Relational mobility is a

sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

variable that represents how much freedom individuals have to choose which persons to have relationships with, including friendships, working relationships, and romantic partnerships in a given society. Societies with low relational mobility have less flexible interpersonal networks. People form relationships based on circumstance rather than active choice. In these societies, relationships are more stable and guaranteed, while there are fewer opportunities to leave unsatisfying relationships and find new ones.

Group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

memberships tend to be fixed, and individuals have less freedom to select or change these relationships even if they wished to. In contrast, societies with high relational mobility give people choice and freedom to select or leave interpersonal relationships based on their personal preferences. Such relationships are based on mutual agreement and are not guaranteed to last. Individuals have many opportunities to meet new people and to choose whom they interact with or which groups they belong to in such societies. Relational mobility is conceived as a socioecological factor, which means that it depends on the social and natural environment. The theory of relational mobility has attracted increased interest since the early 2000's because it has been found to explain important

cross-cultural Cross-cultural may refer to * cross-cultural studies, a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis * cross-cultural communication, a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate *any of va ...

differences in people's behavior and way of thinking.

The relational mobility scale

The relational mobility scale is a

sociometric Sociometry is a quantitative method for measuring social relationships. It was developed by psychotherapist Jacob L. Moreno and Helen Hall Jennings in their studies of the relationship between social structures and psychological well-being, and us ...

scale used for measuring relational mobility in population surveys. This scale is based on a series of questions asking people not about their own situation, but the situation of people around them such as friendship groups, hobby groups, sports teams, and companies. The questions are probing to what degree these people are able to choose the people whom they interact with in their daily life, according to their own preferences.

Geographic differences

Relational mobility is low in cultures with subsistence styles that put people in tight relationships with reciprocal duties such as

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

that requires coordination of labor. The growing of

paddy rice A paddy field is a flooded field of arable land used for growing semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in southern China, associated with pre-Au ...

, in particular, requires tight coordination of labor and

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been dev ...

. The lowest level of relational mobility is found in

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

n countries where rice farming is a prevailing means of subsistence. A comparative study has found significant differences in ways of thinking between areas in China dominated by rice farming and areas dominated by

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeolog ...

farming. This difference could not be explained well by other theories. On the opposite side of the spectrum is

nomadic herding Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal s ...

. Herders move frequently, meaning that they have fewer stable, long-term relationships and more opportunities to form and break relationships. Studies have shown that herding cultures emphasize more individual

decision making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either ra ...

while nearby farming and fishing cultures emphasize harmonious social interdependence and holistic thinking. A large cross-cultural study has found that relational mobility is lowest in Each Asian countries where rice farming is common. The relational mobility is higher in industrialized European countries and

English-speaking countries The following is a list of English-speaking population by country, including information on both native speakers and second-language speakers. List * The European Union is a supranational union composed of 27 member states. The total ...

, while it is highest in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

n countries. This study found a strong correlation between relational mobility and subsistence style, and a somewhat weaker correlation with environmental threats that require

group cohesion Group cohesiveness (also called group cohesion and social cohesion) arises when bonds link members of a social group to one another and to the group as a whole. Although cohesion is a multi-faceted process, it can be broken down into four main co ...

and cooperation.

Consequences for people's behavior and way of thinking

People in cultures with low relational mobility are careful to avoid conflicts and disagreements in order to maintain harmony in the social groups that they cannot escape. They are careful not to offend others in order to avoid a bad

reputation The reputation of a social entity (a person, a social group, an organization, or a place) is an opinion about that entity typically as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance. Reputation is a ubiquitou ...

. Thus, the cultural preference for

conformity Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others. People often cho ...

, which is common in East Asian cultures, is actually a strategy to avoid bad reputation and

social exclusion Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...

. People in these cultures are more sensitive to

social rejection Social rejection occurs when an individual is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. The topic includes ''interpersonal rejection'' (or peer rejection), ''romantic rejection'' and ''familial estrangement''. A per ...

and more likely to feel

ashamed Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...

towards their friends (but not towards strangers) in order to mitigate information that may damage their reputation. The degree of relational mobility is influencing people's way of thinking. A low relational mobility is leading to cognitive tendencies that theorists call holistic thinking, while high relational mobility is associated with analytic thinking. This difference in

social cognition Social cognition is a sub-topic of various branches of psychology that focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in social interacti ...

is defined as a difference in how people attribute their own and others’ behavior to either internal causes (the actors’

dispositions A disposition is a quality of character, a habit, a preparation, a state of readiness, or a tendency to act in a specified way. The terms dispositional belief and occurrent belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that s ...

