Matosinhos, Porto, Portugal, July 2, 2025 (Lusa) - Academic Erin Meyer, author of the book ‘The Culture Map’, said on Wednesday that, on average, Portuguese people can tolerate 2.5 seconds of silence in a conversation before feeling uncomfortable, while other cultures can reach 10 seconds.
"If we compare Portugal with China, in Portugal we can comfortably endure silence for up to two and a half seconds in a conversation, and the same research has shown that in China people can go eight or even 10 seconds without feeling that something unusual is happening," Erin Meyer said today at the QSP Summit, at Exponor, in Matosinhos (Porto district).
Speaking at the opening session of the event at Exponor, the author of ‘The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business’ (2014) presented several examples of how cultural differences can affect relationships in the business world.
The professor at INSEAD in Paris illustrated that in some cultures, if you "remain silent for a few seconds, it is likely that you will interpret this silence as something negative, indicating anger or annoyance, but in others the same silence can be interpreted as something very positive", where someone may be a "good listener" or "thinking carefully".
According to a graph showing the results of her recent research, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, China, Finland and Indonesia are at the top of the list of cultures most comfortable with silence, while at the opposite end are countries such as Italy, the United States, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Portugal and Brazil.
In her presentation today, Erin Meyer also addressed different aspects of business culture in various countries, focusing mainly on how it varies in areas such as giving or receiving negative feedback, or how work meetings are conducted and their conclusions interpreted.
According to data presented by the author, countries with a business culture that tends to give negative feedback more directly are the Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Denmark, Poland and France.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, where negative feedback is given more indirectly, are countries such as Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Colombia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
As for work meetings, it is necessary to provide more context on conclusions and task implementation in countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Ethiopia, and less context in cultures such as those of the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada and New Zealand.
"In a low-context culture, when we communicate, we assume that we have a low level of reference points, knowledge and information," which favours "explicit, simple and clear" communication.
Conversely, in a high-context culture, "we assume that we have a broad set of shared references", where good communication is understood as being based on "nuances or being implicit", and also takes place through layers of understanding.
According to the author, when different cultures meet, there are different perceptions of what is interpreted and expected from meetings, which is automatically assumed by some according to the course of events and “reading the room”, but this is not the case in other cultures, where it is sometimes necessary to write down the conclusions.
The QSP Summit officially kicked off on Tuesday in Porto and continues until Thursday at Exponor, in Matosinhos. This year's theme is ‘The New Strategic Drivers’, proposing "reflection on the strategic drivers that are transforming organisations - from culture to technology, including strategy, people, communication, education, performance and even ethics".
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