Readit News* Region
* Socioeconomic status
* Invidual psychology
The strongest "ask culture" people I've seen are poor people with good self esteem who grew up in historically poor areas like the South and stayed there. These people have a natural sense of "we have to take care of each other", a long-term commitment to their community, and an automatic understanding that they have helped many others before and thus deserve help in return.
The strongest "guess culture" people I've seen are wealthy insecure people that have moved around a bunch. They are financially secure enough to not need help most of the time, and expect others to also take care of themselves. They don't have the kind of long-term roots that make reciprocity feel natural. At the same time, they do want connection and community, so they work hard to try to understand the implicit needs and desires of the other guess culture people around them so that they can be helpful.
I'm definitely very far onto the guess culture side, but I know that I would be healthier if I could be more ask culture.
Individual psychology definitely plays a huge role with me personally being on the far side of guess culture. I have pretty extreme social anxiety and the idea of asking someone for something fills me with dread every single time. Not because it shows weakness (I think), but because I don't want to impose on others. Asking someone I don't know for something is almost impossible. I can barely do it in a context where it's expected, like customer service.
I'm not wealthy, but I have moved around a bunch, especially as a child. I'd absolutely help out anyone who asked for it, but also try anticipate the needs of others.
I first saw this movie in the mid-90s, and it sparked a mild fascination with how cryptography (specifically, RSA) works, that arguably influenced my career path.
Fun fact: Leonard Adleman (the A in RSA) drafted the words and slides used for the lecture scene: https://molecularscience.usc.edu/sneakers/