Mapping Cultural Values onto the Brain: the Fragmented Landscape

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cultural Psychology
• Social Sciences

Background:

• Basic values are fundamental to cultural differences in social, economic, and political outcomes.
• The composition and nature of cultural value systems are subjects of ongoing debate.
• Cultural neuroscience offers insights into societal value system variations and their underlying neural mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review experimental studies on cultural values and brain research methods.
• To identify neural systems and processes associated with specific cultural values.
• To analyze the representation of different cultural value dimensions in existing literature.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of 47 experimental studies.
• Analysis of studies using diverse brain research methods.
• Extraction and systematization of findings according to established cultural models (Hofstede, Trompenaars, Gelfand).

Main Results:

• The majority of evidence (37 studies) links cultural differences in brain function to the individualism-collectivism dimension.
• Affectivity-Neutrality (11 studies), Tightness-Looseness (6 studies), and Power Distance (3 studies) were also identified.
• Other dimensions like Indulgence, Long-Term Orientation, Universalism, and Uncertainty Avoidance were represented by fewer studies, with some dimensions entirely absent.

Conclusions:

• Current cultural neuroscience literature provides a fragmented and biased view of neural processing of values.
• The dominance of the independence-interdependence paradigm limits broader interpretations and research scope.
• Insufficient focus on direct value comparisons and biased sampling hinder comprehensive understanding.