International relating
Shinobu Kitayama et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior research suggests that cultural groups vary on an overarching dimension of independent versus interdependent social orientation, with European Americans being more independent, or less interdependent, than Asians. Drawing on recent evidence suggesting that the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) plays a role in modulating cultural learning, we predicted that carriers of DRD4 polymorphisms linked to increased dopamine signaling (7- or 2-repeat alleles) would show higher levels of culturally dominant social orientations, compared with noncarriers. European Americans and Asian-born Asians (total N = 398) reported their social orientation on multiple scales. They were also genotyped for DRD4. As in earlier work, European Americans were more independent, and Asian-born Asians more interdependent. This cultural difference was significantly more pronounced for carriers of the 7- or 2-repeat alleles than for noncarriers. Indeed, no cultural difference was apparent among the noncarriers. Implications for potential coevolution of genes and culture are discussed.
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Cross-Cultural Comparison of Nonverbal Cues in Emoticons on Twitter: Evidence from Big Data Analysis
Jaram Park, Young Min Baek & Meeyoung Cha
Journal of Communication, April 2014, Pages 333–354
Abstract:
Relying on Gudykunst's cultural variability in communication (CVC) framework and culture-specific facial expressions of emotion, we examined how people's use of emoticons varies cross-culturally. By merging emoticon usage patterns on Twitter with Hofstede's national culture scores and national indicators across 78 countries, this study found that people within individualistic cultures favor horizontal and mouth-oriented emoticons like :), while those within collectivistic cultures favor vertical and eye-oriented emoticons like ^_^. Our study serves to demonstrate how recent big data-driven approaches can be used to test research hypotheses in cross-cultural communication effectively from the methodological triangulation perspective. Implications and limitations regarding the findings of this study are also discussed.
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Nathalia Gjersoe et al.
PLoS ONE, March 2014
Abstract:
The current studies examine how valuation of authentic items varies as a function of culture. We find that U.S. respondents value authentic items associated with individual persons (a sweater or an artwork) more than Indian respondents, but that both cultures value authentic objects not associated with persons (a dinosaur bone or a moon rock) equally. These differences cannot be attributed to more general cultural differences in the value assigned to authenticity. Rather, the results support the hypothesis that individualistic cultures place a greater value on objects associated with unique persons and in so doing, offer the first evidence for how valuation of certain authentic items may vary cross-culturally.
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Gun Culture: Mapping a Peculiar Preference for Firearms in the Commission of Suicide
Ryan Brown, Mikiko Imura & Lindsey Osterman
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, March/April 2014, Pages 164-175
Abstract:
Research has shown how honor cultures promote aggression against others (e.g., homicide) and the self (e.g., suicide). Two studies examine the connection between honor and a predilection for guns in the commission of suicide. Study 1 shows that Whites living in honor states are especially likely to use guns to commit suicide, controlling for gun accessibility. Study 2 reveals that a “gun access gap” in honor states — a positive difference between the proportion of all suicides that involve a gun and the gun ownership rate — predicts outcomes linked previously to honor cultures: homicides and accidental deaths.
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How People React to Social-Psychological Accounts of Wrongdoing: The Moderating Effects of Culture
Ying Tang, Leonard Newman & Lihui Huang
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
While social-psychological research has afforded much insight into the causes of human behavior, its emphasis on “the power of the situation” has been met with resistance from laypeople. Previous research found that American participants, when provided with different accounts of wrongdoing, were comfortable endorsing dispositional explanations of the behavior, but suspected that psychologists were exonerating wrongdoers when they were provided with situational explanations. The current study extends this research by examining the moderating effect of culture on laypeople’s perceptions of different explanations of wrongdoing. Chinese and American participants read about two hypothetical studies about wrongdoing and learned that either situational factors or personality variables seemed to account for the behavior. They then made responsibility attributions for the wrongdoer from both their own perspective and from what they perceived was the psychologists’ perspective. When given dispositional explanations, both Chinese and Americans reported consistency between their own and what they perceived to be the psychologists’ perspectives. However, when given situational explanations, although Chinese participants again reported consistency between their own and the psychologists’ perspectives, American participants thought the psychologists were exonerating the wrongdoer. These findings shed light on why social-psychological research sometimes faces skepticism and on cross-cultural variations in how people explain human behaviors. Practical implications of the study include a reminder that when social psychologists package their messages, they should take into account the biases of different targeted audiences.
