A Theoretical Framework Explaining Cross-Cultural Sexual Harassment: Integrating Hofstede and Schwartz

After a slow beginning, research on sexual harassment from a cross-cultural and international perspective has begun to assume more importance in the literature. Several recent studies have given weight to cultural differences in explaining cross-cultural sexual harassment behaviors across samples from various countries. Herein, we synthesize elements of Hofstede's and Schwartz's cross-cultural theories and specifically apply them to the field of sexual harassment. Our model highlights how the integrated conceptualization based on Hofstede and Schwartz's work is consistent with much of the existing empirical research on sexually harassing or exploitative behaviors, directed towards women, in many different countries and cultures. We offer testable propositions for future empirical research as well as theory development in the area of cross-cultural sexual harassment. The derived research propositions suggest that differences in the likelihood to sexually harass by men, as well as the tolerance of sexual harassment by women, vary across different countries due to the fundamental differences in cultures and values.     

Collective Memory and Nonpublic Opinion: A Historical Note on a Methodological Controversy About a Political Problem

This article describes a little‐known moment in the history of social research, the so‐called Group Experiment (Gruppenexperiment) conducted in Germany in 1950–51 by members of the reconstituted Frankfurt school. That research, I argue, provides a missing link in the history of the ideas of deliberative democracy and public discourse, areas of political theory in which the substantive legacies of pragmatism and interactionism are particularly significant. Most important, however, the Gruppenexperiment provides a model for rethinking certain methodological and conceptual problems plaguing contemporary research on collective memory, namely, the tendency to reify it.     

“Memory: Lewis and Clark in Yellowstone,circa 2004”

Drawing on Walter Benjamin's concept of history as literary montage, “Memory: Lewis and Clark in Yellowstone, circa 2004” interrogates the place of memory in the bicentennial celebrations of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804–06. Quoting from historical documents, I attempt to crack the racist facade that surrounds Lewis and Clark and the place of their project in our national imagination.     

Sending States’ Transnational Interventions in Politics,Culture, and Economics: The Historical Example of Italy1

This article uses archival evidence to study in depth the historical policies of Italy as a classic sending state. Most of the mass migrations of a century ago came from multinational empires, but Italy was a recently formed independent state. Ambitious to benefit from emigration while assisting and protecting emigrants, Italy reached out to “Italians abroad” in several ways. For example, the state opened a low‐cost channel for remittances through a nonprofit bank; promoted Italian language education among Italian families abroad; supported Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad; and subsidized religious missionary work among emigrants. Italy's historical example of political innovation and diplomatic negotiation provides context, comparisons, and possibilities for rapidly changing sending‐state policies in the twenty‐first century.     

Generalizability of Gottman and Colleagues' Affective Process Models of Couples' Relationship Outcomes

The generalizability of Gottman et al's. (1998) affective process models was examined using a community-based sample of 85 married or cohabiting couples with at-risk backgrounds. Predictive associations between affective processes assessed at about age 21 years and relationship status and satisfaction approximately 2.5 years later were examined. The major findings of Gottman et al. failed to replicate. In particular, men's rejection of their partners' influence, the lack of men's deescalation of partners' negative affect, and women's negative start up were not predictive of relationship status. Further, differences in affective processes were found when comparing discussion sessions of the men's versus the women's chosen topics. The findings suggested that the validity and utility of the affective process models need further investigation.     

Mind-Reading and Metacognition: Narcissism, not Actual Competence, Predicts Self-Estimated Ability

In this paper, we examine the relationship between people's actual interpersonal sensitivity (such as their ability to identify deception and to infer intentions and emotions) and their perceptions of their own sensitivity. Like prior scholars, we find the connection is weak or non-existent and that most people overestimate their social judgment and mind-reading skills. Unlike previous work, however, we show new evidence about who misunderstands their sensitivity and why. We find that those who perform the worst in social judgment and mind-reading radically overestimate their relative competence. We also find origins of these self-estimates in general narcissistic tendencies toward self-aggrandizement. We discuss evidence from two studies, one involving the Interpersonal Perception Task (the IPT-15) and another focusing on inferences about partners after a face-to-face negotiation exercise. In both cases, actual performance did not predict self-estimated performance but narcissism did.