Interesting tidbit from a New Yorker article about China. Two behavioral scientists studied Chinese and American attitudes toward financial risk. Most Chinese investors viewed themselves as more cautious than Americans, and the Americans agreed.
But….
We Americans, of course, view ourselves as rugged individualists, boldly embracing risk. We are exceptional, better than everyone else.
But when the researchers ran tests on the two groups, they discovered that the Chinese took substantially greater risks than the Americans did.
I don’t know what the implications are; the article didn’t draw any conclusions. But clearly, stereotypes–about ourselves, and about others–should be questioned. As Romans 12:3 tells us, “Do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement.”