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Characterizing the Time-Perspective of Nations with Search Engine Query Data
Takao Noguchi et al.
PLoS ONE, April 2014
Abstract:
Vast quantities of data on human behavior are being created by our everyday internet usage. Building upon a recent study by Preis, Moat, Stanley, and Bishop (2012), we used search engine query data to construct measures of the time-perspective of nations, and tested these measures against per-capita gross domestic product (GDP). The results indicate that nations with higher per-capita GDP are more focused on the future and less on the past, and that when these nations do focus on the past, it is more likely to be the distant past. These results demonstrate the viability of using nation-level data to build psychological constructs.
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Cultural differences in hedonic emotion regulation after a negative event
Yuri Miyamoto, Xiaoming Ma & Amelia Petermann
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Beliefs about emotions can influence how people regulate their emotions. The present research examined whether Eastern dialectical beliefs about negative emotions lead to cultural differences in how people regulate their emotions after experiencing a negative event. We hypothesized that, because of dialectical beliefs about negative emotions prevalent in Eastern culture, Easterners are less motivated than Westerners to engage in hedonic emotion regulation — up-regulation of positive emotions and down-regulation of negative emotions. By assessing online reactions to a recent negative event, Study 1 found that European Americans are more motivated to engage in hedonic emotion regulation. Furthermore, consistent with the reported motivation to regulate emotion hedonically, European Americans show a steeper decline in negative emotions 1 day later than do Asians. By examining retrospective memory of reactions to a past negative event, Study 2 further showed that cultural differences in hedonic emotion regulation are mediated by cultural differences in dialectical beliefs about motivational and cognitive utility of negative emotions, but not by personal deservingness or self-efficacy beliefs. These findings demonstrate the role of cultural beliefs in shaping emotion regulation and emotional experiences.
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Loris Vezzali et al.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
Imagined intergroup contact (Crisp & Turner, 2009) is a new cognitive intervention designed to improve intergroup relations. In two studies, we examined whether it could also facilitate intercultural communication among international students and host country natives engaged in a college exchange program. In Study 1, international students who had recently arrived in Italy and participated in an imagined contact session displayed increased self-disclosure toward, and improved evaluation of, host country natives. In Study 2, Italian students mentally simulated positive contact with an unknown native from the host country prior to leaving for the exchange. Results from an online questionnaire administered on their return (on average, more than 7 months after the imagery task) revealed that participants who imagined contact reported spending more time with natives during the stay and enhanced outgroup evaluation, via reduced intergroup anxiety. Implications for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of college student exchange programs are discussed.
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Hidde Bekhuis, Marcel Lubbers & Wout Ultee
European Sociological Review, April 2014, Pages 180-193
Abstract:
Relying on the top 100 pop songs from year-end charts, we coded more than 30,000 chart positions based on the country of origin of the artist and the language of performance, in nine Western countries. We estimated cross-national differences and trends since 1973, testing expectations on globalization as has been reviewed in the literature, where Americanization/Westernization, diversification, nationalization, and glocalization have been distinguished. Since the late 1980s, there has been an upward trend in the popularity of domestic artists, both when they perform in English or in their native language. Levels of globalization turn out to be positively related to the popularity of domestic artists singing in English. We also found evidence that when public opinion shows more pride in the nation, the chart success of artists performing in the domestic language is greater.
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Social Trust Fosters an Ability to Help Those in Need: Jewish Refugees in the Nazi Era
Christian Bjørnskov
Political Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
An ignored aspect of efforts to save Jewish citizens in occupied Europe during the Second World War is that large-scale rescue arguably constitutes a collective action problem. Due to Nazi occupation, no formal institutions contributed to solving this problem. Exploring the differences in rescue rates across all 30 occupied countries shows that the informal institution of social trust contributed to solving the collective action problem and strongly affected rescue rates.
