Moving to wheat‐farming regions increases analytic thought, but moving to cities does not: A three‐wave longitudinal study.

Does moving to a new environment change people's cultural thought style? We tracked the cultural thought style of 1462 university students at 18 sites over time after they moved across China for college. We tested their holistic thought, which is more common in interdependent cultures. One logical p...

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Publicado en:British Journal of Psychology Vol. 117; no. 1; pp. 378 - 406
Autores principales: English, Alexander Scott, Talhelm, Thomas, Tong, Rongtian, Wei, Liuqing, Li, Xingyu, Ma, Jianhong, Yu, Haitao, Zhou, Shihou, Zhang, Wei, Lin, Tianhai, Zhang, Meng, Hu, Li‐Juan, Cui, Peng, Hacker, Evan, Ling, Bin, Logterman, Brooke, Zeng, Zhijia, Huang, Cheng, Liu, Zhongya
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Feb2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Moving to wheat‐farming regions increases analytic thought, but moving to cities does not: A three‐wave longitudinal study.
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          English, Alexander Scott
          Talhelm, Thomas
          Tong, Rongtian
          Wei, Liuqing
          Li, Xingyu
          Ma, Jianhong
          Yu, Haitao
          Zhou, Shihou
          Zhang, Wei
          Lin, Tianhai
          Zhang, Meng
          Hu, Li‐Juan
          Cui, Peng
          Hacker, Evan
          Ling, Bin
          Logterman, Brooke
          Zeng, Zhijia
          Huang, Cheng
          Liu, Zhongya
        affil:
          Center for Behavioral Research Across Cultures in the School of Psychology, Wenzhou‐Kean University, Wenzhou Zhejiang,, China
          University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago Illinois,, USA
          The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle Washington,, USA
          Department of Education, Hubei University, Wuhan, China
          Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford California,, USA
          Department of Behavioral Sciences and Psychology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou Zhejiang,, China
          College of Education, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou Zhejiang,, China
          College of Education, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing Zhejiang,, China
          School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Guangdong,, China
          Department of Physical Education, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou Zhejiang,, China
          Zhejiang University, Hangzhou Zhejiang,, China
          UCSI Graduate Business School, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
          Department of Economics and Trade, Jiangxi Vocational Technical College of Industry & Trade, Nanchang Jiangxi,, China
          School of Education Science, Zhoukou Normal University, Zhoukou Henan,, China
          College of English, Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, Shaoxing Zhejiang,, China
          Department of Management and Human Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing Jiangsu,, China
          College of English, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China
          Mental Health Education Center, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou Zhejiang,, China
          School of Psychology, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou Sichuan,, China
          College of Advanced Chinese Training, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
      su:
        China
        Internet access
        Acculturation
        Mothers
        Sex distribution
        Socioeconomic factors
        Labor mobility
        Psychological adaptation
        Economics
        Academic achievement
        Psychology of college students
        Urbanization
        Employment
        Educational attainment
        Wheat
        Cognitive testing
        Research funding
        Rice
        Descriptive statistics
        Ecosystems
        Sustainability
        Longitudinal method
        Data analysis software
        Comparative studies
        Temperature
        Agriculture
        Thought & thinking
      sug:
        subj:
          Internet access
          Acculturation
          Mothers
          Sex distribution
          Socioeconomic factors
          Labor mobility
          Psychological adaptation
          Economics
          Academic achievement
          Psychology of college students
          Urbanization
          Employment
          Educational attainment
          China
          Postharvest Crop Activities (except Cotton Ginning)
          Rice Farming
          Breakfast Cereal Manufacturing
          Wheat Farming
          Oilseed and grain merchant wholesalers
          Wheat
          Cognitive testing
          Research funding
          Rice
          Descriptive statistics
          Ecosystems
          Sustainability
          Longitudinal method
          Data analysis software
          Comparative studies
          Temperature
          Agriculture
          Thought & thinking
      keyword:
        acculturation
        cognition
        culture
        longitudinal study
        mobility
        socioecological factors
        acculturation
        cognition
        culture
        longitudinal study
        mobility
        socioecological factors
      ab: Does moving to a new environment change people's cultural thought style? We tracked the cultural thought style of 1462 university students at 18 sites over time after they moved across China for college. We tested their holistic thought, which is more common in interdependent cultures. One logical prediction is that students would think less holistically after moving to big cities and more economically developed areas, in line with modernization theory. However, moving to bigger cities or more‐developed areas did not predict decreases in holistic thought. Instead, regions' history of rice versus wheat farming predicted change in thought style. Within just five months, students who moved to wheat‐farming prefectures thought less holistically than people who moved to rice‐farming prefectures. This fits with the idea that rice farming required more coordination and interdependence than wheat farming. In a follow‐up wave three years later, differences widened between students in rice and wheat areas. This three‐wave longitudinal study documents the transmission of cultural differences in cognition, even without personal experience farming. The results suggest that China's farming history is still shaping cultural differences in the modern day.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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