Moving Chairs in Starbucks: Rice Theory of Culture in China - Thomas Talhelm

"Moving Chairs in Starbucks: How Rice Farming Made Southern China More Interdependent Than the North"
Thomas Talhelm; Associate Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School
Recorded on December 3, 2020

Growing rice is very different from growing wheat. Traditional paddy rice required about twice as many labor hours as wheat, which led rice farmers to share labor. Paddy rice also relied on irrigation networks, which require farmers to coordinate their water use and flood their fields at the same time. These elements gave rice villages a dense social world, with tight social ties. Across four studies, Professor Thomas Talhelm, Associate Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School has tested thousands of people’s thought style and behavior across China. The data shows that these patterns of behavioral differences fall along the historical borders of rice and wheat—even in modern day Starbucks.