Contextualizing Social Psychology Through Cultural Syndromes: The Case of Brazilian Jeitinho

Abstract

We use the example of Brazilian jeitinho to showcase the advantages of considering culture-specific behavioral syndromes as locally meaningful sets of behavior, which recombine potentially universal psychological dynamics in culturally unique ways. This perspective allows for both universality and culture specificity in understanding human behavior. We discuss these points using jeitinho as an example. Anthropological and sociological work has demonstrated the importance of jeitinho as a Brazilian problem-solving strategy, which was treated as a single or homogenous construct. Psychological studies have identified distinct components that can be systematically linked to personality, values, and social attitudes. We describe our new theoretical approach focusing on culture-specific behavioral syndromes, in which possibly universal psychological characteristics are assembled and activated flexibly in culture-specific ways to address locally salient problems. We discuss how this novel combination of theoretical and mixed-method perspectives can advance a more situationally grounded social psychology.

Public Abstract

Over the decades, research in social psychology has demonstrated that cultural factors are fundamental to understanding human social behavior, but relatively little progress has been made to advance our understanding of how culture functions. We report insights gained from an interdisciplinary research program describing a cultural syndrome typical of Brazilian culture, the Brazilian jeitinho (literally translated as the Brazilian little way). Using this example, we demonstrate that it is possible to study culture-specific behaviors and link them to psychological factors presumed to be applicable to all of humanity, and by doing so, we can better understand behavior in context. This approach combines different theoretical lenses that have mainly been used independently in psychology in an integrative way that can advance a more global social psychology, making human behavior understandable across different cultural contexts.