Social transmission of cultural practices and implicit attitudes

Cultural dynamics were examined in an experimental setting to investigate the mechanisms of transmission of cultural practices (what people typically do) and implicit attitudes at the micro-level, and the maintenance of transmitted cultural traits at the macro-level. A cover story of a fictitious group was used to establish “microcultures” within the laboratory and to gauge the effect of culture on practices and attitudes across two generations of experimental participants (cultural oldtimers and newcomers). The results suggested that cultural practices and implicit attitudes are transmitted through two distinct mechanisms: cultural practices through explicit instructions and imitation; implicit attitudes through newcomers’ observations of oldtimers’ performance and, presumably, automatic attitude inference. Furthermore, cultural practices were maintained across generations by explicit instructions, but implicit attitudes were better maintained by institutionalizing “the way of life” as a cultural given. Implications of the findings for organizational behaviour and the limitations and advantages of experimental investigations of cultural dynamics are discussed.