Purnima Singh

Culture and the quest for universal principles in moral reasoning

The importance of including cultural perspectives in the study of human cognition has become apparent in recent decades, and the domain of moral reasoning is no exception. The present review focuses on moral cognition, beginning with Kohlbergs model of moral development which relies heavily on peoples justifications for their judgments and then shifting to more recent theories that rely on rapid, intuitive judgments and see justifications as more or less irrelevant to moral cognition. Despite this dramatic shift, analyses of culture and moral decision-making have largely been framed as a quest for and test of universal principles of moral judgment. In this review, we discuss challenges that remain in trying to understand crosscultural variability in moral values and the processes that underlie moral cognition. We suggest that the universalist framework may lead to an underestimation of the role of culture in moral reasoning. Although the field has made great strides in incorporating more and more cultural perspectives in order to understand moral cognition, theories of moral reasoning still do not allow for substantial variation in how people might conceptualize the domain of the moral. The processes that underlie moral cognition may not be a human universal in any simple sense, because moral systems may play different roles in different cultures. We end our review with a discussion of work that remains to be done to understand cultural variation in the moral domain.

Ingroup Bias, Intergroup Contact and the Attribution of Blame for Riots

Hindu and Muslim college students judged the severity of a riot and attributed blame for that riot to the Hindu community, the Muslim community and the individual offenders. Both Hindu and Muslim students showed an ingroup bias, in that when offenders were from participants’ own religious group, they blamed the offenders the most and their own community the least. However, when the offenders were from the other religious group, students (both Hindus and Muslims) blamed the other religious community. Two results were consistent with the research literature on equal status intergroup contact. First, the amount of contact Hindu students had with Muslims was negatively related to their assignment of blame to offenders. Second, Hindu participants who lived in mixed Hindu–Muslim neighbourhoods were less likely to blame the Muslim community.

Social psychology in India: Social roots and development

Although applied practical knowledge of social behaviours can be traced to the rich Indian intellectual traditions in philosophy, religious texts, social‐political treatises and reform movements from the ancient period, the scientific social psychology in India began in the 1920s mostly as a borrowed discipline from the West. This article reviews briefly the historical background of psychology as a scientific discipline from the founding of the first university departments at Calcutta in 1916, Mysore in 1924, and Patna in 1946. Soon after independence in 1947, the discipline slowly but widely expanded in universities and in research, technology, and management institutes throughout the country. Some early classical studies on rumour, group influences, and prejudice not only appeared in the international literature, but also influenced theoretical developments in the West. One widely cited example is Leon Festingers use of Indian rumour transmission research in the development of cognitive dissonance theo...

Ritual Participation, Sense of Community, and Social Well-Being: A Study of Seva in the Sikh Community

The study examined the impact of frequency of ritual participation on sense of community and social well-being of a minority community in India, the Sikhs. We looked at a unique ritualistic practice of the Sikhs, seva. Rituals are known to contribute toward social solidarity and cohesion as well as physical and mental well-being. In particular for a minority community, rituals help group members establish and maintain strong community networks and a unique group identity. A total of 156 members of the Sikh community (85 males; 71 females) participated in the study. Frequency of ritual participation was positively related with social well-being and sense of community. Furthermore, sense of community was found to mediate the effect of frequency of ritual participation on social well-being. Results are discussed in the light of the importance of studying rituals in minority groups, the frequency of participation in a ritual activity and the importance of addressing social well-being in ritual research.

Relational mobility predicts social behaviors in 39 countries and is tied to historical farming and threat

Significance Biologists and social scientists have long tried to understand why some societies have more fluid and open interpersonal relationships—differences in relational mobility—and how those differences influence individual behaviors. We measure relational mobility in 39 societies and find that relationships are more stable and hard to form in east Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East, while they are more fluid in the West and Latin America. Results show that relationally mobile cultures tend to have higher interpersonal trust and intimacy. Exploring potential causes, we find greater environmental threats (like disease and warfare) and sedentary farming are associated with lower relational mobility. Our society-level index of relational mobility for 39 societies is a resource for future studies. Biologists and social scientists have long tried to understand why some societies have more fluid and open interpersonal relationships and how those differences influence culture. This study measures relational mobility, a socioecological variable quantifying voluntary (high relational mobility) vs. fixed (low relational mobility) interpersonal relationships. We measure relational mobility in 39 societies and test whether it predicts social behavior. People in societies with higher relational mobility report more proactive interpersonal behaviors (e.g., self-disclosure and social support) and psychological tendencies that help them build and retain relationships (e.g., general trust, intimacy, self-esteem). Finally, we explore ecological factors that could explain relational mobility differences across societies. Relational mobility was lower in societies that practiced settled, interdependent subsistence styles, such as rice farming, and in societies that had stronger ecological and historical threats.

Group and Individual Level Determinants of Collective Violence: Socio-psychological Aspects of Hindu-Muslim Riots

This chapter presents a framework for understanding the factors responsible for collective violence. Structural conditions that serve as a predisposition to violence include poverty, economic and social stratification, racial inequality, strong authoritarian hierarchy, control by violence, and limited political opportunity. However, unless people are motivated to indulge in such acts, violence does not take place. Violence is also shaped by group characteristics: crowds can lead to de-individuation, which makes people less accountable; and groups seeking positive identity may become prejudiced against the outgroup. Competition for certain resources may create grounds for conflict between groups as well. Asymmetric power relations are a cause of backlash among groups. Individual characteristics such as locus of control, political efficacy, individualist/collectivist orientation, and social domination orientation provide some information about involvement in collective violence; but none of these factors alone is a strong predictor. Relative deprivation at the individual level or group level may also cause people to aggress towards others. The chapter ends by providing future directions for research, including the need to include both cross-level and single level explanations and the need to account for nesting of individuals within groups and groups within societal structures.

Experiencing Microaggression: Invisibility, Distress, and Self-Stereotyping Among Northeasterners in India

In the present times, the discrimination experiences of various marginalized groups tend to be characterized by subtle acts of disrespect and intolerance in addition to the traditional and more blatant incidents of violence. One such newer manifestation is microaggression. This research explored the impact of frequency of experiencing invisibility (i.e., feeling ignored or overlooked owing to one’s group membership) on distress among Northeasterners residing in Delhi. Further, the role of individual self-stereotyping as a moderator in the invisibility frequency-distress relationship was investigated. Moderation analysis suggested a significant moderating effect of individual self-stereotyping in the relationship between frequency of experiencing invisibility acts and the distress experienced by Northeasterners. In other words, experiencing invisibility caused distress for participants who saw themselves as prototypical of the Northeasterners. Interestingly, frequency of experiencing invisibility was associated with distress for all Northeasterners, however the size of this relationship was greater for Northeasterners who saw themselves as typical of their group.

Values Across Cultures, Development of

The present article examines values and their development across cultures. Since values are central to any understanding of the person as well as the society, they are said to represent desirable goals and guiding principles in peoples lives. The article also examines some of the social correlates of values. Values of social collectives representing the cultural level shared values are explored. Examining the research related to shared cultural values, the article suggests the need to look at within cultural variations in values, more specifically examining the differences in values among social and cultural groups so as to have a more nuanced understanding of values in different cultural contexts.