Cultural Adaptation in Extreme and Unusual Environments

When psychologists study the role of the environment in shaping culture, they rarely consider the extreme and unusual environments (EUEs) in which some humans live and work. From space to Antarctica to aircraft carriers, EUEs are settings in which survival depends upon deliberate preparation, specialized technology, and sustained coordination. These environments offer a unique context for examining how cultural systems emerge in response to recurrent ecological and social demands. In this review, I argue that three cultural features—interdependence, tightness, and hierarchy—may be especially adaptive in EUEs. Drawing on cultural psychology, evolutionary theory, anthropology, and research on teams in extreme settings, I describe how cultural practices and values can develop as responses to environmental demands and opportunities. Specifically, I outline how interdependence may facilitate task specialization, tightness may reduce costly errors under conditions of severe threat, and hierarchy may support rapid coordination when decisions must be made under time pressure. However, each of these adaptations may carry costs, such as the enforcement of problematic norms, which must be considered. Though extreme and unusual, EUEs offer informative case studies of how environmental demands can shape cultural orientations and a setting for testing the scope of cultural theories.