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East Asian countries show the strongest tendency to embrace contradiction and change, according to a study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The research also suggests this way of thinking reflects a distinct cultural mindset rather than simply being another form of collectivism.
People differ in how they think about themselves and the world around them. Some prefer clear-cut answers and consistency, while others are more comfortable holding seemingly opposite ideas at the same time, expecting change, and viewing events as deeply interconnected. Psychologists refer to this latter style as dialectical thinking, and it has long been linked to East Asian philosophical traditions such as Confucianism and Buddhism. However, until now, no study had systematically compared levels of dialectical thinking across countries using all available evidence.
The researchers wanted to determine whether countries could be reliably compared on this cultural mindset and whether dialectical thinking has changed over time. They also sought to understand whether it is better explained by longstanding cultural and historical influences or by more recent social changes such as globalization.
Led by Julie Spencer-Rodgers from California Polytechnic State University, the research team combined data from 139 studies involving 23,629 participants across 28 countries. Rather than collecting new participants, the team conducted a large meta-analysis of previous studies using the Dialectical Self Scale, a questionnaire that measures how strongly people see themselves as contradictory, flexible and constantly changing. The researchers then created a Dialectical Self Index and compared national scores with a range of cultural, religious, economic and historical indicators.
The findings revealed a clear regional pattern. South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China and Hong Kong ranked highest in dialectical thinking, while several Latin American and European countries ranked much lower. The researchers also found that countries with stronger Buddhist traditions and historical rice-farming cultures tended to score higher on dialecticism. By contrast, globalization, economic development and education showed only weak relationships with the measure. Perhaps most notably, dialecticism was unrelated to collectivism, suggesting that these are separate cultural concepts despite often being grouped together in previous research.
The study also found little evidence that dialectical thinking has shifted during the past two decades. Neither the average age of participants, the proportion of women in study samples nor the year the data were collected explained differences in dialectical thinking within countries. Instead, cultural background appeared to be the strongest influence. As the researchers concluded, “Taken together, our findings suggest that dialecticism is a deeply rooted, stable, and core cultural mindset.”
The authors caution that the findings should not be interpreted as definitive rankings of countries. Many nations were represented by only one or a few studies, and most participants were university students from urban areas rather than nationally representative samples. Large parts of the world, including much of Africa and South Asia, were also underrepresented.
The study, “The Dialectical Self Around the World: A Meta-Analysis of Country-Level Means,” was authored by Julie Spencer-Rodgers, Isabella Major-Siciliano, Wei Yan, Antonio A.S. Cortijo, Lauren McKenzie, and Kaiping Peng.