Have you ever worn sunglasses for so long that you forgot you were even wearing them? Or maybe you got so used to the white noise in the background you almost forgot it was still there? Once we get used to perceiving the world through a certain lens of beliefs and ideas, we may easily forget that the lens exists at all.
This is how cultural bias often creeps into research. While our cultural bias helps us understand the things happening within our culture, it will likely not apply to other settings. Psychology is a western area of study, and a lot of early research pertains to western societies and is sometimes incorrectly generalised and applied to other cultures. Let's explore how cultural bias and sub-culture bias affect psychological research.
Fig. 1 - We're constantly immersed in our culture and often don't even realise how it affects how we make sense of the world around us.
Cultural Bias: Definition
When designing and conducting studies, researchers aim to be as objective as possible. However, sometimes our biases are implicit; we might not even realise that we have them. One example of this is cultural bias.
Cultural bias assesses and judges other cultures through the standards of one's own culture.
Since culture permeates our daily reality, we rarely question how it affects us and how it can affect research.
Culture is a set of ideas, customs, traditions, and behaviours upheld by a group or society that determine everyday behaviours, practices and how we make meaning of the world around us.
Cultural bias is likely to occur when we are not aware of the cultural ideas we impose on other cultures.
There are two types of cultural bias – alpha bias and beta bias. Alpha bias occurs when cultural differences in research are exaggerated, and beta bias occurs when they are overly minimised.
An example of cultural bias (specifically beta bias) in research is when researchers generalise their findings to other cultures even though the sample is limited to only one culture.
A significant problem with early psychological research is that it was conducted on white, middle-class adult males, mainly from the US. It would not have been a problem if the study had only generalised its findings to that sample. However, many of these studies claimed their results applied to everyone.
Sub-Cultural Bias
A subculture is a group with a set of customs, beliefs, behaviours, etc., that distinguishes it from its larger culture. Subcultural bias occurs when the research aims to generalise its findings to a certain group but may not consider whether the sample is representative of all the subcultures in that group.
Subcultural bias is similar to cultural bias; it involves disregarding cultural differences between smaller groups within a larger culture.
An example of subculture bias in research would be investigating mental health in England but only including middle-class English participants and not other socio-economic groups in the study.
Effects of Cultural Bias Psychology
Cultural bias is when someone judges something based on 'stereotypical' values, beliefs or characteristics of the subject. It can lead us to make and form prejudiced opinions and choices, leading to wrongful discrimination.
Cultural Bias Characteristics
Cultural bias characteristics can be understood by studying the distinction between ethnocentrism and cultural relativity in research.
Ethnocentrism vs Cultural Relativism
Ethnocentrism is an example of cultural bias. It occurs when we interpret the behaviour of people from a different culture through our own cultural lens. It involves generalising one's cultural values to other cultures based on the assumption that one's cultural perspective is the right one and is universally shared.
In research, this occurs when models, classifications, or interpretations of phenomena which were created in one culture are applied to another without considering the cultural differences between the groups.
For example, a diagnosis of schizophrenia based on particular symptoms may not be consistent across different cultures, as certain symptoms are not regarded as out of the norm in other cultures.
Ethnocentrism fails to consider cultural differences - what is found in one country may not be the same in another.
In contrast, cultural relativism promotes the understanding of the influence of people's culture on behaviour. Cultural relativism involves a consideration of the values, practices, or norms of people in their cultural context.
It recognises the limits to the generalisability of findings based on the sample used and is the view that we must understand cultural behaviours and principles through the context of that culture.
Cultural relativism recognises the impact of differences in cultural context on human behaviour.
Research findings demonstrating cultural relativity are highly reliable and generalisable to the intended audience because it clearly recognises its cultural context.
Cultural Differences: Individualistic vs Collectivist Cultures
One example of a cultural difference is the individualism vs collectivism orientation, which affects the culture's practices and human behaviour. If researchers do not consider cultural differences in their study, they may misinterpret, misunderstand or incorrectly base their research on assumptions, prejudices, and stereotypes.
Western societies are typically more individualistic, while Eastern cultures are often collectivist.
Individualism places more importance on an individual's personal goals and achievements, focusing highly on independence.
Independence and freedom of choice are valued and encouraged. Typically, individualistic societies strive for self-actualisation and tend to be more competitive in achieving their personal goals.
