Ecological Origins of Cross-cultural Differences in Human Behavior and Psychology

Why are cultures different? This dissertation approaches this question through three independent chapters that build on the subsistence theory—the idea that how societies made a living historically shapes human culture and continues to have a lasting impact in the modern day. The first chapter studies the role of farming paddy rice, a premodern subsistence mode characterized by its high land productivity and irrigation needs, in explaining attitudes toward outgroup neighbors in modern China. The second chapter explores the cultural legacy of traditional marine fishing, an important but underexplored subsistence mode, in shaping the individualism–collectivism dimension of culture. The final chapter examines how pre-industrial irrigation practices, as an excludable economic setting, contribute to the formation of salient intergroup biases.