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Sukyong Seo, Sukyung Chung & Martha Shumway
Quality of Life Research, March 2014, Pages 593-600
Purpose: To examine the influence of translation when measuring and comparing self-rated health (SRH) measured with five response categories (excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor), across racial/ethnic groups.
Methods: Using data from the California Health Interview Survey, which were administered in five languages, we analyzed variations in the five-category SRH across five racial/ethnic groups: non-Hispanic white, Latino, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean. Logistic regression was used to estimate independent effects of race/ethnicity, culture, and translation on SRH, after controlling for risk factors and other measures of health status.
Results: Latinos, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Koreans were less likely than non-Hispanic whites to rate their health as excellent or very good and more likely to rate it as good, fair, or poor. This racial/ethnic difference diminished when adjusting for acculturation. Independently of race/ethnicity, respondents using non-English surveys were less likely to answer excellent (OR = 0.24–0.55) and very good (OR = 0.30–0.34) and were more likely to answer fair (OR = 2.48–4.10) or poor (OR = 2.87–3.51), even after controlling for other measures of SRH.
Conclusions: Responses to the five-category SRH question depend on interview language. When responding in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese, respondents are more likely to choose a lower level SRH category, “fair” in particular. If each SRH category measured in different languages is treated as equivalent, racial/ethnic disparities in SRH among Latinos and Asian subgroups, as compared to non-Hispanic whites, may be exaggerated.
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Cultural Differences in Victory Signals of Triumph
Hyisung Hwang & David Matsumoto
Cross-Cultural Research, May 2014, Pages 177-191
Abstract:
A recent study reported that winners in agonistic competition displayed a victory signal that might be related to power and dominance, but losers did not. We explored cultural differences in this victory expression by reanalyzing data from that study on the country level, examining the association between country means in Olympic judo players’ first expressions at the moment of winning or losing a medal and Hofstede’s Power Distance (PD) dimension. Country-level PD was correlated with winners’ victory signals but not with those of losers, even when country-level Individualism-Collectivism was controlled. These findings indicated that hierarchical and dominant cultures may endorse more expressivity of triumph in competitive contexts.
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Emotional fit with culture: A predictor of individual differences in relational well-being
Jozefien De Leersnyder et al.
Emotion, April 2014, Pages 241-245
Abstract:
There is increasing evidence for emotional fit in couples and groups, but also within cultures. In the current research, we investigated the consequences of emotional fit at the cultural level. Given that emotions reflect people’s view on the world, and that shared views are associated with good social relationships, we expected that an individual’s fit to the average cultural patterns of emotion would be associated with relational well-being. Using an implicit measure of cultural fit of emotions, we found across 3 different cultural contexts (United States, Belgium, and Korea) that (1) individuals’ emotional fit is associated with their level of relational well-being, and that (2) the link between emotional fit and relational well-being is particularly strong when emotional fit is measured for situations pertaining to relationships (rather than for situations that are self-focused). Together, the current studies suggest that people may benefit from emotionally “fitting in” to their culture.
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Marriage, education and assortative mating in Latin America
Ina Ganguli, Ricardo Hausmann & Martina Viarengo
Applied Economics Letters, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this article, we establish facts related to marriage and education in Latin American countries. Using census data from IPUMS International, we show how marriage and assortative mating patterns have changed from 1980 to 2000 and how the patterns in Latin America compare to the United States. We find that in Latin American countries, highly educated individuals are less likely to be married than the less educated, and the pattern is stronger for women. We also show that while it has been increasing over time, there is less positive assortative mating in Latin America than in the United States.
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Yanli Huang, Chi-Shing Tse & Kit Cho
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Conceptual Metaphor Theory (e.g., Lakoff & Johnson) suggests that people represent abstract concepts in terms of concrete concepts via metaphoric association. Participants in the United States (US) showed that cardinal direction (north/south) is metaphorically associated with valence (positive/negative), as reflected by their estimate for where a person with high or low socioeconomic status (SES) lives in a fictional city or their own living preference (Meier, Moller, Chen, & Riemer-Peltz). The present study tested whether the cardinal direction–valence metaphoric association could be moderated by cultural differences. Although US participants believed that high-SES and low-SES individuals were more likely to live in the northern and southern part of the city, respectively, the reverse was so for Hong Kong (HK) participants (Study 1). When asked where they themselves would like to live, HK participants preferred to live in a southern area, whereas US participants showed no preference (Studies 2 and 3). These findings demonstrate cultural differences in metaphoric associations between cardinal direction and valence for HK and US participants.
