Motivated Closed Mindedness and the Emergence of Culture

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the link between culture and human cognition. For the most part, this research has focused on the various ways in which culture, or specific aspects of cultural knowledge, affects cognition and the different meanings one may draw from surrounding physical and social stimuli depending on one’s cultural perspective (Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000; Miller, 1999; Tomasello, 2000). What has received less attention, however, is the ways in which human cognition, and motivational effects on cognition in particular, influence the formation of cultures and the perpetuation of particular cultural norms or patterns.