Devaluing achievement within a culture: Measuring the cultural cringe

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Abstract
Cultural cringe attitudes involve a downgrading of a nation's products and achievements in comparison with other countries and a belief that the quality of these products and achievements should be validated by overseas authorities. A 16‐item measure of the cultural cringe in Australia was developed and administered to 289 high‐school students in metropolitan Adelaide and 281 students at Flinders University. These subjects also completed measures concerned with national identity, identification with Australia, attitudes towards high achievers (“tall poppies”), estimated past, present, and future standing of both self and Australia, and global self‐esteem. Results provided no evidence of a general cultural cringe in either sample. Consistent with social identity theory, subjects reporting Australian identity were less likely to devalue their culture's products and achievements and more likely to report positive identification with Australia than subjects reporting some other national identity. Cultural cringe was negatively related to identification with Australia in both samples, negatively related to estimates of national standing, positively related to favouring the fall of high achievers or tall poppies, and negatively related to favouring the reward of tall poppies. Cultural cringe was independent of measures of personal standing and global self‐esteem.

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