Culture and decision making

• Published in: Organizational behavior and human decision processes Vol. 136; pp. 106 - 118
• Main Authors: Yates, J. Frank, de Oliveira, Stephanie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.09.2016; Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc
• Subjects: Cross-cultural; Culture; Decision making; East Asia; Individualism; Individualism-Collectivism; Judgment; Learning; Organizational behavior; Organizational behaviour; Review; Studies; East Asia; Cross-cultural; Review; Decision making; Culture; Judgment
• ISSN: 0749-5978; 1095-9920; 0749-5978
• DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.05.003

•We review the literature on culture and decision making.•We comprehensively analyze ten decision making phases.•Possible causes of cultural differences are reviewed and critiqued.•Big-picture questions for future research are discussed. The study of culture and decision making addresses variations in how and why people from different cultures sometimes tend to decide differently. This review is organized around what is intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the distinct fundamental questions that people must answer in the process of making virtually all real-life decisions. Our emphasis was on recent developments as well as identifying important yet neglected topics (e.g., how decision episodes get started—or not, and why some decisions are never implemented). Early as well as current efforts have focused mainly on East Asian and North American Caucasian cultures, with little treatment of other populations. In such studies, individualism and collectivism have been the dominant explanatory factors although related but distinct concepts such as “tightness” and “looseness” have been welcome additions to recent discussions. Throughout, the review emphasizes practical concerns, such as the challenges of intercultural learning and collaboration.