New Publication from WaC Lab Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B

We are proud to announce that the WaC Lab has published a new article in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. Titled “Decision-making preferences for intuition, deliberation, friends or crowds in independent and interdependent societies,” the study represents one of the broadest cross-cultural investigations into decision-making strategies to date.

Involving over 3,500 participants from 12 countries, including remote Indigenous communities, the research examined how individuals weigh four decision-making approaches: personal intuition, private deliberation, friends’ advice, and crowd wisdom.

Key findings include:

Across all societies, self-reliant strategies (intuition or deliberation) were most often favored and considered the wisest choice.

Cultural differences modulated—but did not overturn—this pattern: in societies valuing independence, self-reliance was especially strong; in more interdependent cultures, there was relatively greater openness to advice, though introspection still dominated.

This work challenges the traditional view that collectivist cultures primarily depend on external input, and suggests a universal tendency toward internal reflection when making decisions.