Cultural Integration and its Discontents

A community's culture is defined by the preferences and equilibrium behaviours of its members. Contacts among communities alter individual cultures through two interrelated mechanisms: behavioural adaptations driven by pay-offs to coordination, and preference changes shaped by socialization and self-persuasion. This paper explores the workings of these mechanisms through a model of cultural integration in which preferences and behaviours vary continuously. It identifies a broad set of conditions under which cross-cultural contacts promote cultural hybridization. The analysis suggests that policies to support social integration serve to homogenize preferences across communities, thereby undermining a key objective of multiculturalism. Yielding fresh insights into strategies pursued to influence cultural trends, it also shows that communities benefit from having other communities adjust their behaviours. Copyright 2008, Wiley-Blackwell.

[1]  Y. Y. Kim.  Becoming Intercultural: An Integrative Theory of Communication and Cross-Cultural Adaptation , 2000 .

[2]  D. George.  Preference Pollution: How Markets Create the Desires We Dislike , 2001 .

[3]  Max Grinnel.  Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures , 2003 .

[4]  M. Castells.  The Power of Identity , 1997 .

[5]  B. Lewis,et al.  History remembered, recovered, invented , 1975, Medical History.

[6]  Rajiv Sethi,et al.  Preference Evolution and Reciprocity , 2001, J. Econ. Theory.

[7]  Alberto Bisin,et al.  Cultural Transmission, Marriage and the Evolution of Ethnic and Religious Traits , 2000 .

[8]  John S. Gilkeson,et al.  Culture: The anthropologists' account , 2002 .

[9]  T. Kuran.  Sparks and prairie fires: A theory of unanticipated political revolution , 1989 .

[10]  Julian Baggini,et al.  SOCIAL animal. , 1953, Lancet.

[11]  R. Alba,et al.  Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America , 1990 .

[12]  Roberto A. Weber,et al.  Cultural Conflict and Merger Failure: An Experimental Approach , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[13]  C. Steele.  The Psychology of Self-Affirmation: Sustaining the Integrity of the Self , 1988 .

[14]  Tyler Cowen.  Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures , 2002 .

[15]  Stephanie Beardman.  Alchemies of the Mind: Rationality and the Emotions , 2004 .

[16]  T. Kuran,et al.  Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification , 1995 .

[17]  S. Fiske,et al.  Social Psychology , 2019, Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences.

[18]  Benjamin R. Barber.  Jihad vs. McWorld , 1995 .

[19]  A. Portes,et al.  Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation , 2004 .

[20]  Betsy Rymes.  A Matter of Taste: How Names, Fashions, and Culture Change. , 2003 .

[21]  A. Appadurai.  Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization , 1996 .

[22]  R. Baumeister.  A SELF-PRESENTATIONAL VIEW OF SOCIAL PHENOMENA , 1982 .

[23]  D. Lowenthal.  The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History: Select Bibliography and Citation Index , 1998 .

[24]  Walker Connor.  Ethnonationalism: The Quest for Understanding , 1993 .

[25]  Timur Kuran.  Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification , 1995 .

[26]  M. Hirsch,et al.  Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, and Linear Algebra , 1974 .

[27]  W. Kymlicka.  Multicultural Citizenship , 2020, The New Social Theory Reader.

[28]  Jeffrey C. Ely,et al.  Nash Equilibrium and the Evolution of Preferences , 2001, J. Econ. Theory.

[29]  Alfred G. Meyer,et al.  Culture, a critical review of concepts and definitions , 1953 .

[30]  澤田 米男,et al.  Culture and language , 1988 .

[31]  George A. Akerlof.  An economic theorist's book of tales: The economics of caste and of the rat race and other woeful tales , 1976 .

[32]  P. Pliner,et al.  Compliance without pressure: Some further data on the foot-in-the-door technique , 1974 .

[33]  Alberto Bisin,et al.  The Economics of Cultural Transmission and the Dynamics of Preferences , 2001, J. Econ. Theory.

[34]  Werner Güth,et al.  An evolutionary approach to explaining cooperative behavior by reciprocal incentives , 1995 .

[35]  D. Bem.  An experimental analysis of self-persuasion☆ , 1965 .

[36]  R. Cialdini.  Influence: Science and Practice , 1984 .

[37]  Jeffrey C. Ely,et al.  Evolution of Preferences , 2007 .

[38]  郭婷,et al.  Orientalism: An Overview , 2013 .

[39]  Daniel J. Myers,et al.  Social psychology, 5th ed. , 2004 .

[40]  B. Rubin.  Assimilation and its discontents , 1995 .

[41]  Francis Fukuyama,et al.  Race and Culture: A World View , 1995 .

[42]  B. Bernheim,et al.  A Theory of Conformity , 1994, Journal of Political Economy.

[43]  B. Parekh,et al.  Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory , 2001 .

[44]  L. Samuelson,et al.  Optimization Incentives and Coordination Failure in Laboratory Stag Hunt Games , 2001 .

