Running head: RICE VERSUS WHEAT CULTURES IN CHINA 1 Rice versus Wheat Cultures in China: An Investigation into Self Enhancement and Cultural Tightness

Talhelm et al. (2014) hypothesized that Chinese from northern provinces (traditionally wheatgrowing regions) are more independent or less interdependent than those from southern provinces (traditionally rice-growing regions). One reliable index of independence is selfenhancement, which is when a person estimates that a small percentage of people are better than oneself. We asked Chinese college students recruited in Beijing to estimate the percentage of their classmates who would be higher than themselves on three evaluative dimensions (competence, independence, and interdependence) and found the northern participants to be systematically more self-enhancing (reporting smaller percentage estimates) as compared to their southern counterparts. Unexpectedly, the northern participants reported their home regions to be tighter in the enforcement of social norms than the southern participants did. The results were discussed in terms of characteristics of the student populations in the Beijing area.