The Rice Theory: Random Assignment Past, Manspreading Present, and a Less Cultural Future?
The rice theory is the idea that the irrigation systems and labor demands of traditional rice farming made rice-farming cultures more interdependent. I’ll present data showing that northern and southern China have cultural differences that fall along the historical borders of rice and wheat. And since most of East Asia was built on rice farming, rice could help explain larger East-West cultural differences. To get at the question of causality, I’ll talk about a rare natural experiment where state farms in China effectively randomly assigned people to farm rice or wheat. I’ll share new data linking rice to manspreading around the world. My research team coded how much space 8,335 people were taking up in Starbucks in 10 countries. Finally, I’ll present new evidence that young people are still acculturating to rice and wheat cultures and that these differences might be growing larger as China modernizes.
LOCATION:William James Hall - 1st Fl. Seminar room 105 - [Pick up lunch at 11:45 AM] STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20241024T160000Z DTEND:20241024T171500Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR