Do national distasters remind us of our similarities, or differences? That’s what we’ve been wondering in the Psychologies office this morning. In the deluge of shocking, heartbreaking, awe-inspiring, terrifying stories and images from Japan, there are some images that seem more conspicuous by their absence. Where is the standard newsreel of people wailing on the streets? (It’s there, but by no means as prominent in the news footage as it usually is following a natural disaster). Where are the stories of chaos and looting?
On the surface, these are just interesting questions, natural questions you might say. But dig a little deeper and questions like this start to take on a sinister edge. In essence, what many commentators are asking is ‘Why aren’t the Japanese more like us?’ (Here’s a good example of someone asking exactly that, in a roundabout way, from The Telegraph, comparing the Japanese behaviour to the response of people in New Orleans, and the UK after the 2007 floods.)
We assume that national disasters such as the earthquake in Christchurch or the 2004 tsunami will unite people from different backgrounds, because we all respond in the same, basic ways to tragedy. We see the same images from all over the world, hear the same commentary, and expect it to reveal something profound about what it is to be human. But what if we don’t all seem to respond in the same way — what does that say about us?
If you haven’t come across Geert Hofstede’s ‘cultural dimensions’ work then it’s worth taking a look at. He has created an index of five different attitudes inherent to all of us, and measured where different nations sit on the scale — here’s a link to the differences between the UK and Japan on attitudes towards individualism and dealing with uncertainty.
Hofstede’s work suggests we do react differently, depending on our culture — but he doesn’t say that one attitude is superior to another. And of course, the way we behave is not necessarily an indication that we don’t still feel the same pain or grief or anger. We should be wary of the assumptions we make about the lack of looting (if you want a really good argument against our lazy assumptions then read this blog by Mikhail Lyubansky). And perhaps that’s what we should remember when we’re watching the news this evening.
Photograph: WENN.com
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