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Speaking of Corporate Social Responsibility
Hao Liang et al.
Harvard Working Paper, March 2014
Abstract:
We argue that the language spoken by corporate decision makers influences their firms’ social responsibility and sustainability practices. Linguists suggest that obligatory future-time-reference (FTR) in a language reduces the psychological importance of the future. Prior research has shown that speakers of strong FTR languages (such as English, French, and Spanish) exhibit less future-oriented behavior (Chen, 2013). Yet, research has not established how this mechanism may affect the future-oriented activities of corporations. We theorize that companies with strong-FTR languages as their official/working language would have less of a future orientation and so perform worse in future-oriented activities such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) compared to those in weak-FTR language environments. Examining thousands of global companies across 59 countries from 1999-2011, we find support for our theory, and further that the negative association between FTR and CSR performance is weaker for firms that have greater exposure to diverse global languages as a result of (a) being headquartered in countries with higher degree of globalization, (b) having a higher degree of internationalization, and (c) having a CEO with more international experience. Our results suggest that language use by corporations is a key cultural variable that is a strong predictor of CSR and sustainability.
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Adriana Manago
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study tests the hypothesis that societal change from subsistence agriculture to a market economy with higher levels of formal schooling leads to an increase in individualistic values that guide human development. Values relating to adolescent development and the transition to adulthood were compared across three generations of women in 18 families in the Maya community of Zinacantán in southern Mexico. Grandmothers grew up in Zinacantán when it was a farming community; mothers grew up during the introduction of commerce in the late 1970s and 1980s; daughters are now experiencing adolescence with an opportunity to attend high school in their community. Comparisons were also conducted between 40 female and male adolescents in high school and a matched sample of 40 adolescents who discontinued school after elementary. Values were measured using eight ethnographically derived social dilemmas about adolescent relationships with parents and peers, work and family gender roles, and sexuality and partnering. One character in the dilemmas advocates for interdependent values; a second character advocates for independent values. High school adolescents were more likely to endorse characters articulating independent values than non–high school adolescents, mothers, and grandmothers. Involvement in a market economy was also associated with higher levels of independent value endorsement in the mother and grandmother generations. Results suggest that the introduction of commerce drove value changes between grandmother and mother generations, and now schooling drives change. Qualitative examples of participants’ responses also illustrate how families negotiate shifting values.
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Yuji Ogihara & Yukiko Uchida
Frontiers in Psychology, March 2014
Abstract:
We examined the negative effects of individualism in an East Asian culture. Although individualistic systems decrease interpersonal relationships through competition, individualistic values have prevailed in European American cultures. One reason is because individuals could overcome negativity by actively constructing interpersonal relationships. In contrast, people in East Asian cultures do not have such strategies to overcome the negative impact of individualistic systems, leading to decreased well-being. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the relationship between individualistic values, number of close friends, and subjective well-being (SWB). Study 1 indicated that individualistic values were negatively related with the number of close friends and SWB for Japanese college students but not for American college students. Moreover, Study 2 showed that even in an individualistic workplace in Japan, individualistic values were negatively related with the number of close friends and SWB. We discuss how cultural change toward increasing individualism might affect interpersonal relationships and well-being.
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Martin Hagger, Panagiotis Rentzelas & Severine Koch
Small Group Research, April 2014, Pages 217-228
Abstract:
Research has shown that people in group contexts prefer group members who display collectivist as opposed to individualist behavior, but that preference is attenuated when the prevailing group norm prescribes individualism. The present study investigated this effect in people from a predominantly individualist or collectivist cultural background. Due to their greater sensitivity to contextual social cues, individuals from a collectivist background were expected to give more polarized evaluations of group members than individuals from an individualist background. Group member evaluations were gathered in samples from a collectivist and an individualist background, manipulating the prevailing group norm (individualist or collectivist) and the behavior of a hypothetical group member (individualist or collectivist). The previously observed attenuation effect in which people provided more positive evaluations of individualist behavior under an individualist, as opposed to a collectivist, group norm was found only in participants from a collectivist cultural background. Implications of our findings and the absence of an attenuation effect in the individualist sample are discussed.
