologically uncharted nation: India. Using archival data for 28 states and 3 union territories, we construct a Tightness index across India with 17 etic (e.g., regional laws) and emic (e.g., casteist laws) indicators (α = 0.91). We then examine known antecedents (e.g., diseases, historical conflicts) and outcomes (e.g., discrimination, arranged marriages) of Tightness, as well as underexplored associations with ecology (surface temperature, precipitation) and norm conformity, through spatial regression models, specification curve analyses, and machine learning approaches (conditional random forests, SHAP values). The analyses reveal differential results – some aligning with, and others diverging from prior research. For instance, like in the US, experiencing more historical threats related to tighter regions, yet unlike in the US, tighter regions primarily reported reduced discrimination. These findings highlight the need for situating psychological constructs beyond the West.

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Twitter: @SakshiSSahakari