Gregg Henrequies on cultural bubbles

Whereas it is usually pretty easy to see outside your cultural bubble at the micro and intermediate levels, to step outside your cultural bubble at the macro level you need to make deliberate efforts. 

One of the best and most reliable ways to get perspective on your cultural bubble is to interact with people who live in very different bubbles. For example, a couple of years ago, I traveled to Costa Rica for a couple of weeks. In the context of a conversation with a Costa Rican, I identified as being an American. The response I received was, “In the Western Hemisphere, we are all from America. You are from the United States.” In my bubble, America and the United States are essentially synonymous. From the vantage point of someone in Costa Rica, that is reflective of an insensitive nationalistic bias that is perceived by many to be prominent feature of folks from the United States.

~ Gregg Henriques, Ph.D., "Cultural Bubbles in the Era of Globalization," Psychology Today, June 6, 2014