The Psychology Podcast

Today it’s great to have the cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand on the podcast. Dr. Gelfand is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. Gelfand uses field, experimental, computational, and neuroscience methods to understand the evolution of culture– as well as its multilevel consequences for human groups. In addition to publishing numerous articles in many prestigious scientific outlets, she is the author of Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire the World. In this episode we discuss: What are social norms? The difference between tight and loose cultures The advantages vs. disadvantages of tight vs. loose cultures Why did tight vs. loose cultures evolve in the first place? How chronic threat produces a tight culture Real vs. perceived (imagined) threats How cross-cultural psychology is expanding  The interdisciplinary expansion of the study of social norms How organizations can be tight vs. loose Why the ambidexterity of an organizational cul