Psychological universals: what are they and how can we know?

By Ara Norenzayan, Steven J. Heine. Psychological bulletin, 2005

731 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/41d9ad170f61d2ba430208c9fa2927998a9ed3dc

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Citations in the corpus

Toward a Life Course Framework for Studying Vulnerability (2017, background): “The multilevel perspective leads to acknowledging that processes of vulnerability occur at different levels and have different levels of universalism (Norenzayan & Heine, 2005).”
Am I Doing Better Than You? That Depends on Whether You Ask Me in English or Chinese: Self-Enhancement Effects of Language as a Cultural Mindset Prime (2010, background): “It is both universal (in that it is observable across societies) and contingent (in that it is observed only in the right contexts and activated by the right cues, whose relative prominence differs by culture; see also Norenzayan & Heine, 2005).”
Culture and social behavior (2015, background): “Many psychologists, for example, tend to think of cross-cultural research as a nuisance [22], necessary only to confirm the universality of their findings (which are usually based on WEIRD undergraduates [23,24]).”
Parasites, Behavioral Defenses, and the Social Psychological Mechanisms Through Which Cultures Are Evoked (2006, background): “…across a broad range of research questions that may help resolve concerns that “many psychologists have not been studying human nature—they have been studying the nature of educated, middle-class, young adult Westerners (or the children of such people)” (Norenzayan & Heine, 2005, p. 765).”
Believing, Bonding, Behaving, and Belonging (2011, background): “As is the case with many psychological constructs (Norenzayan & Heine, 2005), it seems reasonable to presume that there should be both universals and cultural Saroglou 1321 specifics to religion and individual religiosity.”
Prosocial spending and well-being: cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal. (2013, neutral): “Norenzayan and Heine (2005) note that the field of psychology lacks a ―a set of agreed upon methodological criteria by which we can consider universals,‖ such that ―researchers have largely relied on appeals to their readers’ intuitions as to what kind of data would strengthen the case for…”
A Naturalist’s View of Pride (2010, background): “…analysis suggest that pride meets one of the central criteria for a functional universal (i.e., a psychological entity that evolved to serve a particular adaptive function; Norenzayan & Heine, 2005): its expression is displayed by individuals across cultures in the same contexts and situations.”
Essentially Biased: Why People Are Fatalistic About Genes (2017, background): “This suggests that psychological essentialism could qualify as a functional universal, serving a similar function everywhere, although the degree of commitment varies across populations (Norenzayan & Heine, 2005).”
Cross-Cultural Evidence for Spatial Bias in Beliefs About the Severity of Environmental Problems (2014, background): “Because these findings suggest varying accessibility of spatial bias in relation to differences in happiness, community size, age, and experience with environmental problems, this psychological phenomenon cannot be seen as an accessibility universal (Norenzayan & Heine, 2005).”
Genetic Essentialism: On the Deceptive Determinism of DNA (2011, background): “The evidence for psychological essentialism is broad enough that the construct is a good candidate for a functional human universal, although cultures may vary in the degree to which these essentialist biases are present (see Norenzayan & Heine, 2005).”
Why do Westerners self‐enhance more than East Asians? (2009, background): “There is growing evidence that the IATSE does not vary across cultures, and may even be an accessibility universal— that is, a process that is uninfluenced by cultural experiences (Norenzayan & Heine, 2005).”
Fundamental motives: How evolutionary needs influence consumer behavior (2013, background): “…all behavior is a function of the interaction of genes and the environment, preferences and behavior are a product of the interaction of evolved psychological mechanisms and requisite cultural inputs (Gangestad, Haselton, & Buss, 2006; Kenrick, Nieuweboer, & Buunk, 2010; Norenzayan & Heine, 2005).”