The Lewis Model Explains Every Culture In The World

Slate ^ | September 8, 2013 | Gus Lubin

[2ndDivisionVet]

A world traveler who speaks ten languages, British linguist Richard Lewis decided he was qualified to plot the world's cultures on a chart.

Many people think he nailed it, as his book "When Cultures Collide," now in its third edition, has sold more than one million copies since it was first published in 1996 and was called "an authoritative roadmap to navigating the world's economy," by the Wall Street Journal.

Lewis plots countries in relation to three categories:

Linear-actives—those who plan, schedule, organize, pursue action chains, do one thing at a time. Germans and Swiss are in this group.

Multi-actives—those lively, loquacious peoples who do many things at once, planning their priorities not according to a time schedule, but according to the relative thrill or importance that each appointment brings with it. Italians, Latin Americans and Arabs are members of this group.

Reactives—those cultures that prioritize courtesy and respect, listening quietly and calmly to their interlocutors and reacting carefully to the other side's proposals. Chinese, Japanese and Finns are in this group.

He says that this categorization of national norms does not change significantly over time:

The behavior of people of different cultures is not something willy-nilly. There exist clear trends, sequences and traditions. Reactions of Americans, Europeans, and Asians alike can be forecasted, usually justified and in the majority of cases managed. Even in countries where political and economic change is currently rapid or sweeping (Russia, China, Hungary, Poland, Korea, Malaysia, etc.) deeply rooted attitudes and beliefs will resist a sudden transformation of values when pressured by reformists, governments or multinational conglomerates.

Here's the chart that explains the world:

Some more details on the categories:

The point of all of this analysis is to understand how to interact with people from different cultures.....

[The SISU kid]

Lmao

[MrB]

AA/Urban culture is not so much a culture as it is an Ant-culture.
Think about it. Everything about their culture is about rejecting Western (white) culture.
And leftists embrace it simply because western culture is based on God’s Law.

[SkyPilot]

You are correct about aircraft disasters. Several years ago, I had a discussion with an engineer from Boeing regarding aircraft egress systems. When they test the systems and time them, they obviously use an optimum test bank of candidates who are knowledgeable on the system and engineers want to minimize the time for certification purposes. He said while the times published for complete evacuation are never that good in practice, they generally did apply for a “Western passenger base.” Explaining further, he said a European passenger base would use a pretty much orderly egress, even in a full blown emergency, and this is based on the general behavior of the passengers. Not so with other populations. In fact, a Saudi airliner had a relatively small aircraft fire once that should have allowed most to egress before there was loss of life. But, because these people panicked and literally stepped all over one another and then fought each other during the emergency, there was massive loss of life.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Thanks for the referral.

[Hillary'sMoralVoid]

What everyone has missed is that the Multi-Active culture describes the democrat party to a tee!

[central_va]

Multi Active = Tribal

[ToastedHead]

I guess I’d rather go out kicking and screaming than waiting for my turn too, no matter how stupid that may be in hindsight. Hey, do you ever fly into NY area airports? They mention that the ATC there is tough and obnoxious, but very, very good.

[SkyPilot]

I guess I’d rather go out kicking and screaming than waiting for my turn too

Even if there was a fire in a latrine (has happened before, a Canadian airline co-pilot caused one by jamming in the circuit breaker on a toilet motor to keep it working) the egress can be accomplished to minimize life.

The "panic" is the worst thing, because as you know, getting people off the pressurized tube is a horrific process, even when they are at the gate in Chicago. Passengers grab their stuff, take their time, turn around twice, maneuver themselves, stop, look to their right, etc. It is maddening.

In an Emergency, you open up every exit window and door, and activate the slides.

If you panic and take out the fat lady in seat 17A, and she clogs the aisle, then everyone in rows 7 through 24 is screwed.

If you can follow the procedures, you can minimize loss of life. In some cultures, panic is the order of the day, and they don't act like the Titanic crew and men did.

[redgolum]

Pretty accurate.

And why I enjoyed my last few months at a Japanese company. They do not react well to honesty.

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, the whole “model” looks like a POS.

[donmeaker]

I was in France, near Caen, and asked in a bar (in my very best high school French) if the large number of blonds were from the Normans all those years ago.

I was told no, the Wehrmacht barracks in 1942-44 was just down the street.

[Yaelle]

Quite interesting.

I believe he is wrong about the two cultures I know best. Switzerland: the German Swiss would be between the Vietnam and German points somewhere. They are very polite, socially correct and conflict avoiding. Very similar to Japanese. The Japanese love Switzerland becAuse of this similarity. The French and Italian Swiss are far closer to the Italian / middle eastern point.

And Latin and black Americans are right up
There near the Italian point too. White Americans are probably more where the austrians are on the chart.

[donmeaker]

Belisaurius and Narsus retook Italy in the 7th Century with German soldiers. The Arabs and Normans came later. Rome had been importing Slavs, Celts and Germans as slaves for a long time.

Not much of the Greco-Romans left.

Ancestry is routinely faked.