Frogs, Ponds, and Culture: Variations in Entry Decisions. Kaidi Wu, Stephen Garcia & Shirli Kopelman. Social Psychological and Personality Science, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550617706731
Abstract: Would you rather be the big frog in a small pond or the small frog in a big pond? In three studies, we demonstrate that the entry preference depends on culture. Study 1 found a higher big pond preference for East Asian, versus European American, students. Studies 2A and 2B replicated this big pond preference in behavioral intent across educational and organizational settings for Chinese, as compared to United States, working adults. Study 3 demonstrated cultural variation in frog–pond decisions was not explained by comparison processes that characterize postentry self-regard but rather by concerns for prestige. Together, findings highlight how a cultural lens informs psychological processes that shape entry decision-making.
Thursday, August 3, 2017
Egg White or Sun-Kissed: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Skin Color and Women’s Leisure Behavior
Egg White or Sun-Kissed: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Skin Color and Women’s Leisure Behavior. Hsin-Yu Chen et al. Sex Roles, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-017-0785-4
Abstract: The present study explores how culture-based meanings and values toward skin color, which are associated with women’s body image ideals and gender-role expectations, profoundly influence women’s leisure behaviors. Using in-depth interviews with East Asian, Asian American, and Euro-American women (n = 43), results revealed how leisure behaviors are tied to cultural perceptions of skin color. People from different cultural backgrounds construct meanings and values pertaining to skin color, including beauty-related standards, social class, gender roles, and lifestyles. Culture-based values, such as the preference for tanned skin among Euro-Americans and for lighter skin among East Asians, affect a wide range of daily behaviors. These behaviors include conscious as well as subtle daily decision-making regarding sun-seeking, sun-avoidance, and sun-protection behaviors; indoor versus outdoor leisure participation; and appearance modifications. The study’s results add knowledge to how perceptions and attitudes toward skin color and appearance manifest in women's daily behavior in general and leisure behavior in particular. In addition, the current study shows how individual behaviors reflect cultural meanings and values toward body image, specifically skin color, by emphasizing the links between cultural values and women’s day-to-day lives.
Keywords: Colorism, Body image, Cultural perceptions and values, Skin color, Daily behaviors, Leisure
Abstract: The present study explores how culture-based meanings and values toward skin color, which are associated with women’s body image ideals and gender-role expectations, profoundly influence women’s leisure behaviors. Using in-depth interviews with East Asian, Asian American, and Euro-American women (n = 43), results revealed how leisure behaviors are tied to cultural perceptions of skin color. People from different cultural backgrounds construct meanings and values pertaining to skin color, including beauty-related standards, social class, gender roles, and lifestyles. Culture-based values, such as the preference for tanned skin among Euro-Americans and for lighter skin among East Asians, affect a wide range of daily behaviors. These behaviors include conscious as well as subtle daily decision-making regarding sun-seeking, sun-avoidance, and sun-protection behaviors; indoor versus outdoor leisure participation; and appearance modifications. The study’s results add knowledge to how perceptions and attitudes toward skin color and appearance manifest in women's daily behavior in general and leisure behavior in particular. In addition, the current study shows how individual behaviors reflect cultural meanings and values toward body image, specifically skin color, by emphasizing the links between cultural values and women’s day-to-day lives.
Keywords: Colorism, Body image, Cultural perceptions and values, Skin color, Daily behaviors, Leisure
Neurocultural evidence that ideal affect match promotes giving
Neurocultural evidence that ideal affect match promotes giving. BoKyung Park et al. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, July 2017, Pages 1083-1096, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28379542
Abstract: Why do people give to strangers? We propose that people trust and give more to those whose emotional expressions match how they ideally want to feel (“ideal affect match”). European Americans and Koreans played multiple trials of the Dictator Game with recipients who varied in emotional expression (excited, calm), race (White, Asian) and sex (male, female). Consistent with their culture’s valued affect, European Americans trusted and gave more to excited than calm recipients, whereas Koreans trusted and gave more to calm than excited recipients. These findings held regardless of recipient race and sex. We then used fMRI to probe potential affective and mentalizing mechanisms. Increased activity in the nucleus accumbens (associated with reward anticipation) predicted giving, as did decreased activity in the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ; associated with reduced belief prediction error). Ideal affect match decreased rTPJ activity, suggesting that people may trust and give more to strangers whom they perceive to share their affective values.
