The inaccuracy of national character stereotypes

Abstract

Consensual stereotypes of some groups are relatively accurate, whereas others are not. Previous work suggesting that national character stereotypes are inaccurate has been criticized on several grounds. In this article we (a) provide arguments for the validity of assessed national mean trait levels as criteria for evaluating stereotype accuracy; and (b) report new data on national character in 26 cultures from descriptions (N=3,323) of the typical male or female adolescent, adult, or old person in each. The average ratings were internally consistent and converged with independent stereotypes of the typical culture member, but were weakly related to objective assessments of personality. We argue that this conclusion is consistent with the broader literature on the inaccuracy of national character stereotypes.

The World at 7:00: Comparing the Experience of Situations Across 20 Countries

“…Numerous investigations have identified differences in the ways people differ psychologically across countries (Church, ). These differences include social orientation, e.g., interdependent vs. independent styles of self‐construal (Markus & Kitayama, ; Masuda & Nisbett, ); personality structure, e.g., the degree to which the “Big Five” traits account for individual differences in diverse cultures (Gurven, von Rueden, Massenkoff, & Kaplan, ; McCrae & Allik, ; McCrae & Costa, ); and the degree to which international differences in personality match national stereotypes (Hřebíčková & Graf, ; McCrae et al, ; Realo et al, ; Terracciano et al, ). Recent studies have also addressed national differences in within‐person behavioral variability (Ching et al, ; Church et al, ).…”

How Accurate Are National Stereotypes? A Test of Different Methodological Approaches

“…They argue that responses to personality items are not absolute judgements but are made relative to some implicit normative group, therefore they recommend behavioural criteria. McCrae et al () point out that if this problem was pervasive; nearly all cultures would, on average, rate themselves as average on personality traits – something which data do not demonstrate. Furthermore, Heine et al () conducted a single study focusing on only one trait (conscientiousness).…”

“…McCrae et al () assumed that the concept of national stereotypes only exists through the contrast of real or imagined differences across nations. Past research shows that people tend to rate in‐group stereotypes higher and out‐group stereotypes lower on the same dimension – or vice versa – resulting in mirroring of stereotypical profiles (Realo et al, ; Terracciano et al, ; Hřebíčková et al, ).…”

“…For instance, women score consistently higher on Neuroticism and Agreeableness than men, and indeed, women are also perceived as higher on those traits than men. In contrast, the accuracy of national stereotypes appears to be lower than the accuracy of age and gender stereotypes, and consequently, some researchers have concluded that national stereotypes are inaccurate (McCrae et al, ; Terracciano et al, ). Other researchers, however, have arrived at a different conclusion showing that national stereotypes in fact did converge with the characteristics of real people, at least to a certain extent (e.g., Allik, Mõttus, & Realo, ; Hřebíčková & Graf, ; Lönnqvist, Konstabel, Lönnqvist, & Verkasalo, ; Realo et al, ).…”

Four GLOBE dimensions of perceived social norms in 33 countries

“…They also reported significant correlations between GLOBE dimensions and measures of national stereotypes that were derived from the Big Five theory. After assuming that personality aggregate scores are well grounded, they started referring to GLOBE dimensions somewhat dismissively as 'unfounded national stereotypes' (McCrae,Terracciano & 79 Members of the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project, 2005;McCrae et al, 2008McCrae et al, , 2013. We shall not address the issues raised by the critics in any detail in this article.…”