Cliches about nations govern our actions
Germans arrive at every appointment 5 hours before the scheduled time, all Indians are called Ranjid and have a red mark on their foreheads, the Japanese bow 10,000 times a day, and Americans all speak with chewing gum in their mouths. The list of stereotypes can be as long as you wish, and every country has its own prejudices about other cultures. These are meant to help with a quick appraisal of the people we are dealing with. The influence of clichés about people from different nations on the willingness to cooperate with one another was the subject of an investigation by Angela Rachael Dorrough and Andreas Glöckner from the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods focusing on six different countries. Their work revealed that expectations, which are often influenced by strong cross-societal clichés, play an important role.