In the News
Psychology In The News | WEIRD Culture, Money, and Incentives

13th January 2025
During your study of psychology, you may have realised that most research studies have been conducted in Westernised cultures involving participants from these cultures. A 2008 survey of top psychology journals revealed that 96% of research participants were from Western industrialised countries, despite these countries representing only 12% of the global population. For psychology, this creates a problem; we cannot assume that cognitive and emotional processes are universal across populations.
Participants from Westernised cultures are often called WEIRD, an acronym for Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic. Many psychologists argue that people from WEIRD societies, particularly American undergraduates, are psychologically unique and not representative of the global human experience.
A recent study explored how monetary and psychological incentives motivate workers differently across cultures. Researchers investigated whether motivational strategies that work in Western countries are equally effective in non-Western nations. The team conducted online studies involving over 8,000 participants from the UK, US, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa. Participants were asked to complete a task identifying images within ten minutes, with different incentive structures. Some groups received a psychological (social norms-based) motivation, such as being told that high performance is the norm (encouraging them to work hard), while others were offered financial bonuses.
The results revealed significant cultural variations in how people respond to incentives. In China, bonus payments increased effort by 19%, while in the UK, the same incentive boosted productivity by 109.5%. The effectiveness of monetary rewards varied dramatically across countries. For instance, a tiny bonus of one penny per 20 images increased effort by 48.1% in the US, but only 1.6% in India. Interestingly, cultural differences emerged beyond just monetary response. In one study, over 90% of Mexican participants continued working after receiving their base pay, compared to just under half of Americans. Language also played a role, with Indian participants responding differently when the task was presented in English versus Hindi.
This study challenges conventional economic wisdom, which presumes that people in less affluent countries would be more responsive to financial incentives. Instead, the research suggests that the commodification of effort—viewing work purely as a monetary exchange - is most deeply ingrained in Western, educated cultures.
Discussion point / Group task:
Working individually or as a group, suggest how a piece of research you have studied which involved WEIRD participants could be modified to allow for the study of participants from non-WEIRD cultures.
What differences in results might you expect to find?
References:
Most people are not WEIRD https://www.nature.com/article... (accessed 5.12.24)
Medvedev, D., Davenport, D., Talhelm, T., & Li, Y. (2024). The motivating effect of monetary over psychological incentives is stronger in WEIRD cultures. Nature Human Behaviour, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562... (accessed 5.12.24)
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