title: Influences on the Knowledge and Beliefs of Ordinary People about Developmental Hierarchies.
abstract: This paper is motivated by the idea that development and developmental hierarchies have been constructed and embraced for centuries by scholars and policy makers, and have been disseminated among ordinary people. Recent research shows that most people have constructions of development hierarchies that are similar across countries. In this paper, we extend this research by examining how basic social factors influence ordinary people´s beliefs about development and developmental hierarchies in six countries: Argentina, China, Egypt, Iran, Nepal and the United States. Results show that the understanding and perception of developmental hierarchies vary by gender and education. These results are important because they show how distinct groups of people have differential access to information or ideas.
authors.affiliation: CENEP-CONICET, Argentina.
authors.forename: Georgina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Binstock
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Arland
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thornton
authors.affiliation: University of Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Abbasi-Shavazi
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Dirgha
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ghimire
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Emory University, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Yount
keywords: Developmental worldviews; North Africa; South and East Asia; South and North America; comparative studies; development hierarchies