In the intercultural field, we spend a lot of energy and time attempting to put ourselves in others shoes, take on their perspective, view the world through a culture-neutral lens – or in other words, follow Milton Bennett‘s Platinum Rule*: “Treat others as they would like to be treated” (*a reference to the Christian Bible’s Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would like to be treated”).

Although it might seem that the final goal of our efforts to understand the world as others see it is to work towards a “common good” for all, respecting other’s needs and interests, a recent interview on NPR (National Public Radio) suggests that employing the term “common good” may actually disengage people from thinking of other’s needs and in fact have the opposite effect as was intentioned.

This interview by Steve Inskeep is based on a recent speech by US President Barak Obama on gun control in which Obama asked US citizens to think beyond their individual rights to the common good of the society. While the request itself seems straightforward, Standford researcher MarYam Hamedani has found that the result is actually the exact opposite – because US Americans have individual liberty as one of their core values, the collectivist / interdependent term “common good” causes a negative reaction in many people. However, this does not mean that these people are in fact against doing something that will help their communities, neighbors, or entire country. It is simply that the term goes against what they believe. For example, Hamedani presented US American volunteers with two identical policies on an environmental issue – the only difference was that one was written with language emphasizing individual liberty and the other emphasizing the common good. Support among these volunteers for the policy was far greater for the one written with language around individual liberty.

If the underlying concepts were the same, but the language used caused a significant difference in the way the policy was received, what does this suggest about the unconscious language / terminology biases that we all carry around with us? For certainly, this type of situation occurs in all countries and in all languages.

Can you think of situations in which your unconscious biases toward language have influenced your behavior / choices? What does ‘the common good’ mean to you and how is this term perceived in your community? What about the term ‘individual liberties’? Perhaps these two terms have the opposite effect in your community as they did in Hamedani’s research.

How do your cultural values unconsciously influence how you interpret different terminology? (image represents collective vs individualistic tendencies)

In AFS, we aim to provide our audiences with intercultural skills, one of which is the ability to discern when we are acting on an unconscious, culturally-influenced bias. We encourage you to reflect on your core values – how do these influence your choices and beliefs? (both consciously and unconsciously)

Click here to read the full interview on NPR.