Summary
The culture cycle is a model from cultural psychology picturing culture as four interacting layers – individuals, interactions, institutions and ideas – each shaping the others. Hazel Rose Markus and Alana Conner set it out in ‘Clash!’ (2013), building on Markus’s work with Shinobu Kitayama; Markus and Kitayama’s 2010 paper calls the process a “cycle of mutual constitution”.
No layer comes first, and a new policy or a change of heart touches only one. Hamedani and Markus argue change lasts best when all four shift together, since “one way to change minds and behaviors is to change cultures, just as one way to change cultures is to change minds and behaviors”.
Rationale
Part 2 asks, “does work in any zone become more potent when tethered to the others?” For their four layers Hamedani and Markus say yes. We hold it as a hunch still to be tested.