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Psychology 307: Cultural Psychology

February 27

Lecture 13

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Optional Paper

Topic due date: March 25 (Option A or B, 3-5 sentence summary; e-mail to your TA for approval).

Paper due date: April 8.

Option A: Review psychological literature on a topic not discussed in class that interests you.

Option B: Consider how an issue of universal psychological importance is addressed in at least two different cultures.

Note: The grade on the paper will be included in the computation of a student’s final grade only if it increases the student’s standing in the course.

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Groups, Relationships, Interpersonal Attraction, and Love

1. How does culture influence: (a) ingroup-outgroup relations, (b) conformity to social norms, and (c)

cooperative behaviour?

2. What characteristics are perceived to be attractive across cultures?

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1. describe how individualism-collectivism (IC) influences attitudes and behaviour toward ingroup and outgroup members.

2. discuss the relationship between IC and conformity.

By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

3. describe “cultural frame” switching among bicultural people.

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4. discuss the relationship between IC and cooperative behaviour.

5. discuss the relationship between propinquity and attraction.

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How does culture influence ingroup-outgroup relations?

● Ingroup: A group of people with whom one shares a sense of belonging or a feeling of common identity (i.e., “us”).

● Outgroup: A group of people with whom one perceives dissimilarity or a lack of familiarity (i.e., “them”).

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● Theorists maintain that individualism leads people to develop relatively low levels of commitment towards ingroups and to view the ingroup-outgroup distinction as fluid.

● In contrast, collectivism leads people to develop relatively high levels of commitment towards ingroups

and to view the ingroup-outgroup distinction as stable.

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Triandis, McCusker, and Hui (1990; also see Matsumoto, 2008):

Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.

Had participants rate their “social distance” from 20 stimuli (e.g., their father, their closest friend).

Had participants indicate how appropriate they believed subordinate, superordinate, and dissociative

behaviours are when interacting with each stimulus:

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Relationship Between Subordinate Behaviour and Social Distance

* PRC = People’s Republic of China

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Relationship Between Superordinate Behaviour and Social Distance

* PRC = People’s Republic of China

11* PRC = People’s Republic of China

Relationship Between Dissociative Behaviour and Social Distance

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How does culture influence conformity to social norms?

● For decades, researchers have been interested factors that lead people to conform to social norms.

● The most influential research examining these factors was conducted by Asch (1951):

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Asch’s Line Judgment Task

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Using this task, Asch found that American participants agreed with the group’s incorrect response (i.e.,

conformed) in 37% of trials.

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Subsequent research demonstrated that conformity was greatest when:

(a) the group was relatively large.

(b) the group provided a unanimous incorrect response.

(c) the participant admired, liked, or felt a sense cohesiveness or similarity among group members.

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● Theorists maintain that individualism promotes a resistance to conformity, whereas collectivism

promotes a tendency toward conformity.

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Conducted a meta-analysis of 133 experiments on conformity across diverse nations (e.g., Brazil, Canada, Fiji, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, U.S.,

Zimbabwe).

● Bond and Smith (1996):

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Examined:

(b) changes in conformity across time in the U.S..

(a) differences in conformity across individualistic cultures and collectivistic cultures.

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Found:

(b) a negative relation between date of publication and conformity in the U.S. studies.

(a) a negative relation between individualism and conformity.

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How does culture influence cooperative behaviour?

● Theorists maintain that individualism promotes competitiveness, whereas collectivism promotes cooperation.

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Wong and Hong (2005):

Recruited bicultural participants from Hong Kong.

Randomly assigned participants to 1 of 3 conditions:

Employed cultural priming to activate “cultural frames” among bicultural people.

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Chinese priming condition

American priming condition

Neutral priming (control) condition

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Had participants take part in a prisoner’s dilemma game in which their partners were 5 friends.

Among the options that were given to participants were:

(b) to cooperate: participant and each partner receives 3 points.

(a) to compete: participant receives 4 points and each partner receives 0 points.

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Priming Condition

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When participants were paired with strangers, the percentage of cooperative choices made in the

Chinese priming condition dropped to the same level as the American priming condition.

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What characteristics are perceived to be attractive across cultures?

● Research suggests that there are many similarities across cultures with respect to the factors that

influence interpersonal attraction.

● Among these factors are the following:

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(a) Propinquity

Across cultures, propinquity is positively correlated with attraction.

Propinquity is associated with the “mere exposure effect.”

The mere exposure effect has been found to occur with both animate and inanimate stimuli.

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Moreland and Beach (1992):

Had 3 female confederates pretend to be students in a university classroom. They attended class 5 10, and 15 times, respectively.

At the end of term, the students rated the attractiveness of the confederates and a fourth female who never attended class.

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Number of Times in Classroom

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Across cultures, people are attracted to similar physical characteristics:

Cunningham, Roberts, and Wu (1995):

(b) Physical characteristics

Recruited Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and European Americans.

Found an average correlation of .93 between the facial attractiveness ratings provided by the 3 groups.

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Faces Rated as Being Highly Attractive

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1. describe how individualism-collectivism (IC) influences attitudes and behaviour toward ingroup and outgroup members.

2. discuss the relationship between IC and conformity.

By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

3. describe “cultural frame” switching among bicultural people.

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4. discuss the relationship between IC and cooperative behaviour.

5. discuss the relationship between propinquity and attraction.