A Study on Body Composition, Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Levels Among Bengali Hindu and Santals Using Cultural Consonance Model

We examined how the perception/beliefs towards lifestyle and the actual lifestyle are related to body composition, blood pressure and blood sugar levels among Santals and Hindu caste populations using the cultural consonance model. The study involved 210 individuals (109 Bengali Hindu and 101 Santals), aged 18–50 years living in the city of Howrah, West Bengal, India. Principal component analyses were performed to extract the components from the variables used in perception towards lifestyle. Multiple linear regression analyses and multivariate analysis of covariance were used to understand association of body composition, blood pressure and blood sugar levels with both the perception towards and actual lifestyle and ethnicity, respectively. Results showed that there is a difference between perception towards and actual pattern of lifestyle among the members of two ethnic groups, indicating low cultural consonance. However, both the variables were associated with body composition, blood pressure and blood sugar levels, but not ethnicity, after removing the effects of socio-demographic and lifestyle variables. We conclude that shared knowledge and perception towards healthy lifestyle among individuals, perhaps encoded in own culture, often fail to get translated in actual lifestyle pattern and eventually affect physical health.

Cultural bereavement, cultural congruity, and identities

Acculturation and cultural identity are influenced by a number of factors. The concepts of cultural consonance and cultural congruity may need to be taken into account in clinical settings to ensure that clinicians are aware of cultural variations. Cultural consonance is related to the observations that culture is both in the individual and in the group the individual belongs to. Culture congruity is the process of understanding whether the individual living with other members of their culture carry similar dimensions of culture. The likelihood of culture conflict within the same culture and across the majority culture needs to be taken into account while assessing individuals. Personality factors will also play a role in the development of various psychiatric disorders, as will cultural dimensions and cultures within which individuals live, work, play, and age in.

Cultural Consensus and Cultural Consonance: Advancing a Cognitive Theory of Culture

Theoretical and methodological developments guided by a cognitive theory of culture have advanced our understanding of cultural processes over the past 40 years. The theoretical construct of cultural models, developed in the 1970s, provided a more precise definition of culture. The cultural consensus model, introduced in 1986, enabled investigators to verify and analyze the degree to which culture was shared and how it was distributed. Subsequent advances in the cultural consensus model, especially the analysis of residual agreement, provided a more complete approach to describing intracultural diversity. Finally, the concept and measurement of cultural consonance, introduced in 1996, demonstrated how shared cultural models link to social practice. This article provides a brief overview of these trends in the study of culture, with an emphasis on how this theory and these methods have been applied in research.

Considering Cultural Consonance in Trustworthiness of Online Hotel Reviews among Generation Y for Sustainable Tourism: An Extended TAM Model

This study aims to predict Generation Y customers’ acceptance of user-generated content (UGC) websites by integrating an extended technology acceptance model (TAM), trustworthiness of online reviews, and cultural consensus and cultural consonance theory. To collect data, a free listing method was first used to recognize our ad hoc domain, i.e., the factors that determine the trustworthiness of online hotel reviews among Generation Y in South Korea, from an emic perspective. Based on the free listing results from 39 individuals, an online survey was conducted with 273 samples using a self-administered questionnaire. Cultural consensus analysis was conducted to determine whether there is a shared cultural model in trustworthiness factors among participants, and cultural consonance values were calculated. Then, a structural equation modeling technique was used to estimate how the proposed model explains the collected data. Results indicate that an agreed-upon cultural model of trustworthiness of online hotel reviews exists among sample members. Cultural consonance of trustworthiness was found to constitute a significant antecedent of perceived ease of use and attitude towards websites in the extended TAM model. This study can contribute to predict Generation Y customers’ acceptance of UGC websites and offer meaningful implications for sustainable tourism management, particularly when cultural variables are considered.