Keywords: Culture; Dictator Game; Emotion; Giving; fMRI
Abstract: Why do people give to strangers? We propose that people trust and give more to those whose emotional expressions match how they ideally want to feel (“ideal affect match”). European Americans and Koreans played multiple trials of the Dictator Game with recipients who varied in emotional expression (excited, calm), race (White, Asian) and sex (male, female). Consistent with their culture’s valued affect, European Americans trusted and gave more to excited than calm recipients, whereas Koreans trusted and gave more to calm than excited recipients. These findings held regardless of recipient race and sex. We then used fMRI to probe potential affective and mentalizing mechanisms. Increased activity in the nucleus accumbens (associated with reward anticipation) predicted giving, as did decreased activity in the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ; associated with reduced belief prediction error). Ideal affect match decreased rTPJ activity, suggesting that people may trust and give more to strangers whom they perceive to share their affective values.
Keywords: Culture; Dictator Game; Emotion; Giving; fMRI
Mere Gifting: Liking a Gift More Because It Is Shared
Mere Gifting: Liking a Gift More Because It Is Shared. Evan Polman and Sam Maglio. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167217718525
Abstract: We investigated a type of mere similarity that describes owning the same item as someone else. Moreover, we examined this mere similarity in a gift-giving context, whereby givers gift something that they also buy for themselves (a behavior we call “companionizing”). Using a Heiderian account of balancing unit-sentiment relations, we tested whether gift recipients like gifts more when gifts are companionized. Akin to mere ownership, which describes people liking their possessions more merely because they own them, we tested a complementary prediction: whether people like their possessions more merely because others own them too. Thus, in a departure from previous work, we examined a type of similarity based on two people sharing the same material item. We find that this type of sharing causes gift recipients to like their gifts more, and feel closer to gift givers.
Abstract: We investigated a type of mere similarity that describes owning the same item as someone else. Moreover, we examined this mere similarity in a gift-giving context, whereby givers gift something that they also buy for themselves (a behavior we call “companionizing”). Using a Heiderian account of balancing unit-sentiment relations, we tested whether gift recipients like gifts more when gifts are companionized. Akin to mere ownership, which describes people liking their possessions more merely because they own them, we tested a complementary prediction: whether people like their possessions more merely because others own them too. Thus, in a departure from previous work, we examined a type of similarity based on two people sharing the same material item. We find that this type of sharing causes gift recipients to like their gifts more, and feel closer to gift givers.
Asian Americans Respond Less Favorably to Excitement (vs. Calm)-Focused Physicians Compared to European Americans
Asian Americans Respond Less Favorably to Excitement (vs. Calm)-Focused Physicians Compared to European Americans. Tamara Sims et al. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28714709
OBJECTIVES: Despite being considered a "model minority," Asian Americans report worse health care encounters than do European Americans. This may be due to affective mismatches between Asian American patients and their European American physicians. We predicted that because Asian Americans value excitement (vs. calm) less than European Americans, they will respond less favorably to excitement-focused (vs. calm) physicians.
METHOD: In Study 1, 198 European American, Chinese American, and Hong Kong Chinese community adults read a medical scenario and indicated their preference for an excitement-focused versus calm-focused physician. In Study 2, 81 European American and Asian American community college students listened to recommendations made by an excitement-focused or calm-focused physician in a video, and later attempted to recall the recommendations. In Study 3, 101 European American and Asian American middle-aged and older adults had multiple online encounters with an excitement-focused or calm-focused physician and then evaluated their physicians' trustworthiness, competence, and knowledge.
RESULTS: As predicted, Hong Kong Chinese preferred excitement-focused physicians less than European Americans, with Chinese Americans falling in the middle (Study 1). Similarly, Asian Americans remembered health information delivered by an excitement-focused physician less well than did European Americans (Study 2). Finally, Asian Americans evaluated an excitement-focused physician less positively than did European Americans (Study 3).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that while physicians who promote and emphasize excitement states may be effective with European Americans, they may be less so with Asian Americans and other ethnic minorities who value different affective states.
OBJECTIVES: Despite being considered a "model minority," Asian Americans report worse health care encounters than do European Americans. This may be due to affective mismatches between Asian American patients and their European American physicians. We predicted that because Asian Americans value excitement (vs. calm) less than European Americans, they will respond less favorably to excitement-focused (vs. calm) physicians.
METHOD: In Study 1, 198 European American, Chinese American, and Hong Kong Chinese community adults read a medical scenario and indicated their preference for an excitement-focused versus calm-focused physician. In Study 2, 81 European American and Asian American community college students listened to recommendations made by an excitement-focused or calm-focused physician in a video, and later attempted to recall the recommendations. In Study 3, 101 European American and Asian American middle-aged and older adults had multiple online encounters with an excitement-focused or calm-focused physician and then evaluated their physicians' trustworthiness, competence, and knowledge.
