pop power distance

India a high PDI score, 4th highest high-power-distance culture in the world (97)

high PDI score =
• heavily influenced by a cultural pattern of authoritarianism, riches and persuasiveness are able to be used by a handful of people and are not equally spread throughout the people in the culture (97)

look up population of India versus pop of US at the time that Ghandi was doing his nonverbal stuff. The population of a country or culture usually is one factor in determining the level of power distance in the country or culture (98). The power distance index is a measure of the extent that power, prestige and wealth are not equally distributed within a culture (98).
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As a culture becomes larger in population, the level of the country on the power distance index increases (98).
Therefore, in most cases, cultures with a large population have a high power distance index score (98). The text produces one theory of why this occurs (98). When the size of a group becomes larger (including larger classrooms, larger governments, and larger organizations) awkward and increasingly unmanageable using an informal system (98). Most of the time if the population becomes increasingly unmanageable using informal relationships the culture will change to using official procedures including political hierarchies, rules, regulations and formalities to create a stable culture or country (98).

Vocal or paralinguistic behaviors using vary according to the power distance dimension of a certain place (99). Citizens of high-power-distance cultures are usually less loud than people in low-power-distance cultures (99). In places where political power is very concentrated in the hands of a few people (which is usually a characteristic of high-power-distance countries), singing voices are tighter and the voice box is more closed and the sounds are less relaxed and clear than in places where political power is more equally distributed (99).

Places that have a high-power-distance score produce different kinesic behaviors (99). High-power-distance cultures support emotions that emphasize class discrepancies (99). People are expected to show solely positive emotions to people with high status and negative emotions to people with low status (99). The body tension of people in lower positions is more obvious and people in lower positions tend to smile more to smooth social relations and people with a higher status and appear polite in high-power-distance places (99).

Status differences have more of an effect on non-verbal behavior in high-power-distance countries (98). For example, Japanese workers may be startled by the fact that American (The United States is considered a low-power-distance country) workers would sit while interacting with a seated superior (99).

Power distance affects the nonverbal communication (98). In high-power-distance cultures, especially India, with its inflexible caste system, association between the classes is very restricted (98). Greater than 20 percent of the population of India is classified as the “untouchables” and these people are at the bottom of the five-caste arrangement in India (98). Any interaction with the “untouchables” in India is strictly forbidden and is regarded as “polluting” (98). Perceptible communication is extremely reduced in India’s culture (98). India does not allow free interclass dating, marriage, and contact. India didn’t allow generous interpersonal space and connecting possibilites and visual conversing (98).

Historically in India, a person’s status is determined by their class (98).



Uncertainty tolerant cultures versus uncertainty avoidant cultures
Uncertainty tolerant

?low more tolerant
?levels accept ambiguous answers
? see many shades of gray
?of embrace future change (99)
? uncertainty
? avoidance uncertainty avoidant
I don’t understand why tolerance is part of the individual level definition
How can the definition include two opposite ideas?
at the individual level = tolerance or (99)
this predisposition intolerance for
ambiguity
Tend to display less emotions than uncertainty avoidant cultures (100)


More tolerant in their attitudes toward young people and their emotional displays than uncertainty avoidant cultures
Are more likely to tolerate change or nonconformity (100)


May seem excessively unconventional and lacking in manners to uncertainty avoidant people (101)

Hindu and Buddhist countries tend to be more accepting of uncertainty
India an uncertainty tolerant culture, 7th highest uncertainty tolerant culture in the world
Dislike ambiguiety and uncertainty (99)
Believe that certain rules and beliefs will reduce uncertainty (99)

Want clear, black-and-white answers, fear change and dread the future (99)

“Demonstrated that a country’s uncertainty avoidance is highly correlated with a high incidence of neuroticism and anxiety in its population. High uncertainty avoidance is negatively correlated with risk taking and positively correlated with a fear of failure”
Practice dogmatism



May seem too controlled and rigid to uncertainty tolerant people (101)