Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond
Are there systematic trends around the world in levels of creativity, aggressiveness, life satisfaction, individualism, trust, and suicidality? This article suggests a new field, latitudinal psychology, that delineates differences in such culturally shared features along northern and southern rather...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/1745691619858067 2024-06-23T07:56:50+00:00 Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond Van de Vliert, Evert Van Lange, Paul A. M. 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1745691619858067 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1745691619858067 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1745691619858067 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Perspectives on Psychological Science volume 14, issue 5, page 860-884 ISSN 1745-6916 1745-6924 journal-article 2019 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619858067 2024-06-04T06:28:13Z Are there systematic trends around the world in levels of creativity, aggressiveness, life satisfaction, individualism, trust, and suicidality? This article suggests a new field, latitudinal psychology, that delineates differences in such culturally shared features along northern and southern rather than eastern and western locations. In addition to geographical, ecological, and other explanations, we offer three metric foundations of latitudinal variations: replicability (latitudinal gradient repeatability across hemispheres), reversibility (north-south gradient reversal near the equator), and gradient strength (degree of replicability and reversibility). We show that aggressiveness decreases whereas creativity, life satisfaction, and individualism increase as one moves closer to either the North or South Pole. We also discuss the replicability, reversibility, and gradient strength of (a) temperatures and rainfall as remote predictors and (b) pathogen prevalence, national wealth, population density, and income inequality as more proximate predictors of latitudinal gradients in human functioning. Preliminary analyses suggest that cultural and psychological diversity often need to be partially understood in terms of latitudinal variations in integrated exposure to climate-induced demands and wealth-based resources. We conclude with broader implications, emphasizing the importance of north-south replications in samples that are not from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies. Article in Journal/Newspaper South pole SAGE Publications South Pole Perspectives on Psychological Science 14 5 860 884 |
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Are there systematic trends around the world in levels of creativity, aggressiveness, life satisfaction, individualism, trust, and suicidality? This article suggests a new field, latitudinal psychology, that delineates differences in such culturally shared features along northern and southern rather than eastern and western locations. In addition to geographical, ecological, and other explanations, we offer three metric foundations of latitudinal variations: replicability (latitudinal gradient repeatability across hemispheres), reversibility (north-south gradient reversal near the equator), and gradient strength (degree of replicability and reversibility). We show that aggressiveness decreases whereas creativity, life satisfaction, and individualism increase as one moves closer to either the North or South Pole. We also discuss the replicability, reversibility, and gradient strength of (a) temperatures and rainfall as remote predictors and (b) pathogen prevalence, national wealth, population density, and income inequality as more proximate predictors of latitudinal gradients in human functioning. Preliminary analyses suggest that cultural and psychological diversity often need to be partially understood in terms of latitudinal variations in integrated exposure to climate-induced demands and wealth-based resources. We conclude with broader implications, emphasizing the importance of north-south replications in samples that are not from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Van de Vliert, Evert Van Lange, Paul A. M. |
spellingShingle |
Van de Vliert, Evert Van Lange, Paul A. M. Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond |
author_facet |
Van de Vliert, Evert Van Lange, Paul A. M. |
author_sort |
Van de Vliert, Evert |
title |
Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond |
title_short |
Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond |
title_full |
Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond |
title_fullStr |
Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond |
title_full_unstemmed |
Latitudinal Psychology: An Ecological Perspective on Creativity, Aggression, Happiness, and Beyond |
title_sort |
latitudinal psychology: an ecological perspective on creativity, aggression, happiness, and beyond |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1745691619858067 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1745691619858067 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1745691619858067 |
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South Pole |
geographic_facet |
South Pole |
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South pole |
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South pole |
op_source |
Perspectives on Psychological Science volume 14, issue 5, page 860-884 ISSN 1745-6916 1745-6924 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619858067 |
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Perspectives on Psychological Science |
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