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Cross-Cultural Studies

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Cross-cultural comparisons; Cultural studies

Definition

Cross-cultural study involves examining human behavior across various cultural settings to elucidate human behavioral similarities and differences. Cross-cultural comparisons are particularly useful in the field of psychology, because they enable researchers to parse apart which features of human behavior can be attributed to unique social or environmental factors and which features reliably emerge regardless of context.

Introduction

A considerable portion of the cross-cultural evolutionary research on male androphilia (i.e., male sexual attraction to adult males) has drawn comparisons between Canada, Italy, and Samoa, a small Polynesian island nation in the south Pacific. In Samoa, androphilic males publically present in a feminine/transgender manner and are recognized as members of a “third” gender, known locally as fa’afafine (see “Fa’afafine”). Here, quantitative research pertaining to two evolutionary hypotheses for...

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References

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Correspondence to Lanna J. Petterson .

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Petterson, L.J., Vasey, P.L. (2016). Cross-Cultural Studies. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_48-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_48-1

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