In collectivist cultures, on the other hand, the emphasis is placed on the needs of the group and community as a whole.
Collectivism promotes reservation and adherence to tradition more than individualism does. People are viewed as interdependent, and cooperation and conformity to one's social role are valued.
Fig. 3 - Western countries tend to be more individualistic, while Eastern countries are often more collectivist.
Different psycho-cultural factors tend to influence the two different types of cultures. This is the case when psychological and cultural factors influence personality.
Examples of psycho-cultural factors include conflict, cultural traits, and religion.
Cultural bias can become a problem when people do not consider that there are clear cultural differences between themselves and others, such as between people living in Western and Eastern cultures.
Cultural bias is a consequence of cultural variation. Cultural variation refers to the idea that social practices, rules, beliefs, and behaviours differ across cultures in the world. Therefore, if the same study is repeated in a Western and an Eastern country, it is unlikely that the same results will be found.
What is inappropriate behaviour in one country may not be in another. In some countries, it is impolite to speak freely to elders, or it is mandatory to address them with an honorific title (in the East), while in other countries, this is not as strictly enforced (in the West).
Cultural Bias: Example
The approach we take in cross-cultural research studies may influence the likelihood of cultural bias. When we look at cross-cultural research, we must consider whether it was conducted from an etic or emic approach.
Cultural Bias and the Etic Approach
First, let's define an etic approach to cross-cultural research.
The etic approach studies behaviour by assessing it against universally valid concepts on the assumption that they apply across cultures.
The etic approach involves applying a theory or model to all cultures, assuming that it can be applied universally.
Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure investigates an infant's response to mildly stressful events, like their primary caregiver leaving them in a room. Based on the infant's behaviour, they are then classified into one of the attachment styles that Ainsworth developed by studying White, American mother-child dyads.
While it was assumed that Ainsworth's procedure allows universal classification of infants across cultures, Takahashi (1986) has found that it doesn't produce reliable findings when applied to Japanese children.
The cultural concepts which are imposed on another culture (e.g. Ainsworth's classification of attachment styles) are called an imposed etic.
Cultural Bias and the Emic approach
Now, let's explore the emic approach.
The emic approach involves a study of human culture by interpreting the behaviours and practices that occur in a particular culture and evaluating those behaviours through the lens of that culture, with consideration of differences among cultures.
If we consider the cultural concept of Takahashi's (1986) research, we can better understand why the Strange Situation procedure did not work for Japanese infants.
In Japan, it was much less common for the mother to leave the child alone. The Japanese infants were much less familiar with separation and reacted more strongly. Therefore, due to Japanese child-rearing practices, the events in the procedure were severely rather than just mildly stressful for Japanese infants, and this was theorised to skew the results.
Issues with Cultural Bias in Research
Cultural bias can threaten the generalisability and reliability of research, as we have covered throughout our explanation.
Reliability depends on the replicability of the results.
Moreover, culturally biased research has limited applicability to real life.
If the needs of a particular group are not considered in healthcare research, it can lead to cultural disparity in healthcare access and quality.
Issues with validity also exist, in that if cultural differences are not acknowledged and taken into account, researchers are not accurately measuring the concept they are aiming to study.
How can Research Limit Cultural |Bias?
To limit the potential cultural bias, researchers should reflect on their assumptions and make sure that their research sample is representative of the target population they want to generalise their findings.
Moreover, conducting cross-cultural research can help uncover cultural biases. Researchers can also use meta-analyses to compare and contrast the results of cross-cultural studies to determine if similar results have been reported across them.
Culture Bias and Sub-Culture Bias - Key takeaways
- Culture is a set of ideas, customs, traditions, and behaviours upheld by a group or society that determine everyday behaviours. Cultural bias assesses and judges other cultures through the standards of one's own culture.
- Cultural bias is likely to occur when we are not aware of the cultural ideas we impose on other cultures and conduct research without considering cultural differences.
- Ethnocentrism occurs when we interpret the behaviour of people from a different culture through our own cultural lens. Cultural relativism promotes the understanding of the influence of people's culture on their behaviour.
- One example of cultural differences is the culture's individualism versus collectivism orientation.
- Cross-cultural research can be conducted through an etic or emic approach. There are several problems with cultural bias in research, including issues with reliability, validity, generalisability and applicability.
Explanations 
Exams 
Magazine 
