The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research announces the next regular seminar, which will be held as a zoom session on June, 8 at 05:00 p.m. CET (06:00 p.m. Moscow time). Thomas Talhelm (University of Chicago, USA) will deliver a report "We’ve Vastly Overestimated the Idea That Modernization Makes Cultures Individualistic".

Years ago, I was hiking in rural China with two French travelers. They mentioned how restaurants in China don’t do tipping like they do in the US and France. “But they’ll get that soon,” one hiker told me. The idea that modernization and economic development make cultures more Western is intuitive. It’s pervasive. In my survey of researchers, it’s the most widely supported cause of individualism. In this talk, I’ll give evidence that we’ve overestimated the effect of modernization on individualism.

Everyone interested is invited!

Working language is English.