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Iceberg Model

The iceberg model divides cultural knowledge into surface, unspoken, and unconscious rules. Surface rules are the most visible aspects of a culture, like political systems or currency. Unspoken rules are less obvious, such as etiquette or appropriate forms of address. Unconscious rules are deep-seated cultural beliefs and behaviors that people follow without realizing, like notions of time or intensity of speaking. The iceberg model helps illustrate the complexity of culture by categorizing different levels of cultural knowledge.

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69 views7 pages

Iceberg Model

The iceberg model divides cultural knowledge into surface, unspoken, and unconscious rules. Surface rules are the most visible aspects of a culture, like political systems or currency. Unspoken rules are less obvious, such as etiquette or appropriate forms of address. Unconscious rules are deep-seated cultural beliefs and behaviors that people follow without realizing, like notions of time or intensity of speaking. The iceberg model helps illustrate the complexity of culture by categorizing different levels of cultural knowledge.

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hessadelina
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The iceberg model (Byrne, 2010)

• Understanding people and culture: An important factor in understanding


audiences is their culture. It can help you learn a lot about people and why they
do some of the things they do, and it can help explain those instances when
people do not behave in ways which you would expect. With an understanding of
the source and target cultures, you will be better able to work around their
idiosyncrasies. There are various definitions of culture but they usually share a
common theme in the idea of a shared set of attitudes, values, goals, beliefs and
practices that characterize a particular group of people and which evolves over
time. Bates & Plog (1990:7) define it as “the system of shared beliefs, customs,
behaviours, and artefacts that members of a society use to cope with the world
and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation
through learning.” This is quite a lot of information to try to learn. The “Iceberg
Model” was developed in 1975 by Selfridge and Sokolik as a way of illustrating the
complexity of culture and categorizing it. It divides cultural knowledge into
surface, unspoken and unconscious rules.
The iceberg model
• Surface rules are the most visible and
obvious traits of a culture and they
include such things as political,
economic, social, religious,
educational, linguistic and technical
factors, and practical manifestations
such as currency, numbers, date and
time formats etc.
• Unspoken rules are less obvious and
include things like etiquette,
appropriate forms of address, tipping
etc.
• Unconscious rules are more deep-
seated elements of a culture’s
collective psyche which people do or
observe without realizing it, for
example, dependence on context,
notions of time and distance, rate
and intensity of speaking etc.
Surface rules
• Hugs, not kisses
• Young people wear athleisure
• Americans love big SUVs and pickup trucks
• People eat three meals a day, and snack in between
• It’s common to walk around in public holding a disposable drink container such as Starbucks or
a soft drink • Americans are patriotic and
religious (but less and less so)
• Americans love sports
• Lots of open space
Unspoken rules
• The bigger your house/car, the more successful you
are
• Smile and shake hands when you meet someone (and
if you see them later, smile and wave)
• Always leave a tip when eating out
• To run for office, it helps to have traditional values
(Judeo-Christian, married with kids)
• It’s worth paying more than $100k for college tuition,
even if it means going into debt
• Always use people’s surnames when using a title
(Mrs. Jones)
• Teachers with PhDs are called “doctor” (Dr. Jones)
Unconscious rules
• Personal freedom is more important than socialism
• Honesty is paramount
• Speak loudly to assert your dominance
• Don’t stand too close to people
• You get what you deserve; hard work pays off
• The USA is the object of the world’s envy
• Americans like to feel heroic
• Time is not to be wasted

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