Cultural divide

A cultural divide is "a boundary in society that separates communities whose social economic structures, opportunities for success, conventions, styles, are so different that they have substantially different psychologies". A cultural divide is the virtual barrier caused by cultural differences, that hinder interactions, and harmonious exchange between people of different cultures. For example, avoiding eye contact with a superior shows deference and respect in East Asian cultures, but can be interpreted as suspicious behavior in Western cultures. Studies on cultural divide usually focus on identifying and bridging the cultural divide at different levels of society.

A cultural divide can have significant impact on international operations on global organizations that require communication between people from different cultures. Commonly, ignorance of the cultural differences such as social norms and taboos may lead to communication failure within the organization.

Sufficiently large cultural divides may also discourage groups from seeking to understand the other party's point of view, as differences between the groups are seen as immutable. Such gaps may in turn inhibit efforts made to reach a consensus between these groups.

Internal causes of Cultural Divide refer to causes based on innate or personal characteristics of an individual, such as a personal way of thinking, an internal mental structure or habit that influences how a person acts.

Rules, norms and way of thinking are often inculcated since young and these help to shape a person’s mindset and his thinking style, which will explain how two different cultural groups can view the same thing very differently. For example, Western cultures with their history of Judeo-Christian belief in the individual soul and focus on the pursuit of individual rights tend to adopt an individualistic mindset whereas East Asian cultures with a history of teachings based on confucianism tend to view the individual as a relation to the larger community and hence develop a more collectivist mindset. Hence, it is more common for people in collectivist cultures to make an external attribution while people in individualistic cultures making an internal attribution. Thus, these differences can cause how people, situations or objects are perceived differently.

Perceptions about an out-group or of a different culture may tend to be perpetuated and reinforced by the media or long-standing notions of stereotypes. As a result of using schemas to simplify the world as we look at it, we rely on a set of well-established stereotypes available in our own culture to define and view the out-group. As such, the risk of stereotypes is if it is inaccurate and blinds us to certain key understanding of a certain class of people, and as stereotypes tend to persist even with new information, the problem of cultural divide can be perpetuated.

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