Here, I expand a bit and look at how we are influenced by culture, the original, and ultimate, teacher. The traditions of cultural institutions are thousands of years old, and weighty.
Most cultural constructs are covert and hidden beneath a veneer of overt behaviors.
The issue has been likened to an iceberg - what we don't see is what's truly dangerous. An example, the concept of TIME and attitudes toward its role in life and society is arguably the single most divisive cultural construct. Frequently in these high context societies there is a time gap between an event and a response. People who come from societies where 'time is of the essence' assume that if nothing happens immediately, nothing is ever going to happen. Usually, this is far from the truth.