True Story 4.09
Communitarian values reign in a Berlin ice cream parlor
The setting for this story
Friederike was a teacher of German as a foreign language in Berlin. Students from Kazakhstan and Russia made up one of her classes. One warm Friday afternoon, she decided to do something special with this class: she treated its members at a nearby ice cream parlor. Friederike explains:
A story of misaligned minds11
I reasoned that, in the informal atmosphere of the ice cream parlor, my students could practice their growing German language skills by discussing all the menu options, ordering, comparing the tastes and textures of their chosen flavors, and so forth. So when we arrived at the parlor, I divided the students into four table groups and made sure that everyone had menus.
After very brief discussions, the students at each of the tables put their menus down and waited for the server to take their orders. Then every student at each table ordered the same flavor!
What a disappointment! They weren’t comparing flavors or textures at all but I was nonetheless on the hook for everyone’s combined bill. A couple of the students noticed my downcast expression. While all the orders were being prepared, they told me that the wide array of flavors wasn’t what interested them about visiting the ice cream parlor. Instead, they had looked forward to sharing a pleasurable social experience together outside the classroom.
Friederike’s question
So how did the students at each table manage to almost instantly choose the same flavor?
Critique of story 4.09
At each table, the student informally recognized as a leader selected a flavor, and the others followed suit. In this way, each student signaled to the others that they viewed themselves as identifying with this table group, not as distinct from it.
Friederike’s story illustrates a common characteristic of people in societies characterized by a relatively communitarian system of values, of which Kazakhstan and Russia are two of many examples. Because people have little desire to exercise independent decision-making, especially in matters of no consequence, many decisions are simply left up to the group member who is recognized, formally or informally, as their leader.
A teacher from a relatively individualistic society, such as Germany, who takes a job at a school with students from communitarian societies can expect other surprises of this type.
For thought
Over many decades, innovators, scientists, businesspeople, and technical experts have arranged for humans – at least those of us in WEIRD12 societies – to have an unbelievably wide and diverse range of product choices. Think of cavernous supermarkets. Think of internet shopping. Think of the literally dozens of options we have when we need a fresh tube of toothpaste.
Have you ever felt that, at least for some choices, you’d rather someone else did the choosing for you, relieving you of the burden of making one more nearly meaningless choice from among multiple options? For me, this sometimes happens when I’m hungry and eager to order in a restaurant with a menu that goes on for pages. I think, “Couldn’t they just bring me some food?”
Related stories
Story 7.16 is also about communitarian students’ autonomy to make choices, but it occurs during a classroom lesson and leads to spectacularly different consequences.
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Endnotes:
11 Saathoff, n.p. Found in Ott, 216.
12 WEIRD was explained in this book’s Introduction.
Full citations are available at misalignedminds.info/References.