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NancyLebovitz comments on "Stupid" questions thread - Less Wrong Discussion

40 Post author: gothgirl420666 13 July 2013 02:42AM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 15 July 2013 04:38:21AM 6 points [-]

Social norms are definitely written mostly by extraverts.

I believe this is more true of America than a number of other cultures.

Comment author: SaidAchmiz 15 July 2013 04:41:30PM 2 points [-]

This seems correct. American culture is definitely, in many ways, more extraverted than Russian culture (the only other culture I have significant experience with), despite (somewhat paradoxically) the greater emphasis on collectivity in Russian culture, and a somewhat lesser attention paid to many classes of social faux pas than American culture. "Familiarity" is a greater social sin in Russian culture than it is in American culture.

As a corollary to this, people raised in the Russian culture generally view American social interaction as "fake".

Comment author: savageorange 15 July 2013 08:18:33AM 0 points [-]

I remember discussing today how 'constant improvement' -- a classic introvert value -- is an everyday concept in Japan. So, yes. I do think that there's a general self-selection effect regardless of culture, where introverts don't get as much of a say in social norms precisely because they are usually less involved in socializing, but that's just speculative currently.