) or external causes (situational factors). Individuals’ need to coordinate their actions and avoid conflict makes salient the influence of external forces, including powerful others in the environment, on their own situation. An external

locus of control Locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces (beyond their influence), have control over the outcome of events in their lives. The concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and has since ...

is typical of cultures with low relational mobility. People pay more attention to situational factors and to chance,

fate Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although ofte ...

, and

luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...

than to individual dispositions in these cultures. In contrast, high relational mobility is associated with an internal locus of control with more focus on the individual and less focus on the

social environment The social environment, social context, sociocultural context or milieu refers to the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops. It includes the culture that the individual was educate ...

. Social relationships and group memberships are more easily formed and terminated in cultures with high relational mobility. Interpersonal connections are here based on mutual convenience and thus less stable and reliable. Less importance is placed on

job security Job security is the probability that an individual will keep their job; a job with a high level of security is such that a person with the job would have a small chance of losing it. Many factors threaten job security: globalization, outsourcing ...

, while also

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

is more common and more accepted. People invest more effort in attracting, forming, and maintaining social bonds where relationships cannot be taken for granted. People exhibit more

self-enhancement Self-enhancement is a type of motivation that works to make people feel good about themselves and to maintain self-esteem. This motive becomes especially prominent in situations of threat, failure or blows to one's self-esteem. Self-enhancement inv ...

behavior and higher

self-esteem Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie (2007) d ...

here in order to advertise their value as companions and to facilitate the forming of social bonds. People are more prone to develop personal

uniqueness Uniqueness is a state or condition wherein someone or something is unlike anything else in comparison, or is remarkable, or unusual. When used in relation to humans, it is often in relation to a person's personality, or some specific characterist ...

in high relational mobility societies in order to increase their value in the

market-like A market system (or market ecosystem) is any systematic process enabling many market players to offer and demand: helping buyers and sellers interact and make deals. It is not just the price mechanism but the entire system of regulation, quali ...

competition for social relationships.

Idiosyncratic An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person (though there are also other uses, see below). It can also mean an odd habit. The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be " quirk". Etymology The term "idiosyncr ...

behavior is less common in low relational mobility societies where it may lead to

ostracism Ostracism ( el, ὀστρακισμός, ''ostrakismos'') was an Athenian democracy, Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be exile, expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed ...

. People tend to invest more in maintaining friendships as well as romantic partnerships where relational mobility is high, because the stability of the bond cannot be taken for granted. This bonding behavior includes helping,

intimacy An intimate relationship is an interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Although an intimate relationship is commonly a sexual relationship, it may also be a non-sexual relationship involving family, friends, ...

, passion, and gift-giving. People even disclose personal information to friends in order to show their commitment to the relationship. There are different ways of dealing with uncertainty about the quality of a potential partner or collaborator. In low relational mobility societies such as Japan, firms often maintain long-term relations with loyal

partners Partner, Partners, The Partner, or, The Partners may refer to: Books * ''The Partner'' (Grisham novel), by John Grisham, 1997 * ''The Partner'' (Jenaro Prieto novel), 1928 * ''The Partners'' (book), a 1983 book by James B. Stewart * ''Partner'' (m ...

even if better deals with new partners could be obtained. Business strategies tend to be different in societies with higher relational mobility, such as North America, where new relationships are formed based on trust. There is higher

risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...

in new business relationships, but also more to gain by finding a potentially better business partner than one already has. In general, the level of interpersonal trust has been found to be higher in societies with high relational mobility, not only in business relations, but also in general

interpersonal relations The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in t ...

and on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...

Animal analogies

The theory of relational mobility has analogies in the

mating In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite- sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. '' Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually rep ...

behavior,

cooperation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal ...

behavior, and inter-species symbiosis among animals. It has been observed that such behavior is adjusted to the stability of the relationships, the degree of competition on the relationship "market", and the possibilities for cheating among a variety of species, including birds and insects.

External links

* Relational mobility website

References