RESULTS: As predicted, Hong Kong Chinese preferred excitement-focused physicians less than European Americans, with Chinese Americans falling in the middle (Study 1). Similarly, Asian Americans remembered health information delivered by an excitement-focused physician less well than did European Americans (Study 2). Finally, Asian Americans evaluated an excitement-focused physician less positively than did European Americans (Study 3).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that while physicians who promote and emphasize excitement states may be effective with European Americans, they may be less so with Asian Americans and other ethnic minorities who value different affective states.
The Cultural Origin of CEOs’ Attitudes Towards Uncertainty: Evidence from Corporate Acquisitions
The Cultural Origin of CEOs’ Attitudes Towards Uncertainty: Evidence from Corporate Acquisitions. Yihui Pan, Stephan Siegel & Tracy Yue Wang. University of Utah Working Paper, June 2017, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2987623
Abstract: We examine how U.S. CEOs’ attitudes towards uncertainty as well as their corporate investment decisions are shaped by their cultural heritage – a potentially important aspect of their upbringing and early life environment. We find that CEOs with a more uncertainty avoiding cultural heritage are less likely to engage in corporate acquisitions. Conditional on making an acquisition, more uncertainty avoiding CEOs prefer targets in industries that they are familiar with and targets that can be integrated more easily. The impact of culturally transmitted uncertainty attitudes on M&A decisions is stronger when CEOs’ parents put more emphasis on the family’s cultural heritage. Finally, cultural differences with respect to uncertainty attitudes persist over multiple generations, but become less pronounced over time. Overall, our results highlight an important role of cultural heritage in shaping decisions under uncertainty by U.S. CEOs as well as of parents in transmitting cultural values, in particular attitudes towards uncertainty, to their children.
Keywords: culture, cultural heritage, uncertainty avoidance, uncertainty aversion, Hofstede, CEO, corporate acquisition, social transmission of preference
Abstract: We examine how U.S. CEOs’ attitudes towards uncertainty as well as their corporate investment decisions are shaped by their cultural heritage – a potentially important aspect of their upbringing and early life environment. We find that CEOs with a more uncertainty avoiding cultural heritage are less likely to engage in corporate acquisitions. Conditional on making an acquisition, more uncertainty avoiding CEOs prefer targets in industries that they are familiar with and targets that can be integrated more easily. The impact of culturally transmitted uncertainty attitudes on M&A decisions is stronger when CEOs’ parents put more emphasis on the family’s cultural heritage. Finally, cultural differences with respect to uncertainty attitudes persist over multiple generations, but become less pronounced over time. Overall, our results highlight an important role of cultural heritage in shaping decisions under uncertainty by U.S. CEOs as well as of parents in transmitting cultural values, in particular attitudes towards uncertainty, to their children.
Keywords: culture, cultural heritage, uncertainty avoidance, uncertainty aversion, Hofstede, CEO, corporate acquisition, social transmission of preference
Does culture create craving? Evidence from the case of menstrual chocolate craving
Does culture create craving? Evidence from the case of menstrual chocolate craving. Julia Hormes & Martha Niemiec. PLoS One, July 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28723930
Abstract: Craving is considered a key characteristic of diverse pathologies, but evidence suggests it may be a culture-bound construct. Almost 50% of American women crave chocolate specifically around the onset of menstruation. Research does not support popular accounts implicating physiological factors in menstrual chocolate craving etiology. We tested the novel hypothesis that greater menstrual craving prevalence in the U.S. is the product of internalized cultural norms. Women of diverse backgrounds (n = 275) reported on craving frequency and triggers and completed validated measures of acculturation. Foreign-born women were significantly less likely to endorse menstrual chocolate craving (17.3%), compared to women born to U.S.-born parents (32.7%, p = .03) and second generation immigrants (40.9%, p = .001). Second generation immigrant and foreign-born women endorsing menstrual chocolate craving reported significantly greater U.S. acculturation and lower identification with their native culture than non-menstrual cravers (all p < .001). Findings inform our understanding of food cravings, with important implications for the study of cravings in other domains.
