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Social Axioms

The Search for Universal Dimensions of General Beliefs about How the World Functions

City University of Hong Kong

Michael Harris Bond

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Sharon Reimel de Carrasquel

Universidad Simón Bolívar

Carlos Muñoz

Universidad Simón Bolívar

Marisela Hernández

Universidad Simón Bolívar

Fumio Murakami

University of Tokyo

Susumu Yamaguchi

University of Tokyo

Günter Bierbrauer

Universitat Osnabrück

Theodore M. Singelis

California State University, Chico

To broaden our conceptual framework for understanding cultural differences, the present article reports two studies that examined whether pancultural dimensions based on general beliefs, or social axioms, can be identified in persons from five cultures. A Social Axioms Survey was constructed, based on both previous psychological research primarily in Europe and North America on beliefs and qualitative research conducted in Hong Kong and Venezuela. Factor analyses of these beliefs from student as well as adult samples revealed a pancultural, five-factor structure, with dimensions labeled as: cynicism, social complexity, reward for application, spirituality, and fate control. In the second study, this five-factor structure, with the possible exception of fate control, was replicated with college students from Japan, the United States, and Germany. The potential implications of a universal, five-factor structure of individual social beliefs were discussed, along with the relation of this structure to indigenous belief systems and to culture-level analyses.

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 33, No. 3, 286-302 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/0022022102033003005


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