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Cross-Cultural Universality

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Human nature; Human universals; Universalism

Definition

Core mental attributes or psychological traits that are shared, to varying degree, by the vast majority of human beings (Norenzayan and Heine 2005)

Introduction

Despite some controversy (Geertz 1973; Norenzayan and Heine 2005), Donald Brown (1991) constructed a list of hundreds of universal characteristics (e.g., marriage, coalitions, rituals, fear of snakes, etc.) that are common to all known cultural groups. Although aspects of cultural behaviors are often learned, variations in ancestral ecologies across deep time ultimately gave rise to differences in the expression of innate human traits (Diamond 1997). Cultures are essentially adaptive responses to the environmental niche that they each evolved in (Cohen 2001; Boserup 1970; Gilmore 1990).

Cultural Universals

Determining what a cultural universal is depends on the operational definition of cultureas well as the standards of evidence for such claims. The broader the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Penn State University, Beaver, PA, USA

    Reza Ziai

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  1. Reza Ziai
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Correspondence to Reza Ziai .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, Beaver, Monaca, PA, USA

    Kevin Bennett

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Ziai, R. (2019). Cross-Cultural Universality. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3024-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3024-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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