Religion and the Power Distance Index

[BMG580]

My brain is sort of dumping this info. out so I hope I am able to express my thoughts clearly!

I recently read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. In the book he discusses the Power Distance Index, which basically measures a culture's collective response to authority. In the book he uses the example of the high rate of Korean airplane crashes and accidents because of the very high P.D.I. in that country. Simply, until Korean Airlines retrained their pilots the First Officer would be hesitant to speak up to the Captain of the airplane if they thought the Captain was making a mistake or misinterpreting data about the plane and flying conditions. Because of the high P.D.I. the junior pilot would literally die, along with the rest of the plane passengers, rather than question the authority of the Captain.

This got me thinking about religion and how cultures embrace authoritative religions. For instance, could the extremes found in Islam in various countries around the world be related to P.D.I.? Could the USA's relatively low P.D.I. be a reason why Protestantism in its many forms is so prevalent here (meaning that as a culture who prides itself on independence and individualism, personal interpretation of the Bible or Christianity in general would be more likely). What about other world regions or cultures that are largely unreligious? I know communist countries really cannot be included in the pool because the government represses religion, but at the same time could a country that has become communist possibly have a culturally higher P.D.I. rating than a country/culture that isn't communist or socialist?

Am I making sense here? Does it not seem that a culture that collectively values authority would have an easier time with embracing an authoritative religion?

Here are a couple links on P.D.I.:

http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert...istance-index/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Hofstede

and a link to Malcolm Gladwell's book:

http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story...9725997&sr=8-1

[Bluegoat]

Well, I actually think that most Communist countries are ones that have a very high respect for authority, rather than the opposite.

[BMG580]

Originally Posted by Bluegoat

Well, I actually think that most Communist countries are ones that have a very high respect for authority, rather than the opposite.

Yes, I made that same assumption in my OP.

[Bluegoat]

Ooops, I misread - sorry!

I don't know, I guess I wonder in what places and times hasn't there been high respect for authority? I know there are a few, but to me they seem the exception rather than the rule.

[BMG580]

If you look at the map that I linked, with the color codes of high PDI countries verses low PDI countries I think an argument can be made that there is a bit of a pattern. A lot of Latin and South America are high PDI countries and that area of the world is still quite Catholic.

What got me thinking about this in the first place was the recent Protestant/authority thread and I wondered if there is a reason why Protestantism blossomed in some parts of the world (namely the USA) and did not in others. Why is it that there are areas of the world in which there are Muslim extremists and not in others that also have a high density of Muslims?

It was just sort of a wild idea, I don't really have anything to back it up other than a gut feeling and a short perusal of the world PDI map.

[Viola]

I think this is an interesting topic. Not specifically within religion, but just as a whole. I remember as a child not really understanding a situation, fearing that I might die, but not being unable to go against the authority of the adult. I think that's why so many parents don't necessarily want to inculcate in their children the value of blind obedience to authority. But then I wonder if people are drawn to certain types of career, religion or service depending on how they were raised and on what their PDI would be. And if there is a level of trust involved, how that plays into it vs. a situation where trust is clearly abused. Do people leave their authoritarian situations in that case?

[Bluegoat]

Another possibility is that they have a lot of individualism because they are Protestants. After all, the first Protestants in the US came from a more authoritarian society - it was what caused them to leave.

OTOH, some Protestants are very authoritarian - consider some of the early anabaptist communities, while they didn't recognize much in the way of governmental authority, they certainly were authoritarian within their own communities.