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Globalization and Folk Theory of Social Change: How Globalization Relates to Societal Perceptions about the Past and Future
Author(s) -
Kashima Yoshihisa,
Shi Junqi,
Tsuchiya Koji,
Kashima Emiko S.,
Cheng Shirley Y. Y.,
Chao Melody Manchi,
Shin Shanghui
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2011.01723.x
Subject(s) - globalization , perception , perspective (graphical) , sociology , social change , political science , environmental ethics , social science , political economy , psychology , law , philosophy , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , computer science
Folk theory of social change (FTSC) is a generic knowledge structure that frames societal perceptions. According to FTSC, society develops from a traditional community where people are trustworthy though unsophisticated to a more sophisticated, but less warm‐hearted modern society. People make future forecast about society within this generic structure while flexibly incorporating particular information about the past history and the present social trend. We report evidence for the proposition that globalization provides particular information that people incorporate in forming their future societal perceptions. We take an intranational perspective by examining people's beliefs about globalization (Study 1) and a cross‐national perspective by comparing future societal perceptions in People's Republic of China, Japan, and Australia (Study 2). We suggest that future societal perceptions may play a constitutive role in the future of humanity, and FTSC and folk beliefs about globalization are a significant part of this process.