Survey shows national stereotypes lack substance

The English see themselves as repressed emotional bricks, Canadians think their average person is extraordinarily nice, Italians believe themselves to be fiery and passionate - but they're all completely wrong.

Every nation on earth has a firm stereotype of the "typical" local, but a major international study shows that stereotypes bear little, if any, resemblance to reality.

Character traits around the world are far more similar than we would like to believe - Canadians and Americans are pretty much alike, as are Australians, Kiwis and Brits.

The findings are prompting researchers to ask why we are so determined to create artificial concepts about ourselves. Are we desperate to belong to a distinctive national identity, are we searching for perfection, or just too lazy to assess individuals on their merits?

The research indicates that people should not trust their own judgments concerning stereotypes.

"Everybody finds it very easy to come up with stereotypic notions - it's very natural to the human way of thinking, but it's full of errors and therefore it's very dangerous," says psychologist Dr Robert McCrae, of the United States National Institute on Ageing, who published his findings in the international journal Science.

"It's striking to me that we asked nearly 4000 people around the world to make these ratings of stereotypes, and nobody had any trouble doing that. We need to remind ourselves when we're dealing with different nationalities or age groups or sexes that our ideas are something we should take with a lot of suspicion."

McCrae and Dr Antonio Terracciano asked researchers worldwide to investigate the "national stereotypes" of 49 cultures by asking participants to describe a "typical person" from their own culture, and to describe people they knew personally, whether they liked them or not.

As a control question, they asked the participants to describe their idea of a typical American.

The researchers matched those results with the findings of surveys in which participants were asked to describe their own personality traits.

The results were clear: in nearly every nation there was a strongly held, well-defined - and completely inaccurate - idea of what the "typical person" was like.

For example, says McCrae, you would think that "if you averaged the scores of a bunch of Canadians they ought to be nice on average, because that's what Canadians think they are".

Wrong. Canadians rated about the same as Americans, even though the Canadians described the "typical Canadian" as much nicer than their notion of the typical "arrogant" American.

The survey showed up a fascinating list of misconceptions. Indonesians and Japanese thought they were very neurotic, but actually rated in the middle of the 49 cultures. Australians thought they were very laid-back, but proved only slightly less neurotic than most people in the world.

Indians thought they were very open, but in fact were less so than people in most countries. Chinese people described themselves as secretive, but turned out to be reasonably open.

Extroverted


Northern Ireland had the most extroverted population, although New Zealanders, Australians and Spaniards all claimed that title.

New Zealanders were one of the few nationalities to have a reasonably accurate self-assessment. In the New Zealand study, conducted by Victoria and Otago Universities, participants thought the typical Kiwi was fun-loving, risk-taking, intellectually curious, open-minded, friendly, affectionate, happy and calm, says Dr Ron Fischer, of Victoria University, who surveyed 250 people.

Otago University's Dr Jamin Halberstadt and Kumari Fernando surveyed 116 people, who rated New Zealanders as among the world's least neurotic (third lowest of 49 cultures), most extroverted (fourth highest), most open (40th), and believed the typical Kiwi was not particularly conscientious (29th) and reasonably agreeable (36th).

When rating their own personalities and those of people they knew (whether they liked them or not), they painted a similar portrait.

"Australians and New Zealanders resemble each other very closely," Terracciano says. "They have almost identical profiles, with Australians just a bit higher on extroversion than New Zealanders."

New Zealanders and Australians emerged slightly higher on extroversion and emotional stability, and slightly lower on conscientiousness than most other people in the world.

Stereotypes could just be wishful thinking, Halberstadt says.

"National character could represent what we would like our image to be. But I think there is also something self-sustaining about national character, even when that character is negative."

Cultural mythology also plays a part. "National character might have its origins in legends - Australia as a penal colony, New Zealanders as Scottish settlers, Americans as pioneers - that are simply perpetuated through literature and lore."

The research should be a warning, Fischer says. "We are prone to errors, especially in an increasingly multicultural society like New Zealand. We should be careful when judging people, be it your colleague, the person selling you something, or somebody applying for a job."

So where do we get these ideas about ourselves?

People apparently ignore the real evidence about those they know, and instead make up a national stereotype from a mish-mash of myths, history, popular books, jokes and those sneaky little prejudices about class and regional origin.

McCrae says people simply discount all the information that doesn't fit with their preconception.

Myron Friesen, a Canterbury University researcher and psychologist not involved with the project, says: "When we meet a new person our brains try to quickly assess him or her by using stereotypes about factors such as nationality and occupation.

"We're forced to rely on these short cuts. There's no way our brains could ever process all the detailed new information about everybody we meet."

We also use stereotypes to make ourselves feel good, he says.

"I often think that it's part of our basic need for importance, or identity, and also connectivity - being connected to other people who are also important: 'I have a certain level of social worth because I'm part of this group'."

Friesen would love to see more research on exploring whether other group stereotypes are equally unreliable, such as our beliefs about gender or occupational groups.

Fischer has spent the past two years exploring the possibility that our tendency to create stereotypes might be useful in some situations, for instance, within the family.

In close relationships, people have a good ability to judge shared values relating to emotional expression, feelings of closeness and affection, says Fischer.

Constant arguments

"These values are important for regulating human society. If we don't agree with others about these values, there would be constant arguments, embarrassments, awkward social situations," he says.

Cultural stereotypes might be inaccurate but they may still influence how we act and perceive ourselves, says Fischer, who is investigating how cultural stereotypes affect our behaviour in the workplace.

In the Science study, British people had the most inaccurate stereotype. Although they thought of themselves as being reserved and conventional they were, in fact, among the world's most extroverted people.

Their personality profiles were much like Australians and New Zealanders, which was not surprising considering their common ancestry, McCrae says.

"It may well be that the Australians and New Zealanders in part define their identity by contrasting themselves with the English, so they want to say, 'Well, we're not English, and they're reserved, so we must be extroverts'."

Americans and Canadians had completely different ideas about themselves but were actually quite similar - agreeable, excitement-seeking, disciplined people.

In the self-assessments and observer ratings, both nationalities were revealed as a little more boastful and neurotic than the rest of the world.

Another big factor in stereotypes is what our neighbours think of us.

Argentines describe themselves as being very disagreeable, McCrae says, in line with a common South American idea that Argentina is a nation of grumps - but the Argentines were more agreeable than average.

McCrae and Terracciano are keeping the full findings about international assessments of Americans confidential pending their publication this year, but McCrae says Americans created a "negative" stereotype of themselves.

"They see themselves as being arrogant and aggressive and not particularly straightforward - not a very flattering view."

People surveyed in New Zealand described a typical American as gregarious, arrogant, conceited, ambitious, workaholic, aggressive, competitive, stubborn, assertive, forceful, disciplined and strong-willed, Fischer says. In Otago, Fernando found that the survey participants were fired up about perceptions of American imperialism.

"September 11 was in the media and there was much negative publicity around George W. Bush, so while some participants did comment about negative Kiwi behaviours they were more vocal about negative American characteristics."

That attitude was reflected in most countries' descriptions of Americans, irrespective of their involvement in Iraq.

Dr Jane Shakespeare-Finch, of the University of Tasmania, who led the Australian research, says by proving that even our notions about ourselves are wrong, the research rubbishes the common perception that all stereotypes are based on a "kernel of truth".