Differences and similarities in psychological characteristics between cultural groups circum Mediterranean.
Ayse K Uskul, Paul H P Hanel, Alexander Kirchner-H��usler, Vivian L Vignoles, Shuxian Jin, Rosa Rodriguez-Bail��n, Vanessa A Castillo, Susan E Cross, Meral Gezici Yal����n, Charles Harb, Shenel Husnu, Keiko Ishii, Panagiota Karamaouna, Konstantinos Kafetsios, Evangelia Kateri, Juan Matamoros-Lima, Rania Miniesy, Jinkyung Na, Zafer ��zkan, Stefano Pagliaro, Charis Psaltis, Dina Rabie, Manuel Teresi, Yukiko Uchida
Author Information
Ayse K Uskul: School of Psychology, University of Sussex. ORCID
Paul H P Hanel: Department of Psychology, University of Essex.
Alexander Kirchner-H��usler: School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Vivian L Vignoles: School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Shuxian Jin: School of Psychology, University of Sussex.
Rosa Rodriguez-Bail��n: Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada.
Vanessa A Castillo: Department of Psychology, Coe College.
Susan E Cross: Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
Meral Gezici Yal����n: Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, University of Bielefeld.
Charles Harb: Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, American University of Beirut.
Shenel Husnu: Department of Psychology, Eastern Mediterranean University.
Keiko Ishii: Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Nagoya University.
Panagiota Karamaouna: Department of Psychology, University of Crete.
Konstantinos Kafetsios: School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Evangelia Kateri: Department of Psychology, University of Crete.
Juan Matamoros-Lima: Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada.
Rania Miniesy: Department of Economics, British University in Egypt.
Jinkyung Na: Department of Psychology, Sogang University.
Zafer ��zkan: Department of Psychology, Ordu University.
Stefano Pagliaro: Department of Psychology, University of Chieti-Pescara.
Charis Psaltis: Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus.
Dina Rabie: Faculty of Social Sciences, Northeastern University London.
Manuel Teresi: Department of Psychology, University of Chieti-Pescara.
Yukiko Uchida: Institute for the Future of Human Society, Kyoto University.
We examined differences and similarities between groups sampled from the Mediterranean region in social orientation, cognitive style, self-construal, and honor, face, dignity values, and concerns using a large battery of tasks and measures. We did this by conducting secondary data set analyses focusing on comparisons between nine pairs of samples recruited from the Mediterranean region (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus [Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities], Lebanon [Muslim Lebanese and Christian Lebanese], Egypt) that have overlapping and divergent features in terms of religious, ethnic, national, and linguistic factors as well as various physical and socioecological characteristics. Across 38 different psychological characteristics, comparisons between Turkish and Turkish Cypriot samples and between Christian and Muslim samples from Lebanon revealed that they were most similar to each other. In contrast, Greek and Turkish samples were the least similar. Our analyses of intercorrelations between variables, variability, and size of differences provide additional insights into the within-region variation in social orientation, cognitive style, self-construal indicators, as well as honor, face, and dignity values and concerns. Our research contributes to the growing literature on regional variation of psychological processes while raising important pointers for the role of background and socioecological characteristics in cultural group similarities and differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
