This study provides a unique contribution to the domain of culture and advertising in that it presents empirical evidence for the role that Hall's (Citation1976; Hall & Hall, Citation1990) context culture plays in cross-cultural communication. This methodological limitation makes it impossible to assess whether it is indeed context culture that is the explanatory factor of the results obtained. For complex messages to be effective, consumers need to have a minimum of cognitive resources. Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained. Low context Low-context cultures also want these communications to revolve around basic questions, like: What's happening? Characteristics of HC and LC Communication. Unlike low-context cultures, high-context cultures prioritize the group over the individual (Hofstede, 1984). This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). Wurtz, Elizabeth (2005). Intercultural communication. The work of Hofstede is data-driven: nations have been given precise numerical scores on cultural dimensions on the basis of empirical research. Recognizing High and Low Context Cultures - National Charrette Institute Guffey, M. E., Lowey, D., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2013). The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do (Feminine). Phillips (Citation2000), for example, constructed ads in three versions. A direct and participative communication and meeting style is common, control is disliked and leadership is challenged to show expertise and best accepted when its based on it. This proved to be the case (F(1, 287) = 5.85, p =.016, 2 =.02). Finally, the present study focused on ad liking as a form of persuasion, which makes sense from Hall's predictions about comprehension and appreciation. Two examples of items were A speaker can assume that listeners will know what they really mean, and People understand many things that are left unsaid (all nine items are in Appendix1). Fewer words can often lead to better understanding. i~^/NGu8Oc$j*$hd$BC+ji.9mkK"B?0m`d()-r//JQ ?7M!7|Q]pTX6w9 They are not simply complementary but are often used as the primary means of conveying a message and require the members to have greater cultural understanding. It has worked in the past will not buy you much credibility. Status is often shown, especially by cars, watches and technical devices. In, Meyer, C. (2017). Belgian participants have a higher ad liking than Dutch participants, and this national difference is explained by the participants' personal context score. However, no country is low-context or high-context in absolute terms; instead, there is a mix of explicit & implicit communication everywhere. Van Mulken etal. They often use written contracts and agreements to clarify expectations (Gudykunst & Ting-Toomey, 1988). 4.3: Variations in Communication Styles - Social Sci LibreTexts Germans are very detail-oriented and tend to ask a lot of subject-related questions. Renewable, clean energy has become a key talking point for every nation, and Germanys push puts itself at the forefront of a new economic boom. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. endstream endobj 313 0 obj <>stream Note: Comparison of low- and high-context cultures reprinted from Business communication: Process & product (p. 64) by M.E. As a preliminary test, we first checked whether Belgian participants indeed scored higher on their personal context score than Dutch participants. Low vs. high context . Germany - Hofstede Insights Wurtz studied McDonalds online advertising in various countries such as Japan, Germany, the United States, etc. Brings out best in individual; challenges to produce best possible outcome, yet a strong sense of collaboration persists, Task Orientation Produced by Will Reid and Michael Simon Johnson. In order to present participants with ads that varied in complexity, different metaphors were used, including the juxtaposition metaphor, the fusion metaphor, and the replacement metaphor (cf. For this reason, understanding differences between U.S. and German business communication may prove useful when starting conversations and negotiations with German business partners. Which countries have low context. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(3356907, 'f3c79a54-94fa-4875-95d8-58d85fe04dc8', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); St. Patricks Day, cable-knit wool sweaters, and lush, green rolling landscapes are what people Read More, How people communicate with one another varies wildly from culture to culture. Start by finding experienced, knowledgeable employees within your own company. In other words, if a recipient has noticed a message, and is motivated to process it, the message will only have an impact on beliefs, attitudes, and intentions if it is comprehended. Fourth, in future empirical studies on the role of context theory in comprehension and persuasion, it may be worthwhile to vary the ways in which message comprehension is measured. To many businesses, Germany is the perfect place for business dealings. In particular he is known for his high and low context cultural factors. People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read. According to M.Q. These models, however, do not account for the design of complex ads such as the example of the liquid detergent, which suggests that complexity is employed to positively affect appreciation. Hall observed that "meaning and context are inextricably bound up with each other" (Hall, 2000, p. 36), and suggested that to understand communication one should look at meaning and context together with the code (i.e., the words themselves).By context, we refer to the situation, background, or environment connected to an event, a situation, or . Surprisingly, despite the research attention devoted to context theory (for a review, see Cardon, Citation2008), one of the central tenets of the theory has only been tested indirectly. Low-context countries, on the other hand, relied more on linear processes and verbal communication. It describes the level of explicit information and the importance of context in a given culture, indicating the range of communicative abilities (verbal messages, gestures, etc.) It ranks third in both total exports and imports, and has a strong economy that is the largest in Europe and the 5th largest in the world. Finally, place focus on personal achievement, success, and competition, values which drive the German business world. At the same time, for many cultures, working in Germany can be challenging because of the direct communication style and high need for detailed information. More recent persuasion models, such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM; Petty & Cacioppo, Citation1986) and the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM; Chaiken, Citation1987), have nuanced the role of comprehension. For instance, See, Petty, and Evans (Citation2009) showed, in two studies, that people with a high need for cognition (who have a tendency to appreciate undertaking cognitive activities) were more motivated to process a complex rather than a simple message, and that people with a low need for cognition were more motivated to process a simple instead of a complex message. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. Cultures with a low-context orientation, including North America and Western Europe, tend to solve problems with logic rather than intuition and highly value directness. #o2G]K(@Z1 $suH\ Low-context and high-context culture are anthropological concepts that describe the level of explicit information and the importance of context in a cultures communication. An example of such a complex ad is an ad for liquid detergent that was used in Western Europe. Germany has a relatively low score when it comes to indulgence, meaning the country is restrained in nature. Wurtz found something similar while analyzing website design. Communication Differences in Low-Context vs. High-Context Cultures, Comparing Communication Styles in Low- and High-Context Cultures, Additional Resources for Determining Cultural Contexts, Ethnocentrism and Cross-Cultural Competence, Additional Resources for Understanding Trompenaars Dimensions, Three Prototypes: Dignity, Face, and Honor Cultures, Ethnocentrism, Culture Shock, and Cultural Relativism. These countries are quite explicit and elaborate without having prior knowledge to each member's history or background. Because directness may be thought of as disrespectful, discussions in high-context cultures can be circuitous, circling key issues rather than addressing them head-on. The current study used an abridged version of the scale used by Richardson and Smith (Citation2007), which is among the very few scales available. Which of the following countries is considered a high context culture? Low-context cultures are less stable than high-context cultures as they are not founded upon any shared background. This means that the potential cross-cultural differences observed cannot be accounted for by different languages used in the study (following the suggestion made by Van de Vijver & Leung, Citation1997). When it comes to the role of context culture on perceived complexity, a linear regression showed, in the first place, that nationality predicted perceived complexity (F (1, 287) = 4.48, p =.035, R2 =.01; B = .216, SE =.102, p =.035): Belgian participants (M = 3.28, SD = 0.86) perceived the ads as less complex than the Dutch participants (M = 3.49, SD = 0.83). In other words, high-context communicators attach great importance to everything that surrounds the explicit message, including interpersonal relationships, non-verbal cues, and physical and social settings. They assume that listeners know very little and must be told practically everything. From the same gender distributions in the two samples, it might be considered unlikely that, for instance, one sample contained predominantly arts students (which are mostly female students) and the other predominantly engineering students (which are mostly male students).