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  3. Look at the people around you. Some are passive, others more aggressive. Some work best alone, others crave companionship. We ea

Look at the people around you. Some are passive, others more aggressive. Some work best alone, others crave companionship. We ea

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问题     Look at the people around you. Some are passive, others more aggressive. Some work best alone, others crave companionship. We easily recognize that there is great variation among the individuals who live near us. Yet, when we speak of people from elsewhere, we seem to inevitably characterize them based on their country of origin.
    Statistics specialists, when they speak of national averages, often make the same mistake.
    Newly published research shows how erroneous such overviews are. Three researchers analyzed decades of values-based surveys and found that only between 16% and 21% of the variation in cultural values could be explained by differences between countries. In other words, the vast majority of what makes us culturally distinct from one another has nothing to do with our homeland.
    To determine what factors really are associated with culture, the authors combined data from 558 prior surveys that each measured one or more of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. These are traits, such as individualism and masculinity, that describe work-related cultural values. (They are not a measure of visible cultural traits, such as food or dress.) Though the validity of Hofstede’s dimensions has been questioned, they have the singular benefit of having been in use for decades, which allows for historical and international comparisons.
    The researchers found that both demographic factors, such as age, and environmental factors, such as long-term unemployment rates, were more correlated with cultural values than nationality. Occupation and social economic status were the most strongly correlated, suggesting that our values are more economically driven than we usually give them credit for.
    The evidence implies that people with similar jobs and incomes are more culturally alike, regardless of where they live. Vas Taras, the lead author of the study, puts it this way: "Tell me how much you make and I will make a pretty accurate prediction about your cultural values. Tell me what your nationality is and I probably will make a wrong prediction."
    Taras says our erroneous belief that countries are cultures has caused businesses to teach their employees useless or even harmful ways of interacting with their international peers. Chinese and American lawyers might be trained to interact based on the assumption that the Chinese person is less individualistic, even though their similar social economic situations make it probable they are actually quite alike in that regard.
    The country, as the unit of authority, is often a convenient way of generalizing about a population. However, our focus on countries can mask broad variations within them. In the majority of cases we would be better off identifying people by the factors that constrain their lives, like income, rather than by the lines surrounding them on a map.
What did researchers find about previous studies on factors determining people’s values?
选项 A、Environmental factors were prioritized over other factors.
B、An individual’s financial status was often underestimated.
C、Too much emphasis had been placed on one’s occupation.
D、The impact of social progress on one’s values was ignored.
答案B
解析 根据题干中的信息词previous studies和factors determining people’s values，答案线索可以定位在第四至六段，这三段都提到了研究人员对之前的调查进行研究。第四段主要介绍了研究人员对之前的调查进行了比较研究，第五段和第六段详述了研究结果。第五段第二句话指出，职业和社会经济地位(与文化价值观)的相关性最强，这表明我们的价值观比我们通常认为的更受经济因素的影响。也就是说，我们低估了职业和经济地位(也就是财务状况)对我们的价值观的影响程度。所以选项B为正确答案。第五段第一句话提到，环境因素与文化价值观的相关性大于国籍与文化价值观的相关性，而不是说环境因素优于其他所有因素，选项A属于夸大事实，排除。选项C与原文相反，原文说我们低估了职业对我们价值观的影响，而不是过分强调，也排除。选项D在原文中没有提到，也排除。
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