Uncertainty Avoidance

There is something I like to call "The Empty Seat Phenomena." Here in Japan when I ride the bus or take the train I am consciously aware that people do not want to sit next to me so, even when the train or bus is crowded, the seat beside me is empty. Of course there are exceptions, but more often than not this happens. The reason that Japanese people give when I ask "why" is that people are probably afraid that if they sit next to you, you might say something in English that they have to respond to. I was puzzled by this explanation until I stumbled upon the work of Geert Hofstede and his Cultural Dimensions Theory. One of his six dimensions is given the name "Uncertainty Avoidance" (the others are named Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Long-term Orientation and Indulgence). Each country is given a score on each index that goes from 0 to 100, for example a score of 100 on the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) means high avoidance of uncertainty and, of course, low avoidance when it's close to 0. By this metric Japan has been given a UAI of 92 and the United States a UAI of 46 - nearly opposites. By this I now understand that it is cultural and not personal: sitting next to me brings with it an uncertain situation to be avoided.

These cultural dimensions can be dangerous because they can lead to stereotypes that are, on an indvidual level, not always true. I will sometimes find a person willing to take chance to sit next to me on the bus or train. They rarely speak to me and needn't worry as I rarely speak to absolute strangers (here or anywhere) and I certainly wouldn't speak English to them out of the blue.

There are many references on the Web on the Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Theory. for those interested. Here are the comparison results for the U.S. vs Japan.

Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimension for the U.S. and Japan
(graph generated at: www.hofstede-insights.com)