[45]  George A. Akerlof,et al.  Economics and Identity , 2000 .

[46]  J. Elster,et al.  The Cement Of Society , 1989 .

[47]  Ulf Zimmermann.  American Culture, American Tastes: Social Change and the 20th Century , 1999 .

[48]  Jeffrey S. Friedman.  Globalization, neither evil nor inevitable , 2000 .

[49]  Colin Camerer,et al.  Cultural Conflict and Merger Failure: An Experimental Approach , 2001 .

[50]  K. Reardon,et al.  “All That We can Be” , 1999 .

[51]  C. Wolf,.  Globalization: Meaning and measurement , 2000 .

[52]  Steffen Huck,et al.  The Indirect Evolutionary Approach to Explaining Fair Allocations , 1999 .

[53]  Paul Sprachman,et al.  Plagued by the West : (Gharbzadegi) , 1982 .

[54]  Daniel Kahneman,et al.  Predicting a changing taste: Do people know what they will like? , 1992 .

[55]  T. Schelling.  Hockey Helmets, Concealed Weapons, and Daylight Saving , 1973 .

[56]  S. Bikhchandani,et al.  You have printed the following article : A Theory of Fads , Fashion , Custom , and Cultural Change as Informational Cascades , 2007 .

[57]  P. Francois,et al.  Trust, Social Capital and Economic Development , 2005 .

[58]  Robin R. Vallacher,et al.  A Theory Of Action Identification , 1985 .

[59]  David M. Kreps.  Corporate culture and economic theory , 1990 .

[60]  J. Freedman,et al.  Compliance without pressure: the foot-in-the-door technique. , 1966, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[61]  Efe A. Ok,et al.  On the Evolution of Individualistic Preferences: An Incomplete Information Scenario , 2001, J. Econ. Theory.

[62]  W. Arthur,et al.  The Economy as an Evolving Complex System II , 1988 .

[63]  Daniel P. Moynihan,et al.  Beyond the melting pot , 1963 .

[64]  G. Loewenstein,et al.  Wouldn't it be nice? Predicting future feelings. , 1999 .

[65]  Amitai Etzioni.  D56 - [Review of] Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America, Reflections on a Multicultural Society) , 1991 .

[66]  V. Crawford.  Adaptive dynamics in coordination games , 1995 .

[67]  J. Montgomery.  Revisting Tally's Corner , 1994 .

[68]  Dani Rodrik,et al.  Has Globalization Gone Too Far , 1997 .

[69]  W. Brock,et al.  Discrete Choice with Social Interactions I: Theory , 1995 .

[70]  Maryon Mcdonald.  We Are Not French: Language, Culture, and Identity in Brittany , 1990 .

[71]  T. Thomas.  Acculturative stress in the adjustment of immigrant families , 1995 .

[72]  J. Cooper,et al.  A New Look at Dissonance Theory , 1984 .

[73]  Timur Kuran.  Economics, values, and organization: Moral overload and its alleviation , 1998 .

[74]  M. Douglas,et al.  Food in the social order: studies of food and festivities in three American communities , 1985 .

[75]  Efe A. Ok,et al.  Evolution of Interdependent Preferences in Aggregative Games , 2000, Games Econ. Behav..

[76]  D. Goldberg.  Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader , 1995 .

[77]  S. Durlauf.  Statistical Mechanics Approaches to Socioeconomic Behavior , 1996 .

[78]  Deborah A. Prentice,et al.  Cultural Divides: Understanding and Overcoming Group Conflict , 2001 .

[79]  Arthur M. Schlesinger,et al.  The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. , 1991 .

[80]  E. Lazear.  Culture and Language , 1995, Journal of Political Economy.

[81]  J. S. Butler,et al.  All That We Can Be: Black Leadership And Racial Integration The Army Way , 1996 .

[82]  T. Kuran,et al.  Ethnic Norms And Their Transformation Through Reputational Cascades , 1998, The Journal of Legal Studies.

[83]  George A. Akerlof.  Social Distance and Social Decisions , 1997 .

[84]  J. Landa,et al.  Trust, Ethnicity, and Identity: Beyond the New Institutional Economics of Ethnic Trading Networks, Contract Law, and Gift-Exchange , 1995 .

[85]  K. Arrow.  The limits of organization , 1974 .

[86]  L. Iannaccone.  Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives , 1992, Journal of Political Economy.

[87]  W. Belasco.  Ethnic fast foods: The corporate melting pot , 1987 .

[88]  L. Festinger,et al.  A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance , 2017 .

[89]  George Ainslie,et al.  Choice and Consequence: Perspectives of an Errant Economist.Thomas C. Schelling , 1986 .

[90]  William H. Sandholm,et al.  Preference Evolution, Two-Speed Dynamics, and Rapid Social Change , 2001 .

[91]  R. Cooper,et al.  Coordination Games: Technological Complementarities , 1999 .

[92]  Jacques Crémer,et al.  Corporate Culture and Shared Knowledge , 1993 .