doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-44770-w.
People quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice are more collectivistic than people assigned to farm wheat
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- PMID:38413584
- PMCID: PMC10899190
- DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-44770-w
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People quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice are more collectivistic than people assigned to farm wheat
Thomas Talhelm et al. Nat Commun..
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Abstract
The rice theory of culture argues that the high labor demands and interdependent irrigation networks of paddy rice farming makes cultures more collectivistic than wheat-farming cultures. Despite prior evidence, proving causality is difficult because people are not randomly assigned to farm rice. In this study, we take advantage of a unique time when the Chinese government quasi-randomly assigned people to farm rice or wheat in two state farms that are otherwise nearly identical. The rice farmers show less individualism, more loyalty/nepotism toward a friend over a stranger, and more relational thought style. These results rule out confounds in tests of the rice theory, such as temperature, latitude, and historical events. The differences suggest rice-wheat cultural differences can form in a single generation.
© 2024. The Author(s).
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare no competing interests.
Figures
Although the two state farms are only 56 kilometers from each other, a small difference in topography allows the rice farm (Lianhu) to farm paddy rice. In contrast, much of the land in the wheat farm (Qukou) is 50–100 m above the nearby Yellow River, making large-scale irrigation uneconomical. The soil on the wheat farm is also sandier, which makes it difficult to retain water in rice fields. Image from Google Earth.
a The triad categorization task (top left) measures holistic thought, which is more common in collectivistic cultures,. Participants choose one of two items (carrot or cat) to pair with an object (rabbit). Rabbit and carrot are a relational (holistic) pairing, whereas rabbit and cat are a categorical (analytic) pairing.b In the loyalty/nepotism task (top right), participants read scenarios about doing a business deal with a friend or a stranger,. Then they find out the friend/stranger was honest or dishonest. They can reward the friend or stranger for their honesty, and they can punish them for their dishonesty. We measured loyalty/nepotism as whether they treated the friend better than the stranger, even though their behavior was the same.c The sociogram task (bottom) measures implicit individualism. Participants draw circles to represent themselves and their family (left) or friends (right). We measured whether people draw the self larger than they draw others. Previous studies found that people in individualistic cultures like the US self-inflate more than people in collectivistic cultures like Japan,,. Thought style drawings are from doublebubble_rus (rabbit) and Artem (cat and carrot) at Adobe Stock – stock.adobe.com. The human figure outlines are from rejon at Wikimedia Commons – commons.wikimedia.org. All uses must include the credit line shown on the site and contained in the IPTC credit line field of the file, for example “Agency Name/Contributor Name – stock.adobe.com”.
Farmers quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice showed three hallmarks of collectivistic cultures compared to a nearby wheat farm. Rice farmers self-inflated less while drawing sociograms (top), were more loyal/nepotistic to friends (middle), and thought more holistically (bottom). Samples wereN = 196, except the thought task (N = 188) due to missing data. Bars = 1 SEM. Dots = individual participants, displaced to avoid overlapping. Thought style drawings are from doublebubble_rus (rabbit) and Artem (carrot) at Adobe Stock – stock.adobe.com. All uses must include the credit line shown on the site and contained in the IPTC credit line field of the file, for example “Agency Name/Contributor Name – stock.adobe.com”.
References
- Talhelm, T. & Oishi, S.Socioeconomic Environment And Human Psychology (eds. Uskul, A. K. & Oishi, S.) p. 53–76 (Oxford University Press, 2018).
- Bray, F.The Rice Economies: Technology And Development In Asian Societies (Blackwell, 1986).
- Buggle JC. Growing collectivism: irrigation, group conformity and technological divergence. J. Econ. Growth. 2020;25:147–193. doi: 10.1007/s10887-020-09178-3. - DOI
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