Smiling individuals are usually perceived more favorably than non-smiling ones—they are judged as happier, more attractive, competent, and friendly. These seemingly clear and obvious consequences of smiling are assumed to be culturally universal, however most of the psychological research is carried out in WEIRD societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and the influence of culture on social perception of nonverbal behavior is still understudied. Here we show that a smiling individual may be judged as less intelligent than the same non-smiling individual in cultures low on the GLOBE’s uncertainty avoidance dimension. Furthermore, we show that corruption at the societal level may undermine the prosocial perception of smiling—in societies with high corruption indicators, trust toward smiling individuals is reduced. This research fosters understanding of the cultural framework surrounding nonverbal communication processes and reveals that in some cultures smiling may lead to negative attributions.
Inequalities between men and women are common and well-documented. Objective indexes show that men are better positioned than women in societal hierarchies-there is no single country in the world without a gender gap. In contrast, researchers have found that the women-are-wonderful effect-that women are evaluated more positively than men overall-is also common. Cross-cultural studies on gender equality reveal that the more gender egalitarian the society is, the less prevalent explicit gender stereotypes are. Yet, because self-reported gender stereotypes may differ from implicit attitudes towards each gender, we reanalysed data collected across 44 cultures, and (a) confirmed that societal gender egalitarianism reduces the women-are-wonderful effect when it is measured more implicitly (i.e. rating the personality of men and women presented in images) and (b) documented that the social perception of men benefits more from gender egalitarianism than that of women.
The revolution of Africanizing and liberating the Black African mind can never start and be expected to bear fruit unless there is a concerted effort to Africanize psychology taught at Zimbabwean and African universities. This resonates with earlier observations that we are "Black first and psychologists second" (Williams, 2008). The first port of call should be the undergraduate level. The course could focus on how Black African psychology is the study of African human motivation, how Black Africans as human beings perceive themselves and others, how Black Africans as human beings behave, and how Black Africans as human beings change. This calls for a class that will focus on psychological issues in the context of the African community. Since the African culture is not monolithic, the course will cover diverse perspectives on how psychology relates to the Black experience. Psychological issues such as African world views, social constructivism, Afrocentric and Africentric psychology, stages of Black identity development, the impact of racism on Black psychology, research, and African Americans in the psychology profession will be examined. While Black African American psychologists teaching at American universities have not only embraced but also championed and continued to spearhead this cause, it remains vague how this project may be conceptualized at African universities on the African
The study explored the nature of the interactive play behaviours of children with albinism and children without albinism and compared the interactive behaviours of both children with albinism and children without albinism. Naturalistic observations were conducted during periods of free play, using the interactive play behaviour checklist aided by video recordings, on three different days. The findings of the study showed that children without albinism showed more pro-social play behaviours, aggressive play behaviours, affiliative play behaviours and possession-related behaviours as compared to children with albinism. A significant difference was noted in the pro-social and possessionrelated play behaviours between the children with albinism and children without albinism. Children without albinism showed more interactive play behaviours as compared with the children with albinism. Both groups of children showed the same amount of aggressive and affiliative play behaviours, while children without albinism showed more pro-social and possession-related behaviours.
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