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Rosalie Tung, Chris Baumann & Hamin Hamin
International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, April 2014, Pages 85-104
Abstract:
This study examines the interplay between ethnicity, religious affiliation, and income levels to understand differences in managing money. Asset allocation decisions among 730 Caucasian and ethnic Chinese were examined. Respondents in Australia, Canada, and China revealed their monetary decisions in an online survey. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine differences and interaction effects between ethnic, religious, and income groups. The study found that for the higher-income respondents, asset allocation decisions converged despite differences in ethnic and religious background. In the lower-income segment, asset allocation decisions varied along ethnic lines. These differences were further compounded by their religious background. The implications of this study of management are twofold: the high-income group can be treated as one segment, for example, from the international marketing segmentation perspective. On the other hand, respondents in the low-income bracket diverged in their investment strategies on the basis of ethnicity and religion. As such, they ought to be treated separately according to their values.
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Hollywood in the world market – evidence from Australia in the mid-1930s
John Sedgwick, Michael Pokorny & Peter Miskell
Business History, forthcoming
Abstract:
By the mid-1930s the major Hollywood studios had developed extensive networks of distribution subsidiaries across five continents. This article focuses on the operation of American film distributors in Australia – one of Hollywood's largest foreign markets. Drawing on two unique primary datasets, the article compares and investigates film distribution in Sydney's first-run and suburban-run markets. It finds that the subsidiaries of US film companies faced a greater liability of foreignness in the city centre market than in the suburban one. Our data supports the argument that film audiences in local or suburban cinema markets were more receptive to Hollywood entertainment than those in metropolitan centres.
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Language Universals Engage Broca's Area
Iris Berent et al.
PLoS ONE, April 2014
Abstract:
It is well known that natural languages share certain aspects of their design. For example, across languages, syllables like blif are preferred to lbif. But whether language universals are myths or mentally active constraints — linguistic or otherwise — remains controversial. To address this question, we used fMRI to investigate brain response to four syllable types, arrayed on their linguistic well-formedness (e.g., blif≻bnif≻bdif≻lbif, where ≻ indicates preference). Results showed that syllable structure monotonically modulated hemodynamic response in Broca's area, and its pattern mirrored participants' behavioral preferences. In contrast, ill-formed syllables did not systematically tax sensorimotor regions — while such syllables engaged primary auditory cortex, they tended to deactivate (rather than engage) articulatory motor regions. The convergence between the cross-linguistic preferences and English participants' hemodynamic and behavioral responses is remarkable given that most of these syllables are unattested in their language. We conclude that human brains encode broad restrictions on syllable structure.
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Maria Suprawati, Florencia Anggoro & Danuta Bukatko
Frontiers in Psychology, March 2014
Abstract:
The focus of the present study is on the ways in which storybooks communicate cultural ideals about achievement orientation, and in particular, the role of effort, perseverance, and hard work in fostering successful outcomes. Sixty preschool children's books from Indonesia, Japan, and the United States (20 from each country) were examined for the presence of achievement-oriented themes. These countries were chosen due to previously documented cultural differences in models of learning and individualist/collectivist tendencies that could have some bearing on achievement outcomes. Texts were assessed for (1) the frequency with which “challenge events” appeared in the narratives, (2) whether these events derived from sources internal or external to the main character, and (3) whether solutions relied on the main character individually or included the assistance of others. Results show that Japanese storybooks contained significantly more challenge events than Indonesian storybooks. Compared with Japanese storybooks, American storybooks tended to include a greater proportion of challenges derived from internal qualities of the main character as opposed to external factors. Compared with American storybooks, Japanese storybooks contained a significantly greater proportion of challenges that were solved with individual efforts as opposed to efforts involving the assistance of others. Findings from this study contribute to our understanding of how storybook contexts can provide a rich source of information for young children learning about culturally valued qualities and behaviors related to achievement.