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Literacy, Negotiable Fate, and Thinking Style Among Low Income Women in India

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Chi-yue Chiu

Nanyang Technological University, CYChiu{at}ntu.edu.sg

Madhubalan Viswanathan

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Few studies have examined how cultural models of agency and literacy are related to thinking styles. The present study fills this gap by examining these links among 180 low-income women with low to moderate levels of literacy. Among these women, those with lower literacy levels believed more strongly in negotiable fate—the belief that although one lacks direct control over one’s fate, one can negotiate control with it. More importantly, among the low-literate participants, the belief in negotiable fate was linked to a greater tendency to exhibit decontextualized judgment and rule-based categorization. This result suggests that thinking style may grow out of an adaptive process whereby people with limited resources negotiate control with the harsh environment they face. This result also highlights the theoretical contribution of a sociocultural perspective to thinking style.

Key Words: low literacy • poverty • fate belief • negotiable fate • thinking style

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 40, No. 5, 880-893 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0022022109339391


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