Chapter 7 Response

This chapter dealt with national values and long and short term orientation indexes throughout different countries. China had a much higher score than the US, but the US was still considered middle to short term, as there were countries that ranked lower on the charts. Some of the things that I found interesting included the correlation with high LTO's and low divorce rates due to arranged marriages being more prevalent. I also found it interesting that higher ranked countries were less likely to be assertive and more likely to accept bribes. Though wealth wasn't directly linked to specific scores, it was mentioned when discussing gratification. Children in poorer countries were more likely to want immediate gratification and to believe in absolute guidelines for behavior. Improvement and rituals are more important than believing in a specific religious deity. It is also believed that there can be two answers and that both can sum to a better answer than any one individually, as we would be likely to believe in the US. Personally, I was also interested in the observations about mathematical skills--people in higher scoring countries were better at math because it was an absolute answer. This definitely makes sense for me, because I am horrible at math!