Does The Platinum Rule model apply to all cultures around the world?
Dr. Alessandra: The Platinum Rule model does span all cultures BUT it’s important to remember that people around the world are socialized into a certain preferred way of behaving. So that, for instance, in Italy, there are very few reserved people. It’s more commonplace for everyone to be interactive and somewhat dominant–Directors and Socializers are the tendencies that are more socially desirable in Italy. Question: How did you get involved in studying The Platinum Rule? Dr. Alessandra: I started my work/ research on the behavioral style concept when I was going through my doctoral program in 1974. My dissertation topic was, “Buyer-Seller Similarity as a Determinant of Success in Industrial Selling.” My work on The Platinum Rule was an outgrowth of the research of D. W. Merrill and R. H. Reid in Personal Styles and Effective Performance. But I discovered that the beginnings of the concept went back MUCH further than that. The earliest recorded efforts to explain our differences were
