Cult. Psych Studies

Research Evidence 1

  • Archival Analysis: Study - Morris and Peng’s murder case study, archival analysis of news reports of two mass shootings in English Media “New York Times” and Chinese media “World Journal”

    • Findings: American reporters focused more on personal disposition of murderers, while Chinese reporters focused on situation factors like murderer’s social relationship, pressure in society, and education.

  • Experimental Study (Choi and Nisbett, 1998): Capital punishment study - euro american and south korean undergrads read pro vs anti capital punishment essays. Experimental condition, no choice, were told that the writers received specific instructions about content

    • Findings: In no choice condition, American students inferences were still biased about position of article, Korean students were less affected by article

Twenty Statement Test; Measure Self-Concept

  • When culture identity is activated; American culture emphasized Rights, Chinese culture emphasized Duties

Above Average Effect: Americans consider themselves to be more intelligent and attractive than average

East Asians enhance their group selves, rather than individual selves. Target is different.

Are east asians self-critical?

  • It’s easier to lose face than to gain face, therefore setting a low expectation for others

Bernie Madoff Scandal:

  • financial scandal, largest ponzi scheme in human history

  • Western Social Philosophy; individual is sole bearer of moral responsibility.

In a study looking at giving blame to a car accident, the Chinese participants were more likely to be convinced by the social control argument to extend the responsibility collectively.

What happens when a move is too difficult?

  • Japanese adjust themselves to the requirements of the class, whereas Americans continue to do what they would rather do.

Factors And Influence on Superstitious Beliefs

Benno Torgler (2007) found:

  • Age: no relation

  • Gender: women are more likely to believe in superstitious

  • Education: No relation but better educated people are more likely to believe in telepathy, ESP, and deja vu)

  • Income: no linear relation, those on extreme ends are more likely to believe

Cross Cultural Comparison:

  • US vs China

  • Chinese participants are slightly higher in negotiable fate belief, more superstitious

  • American participants found that superstitious is positively predicting passive coping mechanism. Self-determination is predicting active coping strategies

  • Chinese participants saw self-determination and negotioable fate predicts active coping skills

  • American participants saw only self-determination predicts self-esteem

the relationship between negotiable fate and self-determination was stronger among those with lower (vs. higher) SES (social economic status)

Face Attractiveness Study:

  • Typically, if you take a series of photos of faces and create a composite of them, the composite photo will be viewed as more attractive than approximately 95% of photos that make up the composite.

  • In general, people rated the Eurasian biracial faces as more attractive, and the composite face to be most attractive.

  • Composite faces may be viewed as more attractive because they represent the total average of all faces seen. It follows that the most attractive face should be a composite of all the faces that one has seen in one’s life.

The tyranny of beauty may be largely restricted to independent cultural contexts.

  • Physically attractive Americans tended to have more successful romantic relationships, while physically attractive Ghanians showed no significant differences

Similarity Attraction Effect:

  • Canadians showed a standard similarity attraction effect, liked the subject more if they felt similar to them

  • Japanese people didn’t show a significance effect

Research reveals that Russian-Americans report giving and receiving advice more so compared with other EuropeanAmericans. This is especially true for unsolicited advice.

  • In the American forums, people typically did not offer advice, unless the poster explicitly requested it.

  • In the Russian forums, more advice was given, regardless of whether it was explicitly requested. The Russian advice giving was not greatly affected by whether the poster had asked for it or not.

  • Advice is more frequently offered in interdependent contexts, as the benefits of supporting others outweighs the perceived threats to one’s autonomy.

Study on Joint presentation vs single presentation:

  • Single vs join makes a difference on how Americans mentally process info

    • Joint Presentation makes Americans feel more american and they’re less likely to endorse cultural integration

Study on American Icons:

  • When cultural contrast (activated by a foreign pronunciation name) is associated with iconic cultural items (identity & pride), viewers tend to have hostility towards the foreign item.

• For non-iconic cultural items, naming doesn’t matter.

Hund (2012) compared how American college students and Dutch college students are different in giving road directions.

  • Americans: more likely to give instructions using street names, or a cardinal direction (north, east, south, or west). Driving or map reading doesn’t matter

  • Dutch: more likely to give instructions relying on landmarks, and leftright turn descriptors

Conclusion: Americans are more field-independent than Dutch.

East Asians’ judgments of the center target’s facial expression are more influenced by the facial expressions of the surrounding others than are Westerners

In portrait paintings, the face and body are proportionally larger in western art.

In East Asian art, individuals are often depicted as integral parts of the surroundings.

Westerners prefer lower horizons, which bring an emphasis to the foreground objects, and they prefer larger central figures.

East Asians prefer higher horizons, with busier scenes, highlighting the relations among objects, and they prefer smaller central figures.

A moral conundrum of Stealing Train Tickets (Miller & Bersoff, 1992)

  • Indian and American adults chose to resolve the conundrum differently. • Forced to choose, the Indian adults chose to follow Ethics of Community over Ethics of Autonomy more often than American adults did. •

  • Conversely, the American adults chose to violate the interpersonal obligation more often than the Indian adults did.

Murphy-Berman et al., 1984 Fairness study

Participants were asked to imagine in a story how a company might best distribute money (year end bonus) between two employees.

  • The most popular principle for Indians was Need. This was the least popular principle for Americans.

  • Americans preferred the principle of Equality closely followed by Equity. Equity was the least popular solution among Indians

Jewish vs. Christian Worldviews

  • Judaism emphasizes a wider variety of behaviors, such as keeping kosher, than does Christianity.

  • The New Testament explicitly discusses private thoughts as moral domains.

  • In contrast, the Old Testament (aka, the Hebrew Bible) has little to say about beliefs - mostly it is about behaviors.

Psychiatric outpatients in China and Canada

  • Chinese expressed greater somatic symptoms than Canadians with all measures except the private questionnaire.

  • Canadians expressed greater psychological symptoms with all measures.

Latin America and Mediterranean cultures: depression is seen to be linked to interpersonal relationships and described as a nervous attack, which includes crying anger and physical complaints. •

Middle Eastern and Islamic cultures: depression is seen as a spiritual struggle rather than a medical condition. Religious coping and seeking support from religious leaders are common. •

African cultures: depression is often explained through spiritual causes, such as witchcraft, spirit possession, or moral failings, rather than a medical condition.