Abstract: Craving is considered a key characteristic of diverse pathologies, but evidence suggests it may be a culture-bound construct. Almost 50% of American women crave chocolate specifically around the onset of menstruation. Research does not support popular accounts implicating physiological factors in menstrual chocolate craving etiology. We tested the novel hypothesis that greater menstrual craving prevalence in the U.S. is the product of internalized cultural norms. Women of diverse backgrounds (n = 275) reported on craving frequency and triggers and completed validated measures of acculturation. Foreign-born women were significantly less likely to endorse menstrual chocolate craving (17.3%), compared to women born to U.S.-born parents (32.7%, p = .03) and second generation immigrants (40.9%, p = .001). Second generation immigrant and foreign-born women endorsing menstrual chocolate craving reported significantly greater U.S. acculturation and lower identification with their native culture than non-menstrual cravers (all p < .001). Findings inform our understanding of food cravings, with important implications for the study of cravings in other domains.
Corruption, Social Judgment and Culture: An Experiment
Corruption, Social Judgment and Culture: An Experiment. Timothy Salmon & Danila Serra. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, October 2017, Pages 64-78, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268117301622
Highlights
• We examine the ability of social observability to limit bad behavior.
• We use a sample with a diverse background to investigate the interaction with culture.
• We find social observability can limit bad behavior.
• The effect is stronger for individuals who culturally identify with Low Corruption countries.
Abstract: Modern societies rely on both formal and social mechanisms to enforce social norms of behavior. Formal enforcement mechanisms rely on monetary or other tangible incentives while social enforcement mechanisms rely on some form of social judgment involving informal sanctions. We experimentally investigate the extent to which social observability and the possibility of social judgment affect individuals’ decisions to engage in corruption at the expense of others. We are also interested in the degree to which culture matters. We use a laboratory experiment with a sample of individuals who live in the U.S. but is also characterized by cultural heterogeneity due to the immigration of their ancestors to the U.S. We find that the possibility of social judgment reduces corruption only among individuals who identify culturally with countries characterized by low levels of corruption. Our findings suggest that the effectiveness of social enforcement mechanisms is at least partly dependent on the sociocultural norms prevailing in the target population.
JEL classification: C90 D73 K42 Z10
Keywords: Corruption, Social enforcement, Culture, Experiments
Highlights
• We examine the ability of social observability to limit bad behavior.
• We use a sample with a diverse background to investigate the interaction with culture.
• We find social observability can limit bad behavior.
• The effect is stronger for individuals who culturally identify with Low Corruption countries.
Abstract: Modern societies rely on both formal and social mechanisms to enforce social norms of behavior. Formal enforcement mechanisms rely on monetary or other tangible incentives while social enforcement mechanisms rely on some form of social judgment involving informal sanctions. We experimentally investigate the extent to which social observability and the possibility of social judgment affect individuals’ decisions to engage in corruption at the expense of others. We are also interested in the degree to which culture matters. We use a laboratory experiment with a sample of individuals who live in the U.S. but is also characterized by cultural heterogeneity due to the immigration of their ancestors to the U.S. We find that the possibility of social judgment reduces corruption only among individuals who identify culturally with countries characterized by low levels of corruption. Our findings suggest that the effectiveness of social enforcement mechanisms is at least partly dependent on the sociocultural norms prevailing in the target population.
JEL classification: C90 D73 K42 Z10
Keywords: Corruption, Social enforcement, Culture, Experiments
Global Increases in Individualism
Global Increases in Individualism. Henri Santos, Michael Varnum & Igor Grossmann. Psychological Science, https://www.academia.edu/31723600/Global_Increases_in_Individualism
Abstract: Individualism appears to have increased over the past several decades, yet most research documenting this shift has been limited to the study of a handful of highly developed countries. Is the world becoming more individualist as a whole? If so, why? To answer these questions, we examined 51 years of data on individualist practices and values across 78 countries. Our findings suggest that individualism is indeed rising in most of the societies we tested. Despite dramatic shifts toward greater individualism around the world, however, cultural differences remain sizable. Moreover, cultural differences are primarily linked to changes in socioeconomic development, and to a lesser extent to shifts in pathogen prevalence and disaster frequency.
Abstract: Individualism appears to have increased over the past several decades, yet most research documenting this shift has been limited to the study of a handful of highly developed countries. Is the world becoming more individualist as a whole? If so, why? To answer these questions, we examined 51 years of data on individualist practices and values across 78 countries. Our findings suggest that individualism is indeed rising in most of the societies we tested. Despite dramatic shifts toward greater individualism around the world, however, cultural differences remain sizable. Moreover, cultural differences are primarily linked to changes in socioeconomic development, and to a lesser extent to shifts in pathogen prevalence and disaster frequency.
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