Culture: The Big External Influence 39
around ties to microcultures that are not evident when we are
grouped with the mass. You will start sorting behavior as cultural,
super-cultural, or sub-cultural on a model where the “cultural”
refers to the greater group of which you are part. You will routinely
start placing individuals and behaviors on bell curves.
The bell curve represents a range of values. I use this example
in class: How many have had a skinned knee at least once? Every-
one raises his hand. Twice? Most keep a hand up. Five times? Only
a few hands remain. The bell curve based on that information looks
similar to this, and I’ve added the terms sub-typical, typical, and
super-typical to clarify the concept.
In this model anyone with a skinned knee less than twice is
sub-typical, two to five times becomes the norm, and more than
five times is super-typical. Is this a distorted view of the group?
Sure, but it does represent one aspect of the group dynamic. It also
gives us a model for further analyzing the meaning of the data and
targeting something about this group to understand the group’s iden-
tity. People seize on differences to create taboos and create a culture.
We can overlay this into a more normal everyday situation.
Sub-typical Typical Super-typical0–1 times 2–5 times More than 5 times