Abstract: Over the years, in the field of psychology, researches of culture and culture difference have been based on values. In 2002, Leung and his colleagues developed a framework of generalized beliefs called social axioms, which gave a new approach to define culture. As a new psychological concept different from social attitude, values or personality traits, social axioms may be conceptualized as one’s social beliefs about oneself, the social and physical environment, or the spiritual world, and are in the form of an assertion about the relationship between two entities or concepts. Researchers conducted social axioms survey (SAS) in over 40 nations, and found that the psychometric property is satisfactory, moreover, SAS showed five dimensions worldwide: Social cynicism, Social complexity, Reward for application, Religiosity and Fate control. The researches of social axioms provide a different prospect for understanding culture difference as well as the relationship between psychological mechanism and behavioral tendencies, exploring a new research area for social psychology.

Key words: social axioms, belief, value, culture, behavior