Cross-Cultural Similarities and Differences in Stereotypes of Good and Evil: A Pilot Study

Abstract

An exploratory cross-cultural survey was used to investigate similarities and differences in stereotypes of good and evil. Students from the United States, West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany), Singapore, Nigeria, and Argentina responded projectively to a 62-item questionnaire, completing it as they imagined an extremely “good and virtuous,” an extremely “wicked and evil,” or an extremely “weak and helpless” person would. Two factors consistently emerged: control (the impulse to influence or dominate others) and power (the impulse to accomplish objectives). Stereotypes of good, bad, and helpless were related to extreme positions on these factors, suggesting that the concepts of good and evil are richer than simply opposite poles of a single, evaluative dimension. Strong similarities in factor structures were found across the five samples, but inconsistencies also emerged. In general, control and power appear to have been common across cultures; however, the five samples operationalized them, as well as good and evil, somewhat differently.