#1
“I” Seek Autonomy, “We” Rely on Each Other. Self-Construal and Regulatory Foci as Determinants of Autonomy and Dependency-Oriented Help-Seeking Behavior.
Presenter(s): Svetlana Komissarouk and Arie Nadler
Affiliation(s): Tel Aviv University

Our research explores cultural roots and the motivational mechanisms that regulate help-seeking behavior. The type of help requested can vary according to the degree of one’s involvement: one can ask to learn new ways of dealing with the problem independently (autonomy-oriented help) or rely on a helper to fix it (dependency-oriented help). The first approach allows a person to be self-reliant the next time he encounters the same problem, whereas the second strategy leaves him dependent on assistance the next time as well. Our model suggests the following conceptual progression: two different construals of self (independent vs. interdependent) lead to two different motivational regulations. An individual sees himself either as an autonomous unit or as part of a larger system, and regulates his help-seeking behavior accordingly. The independent self is motivated to promote one’s independence and mastery, while the interdependent self is motivated to prevent negative consequences to the system (i.e., failure, threat to status quo) by relying on others. These motivations result in different choices in times of need: independent self-construal leads to autonomy-oriented help-seeking by activating promotion focus (mediator) of the individual, while interdependent self-construal leads to dependency-oriented help-seeking by activating his prevention focus (mediator). Four studies tested the model by measuring chronic self-construals, regulatory foci and help-seeking styles, and by priming self-construal and regulatory focus and assessing help-seeking behavior in an experimental setting. The observed cultural and motivational differences in the universal phenomenon of help-seeking have relevance for providing assistance to clients from various cultural backgrounds.

#2
Neural Mechanisms Linking Interdependent Self-construal to Empathy
Presenter(s): Meghan L. Meyer, Yina Ma, Chenbo Wang, Zhenhao Shi, Naomi I. Eisenberger, & Shihui Han
Affiliation(s): UCLA, Peking University

Cultural psychology research consistently finds that individuals in collectivistic cultures tend to incorporate close-others into their self-concept (i.e., interdependent self-construal) and that interdependent self-construal enhances pro-social responses, including empathy, to close-others. However, the basic mechanisms by which interdependent self-construal affects pro-social responses like empathy remain poorly understood. Interestingly, independent lines of research find that 1) cognitive representations of the self are supported by the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), and individuals with interdependent self-construal activate MPFC when thinking about close-others as well as themselves and 2) MPFC has a strong functional relationship with brain regions associated with affective responses supporting empathy (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula). Here, we examined whether interdependent self-construal enhances empathy for close-others via cross-talk between MPFC and affective brain regions supporting empathy (dACC, insula). Sixteen Chinese participants with strong interdependent self-construal underwent fMRI while observing a close-other (friend) and non-close-other (stranger) experience social exclusion, a paradigm previously shown to induce empathy. As expected, participants reported significantly more empathy for the friend’s exclusion than strangers’ exclusion (p<.001). Neurally, empathy for the friend (independent of- and relative to- the stranger) activated MPFC, dACC, and insula and this activation correlated with participants’ degree of interdependent self-construal. Finally, connectivity analyses show MPFC activity was functionally coupled with dACC and insula for the friend, but not stranger, suggesting these regions may communicate with one another to support enhanced empathy for the close-others. Broadly, these findings shed light on the basic mechanisms linking interdependent self-construal to pro-social responses such as empathy.

#3
Compassion and Contamination: Cultural Differences in Vegetarianism
Presenter(s): Matt Ruby
Affiliation(s): Universität Hamburg

Past research has shown that Western vegetarians show more concern for animal welfare and the environment, and endorse more liberal values than do Western omnivores.  However, the psychological associations of vegetarianism in India have scarcely been examined.  In Study 1, we find that Euro-American vegetarians are more concerned than omnivores with the impact of their daily food choices on the environment and animal welfare, show more concern for general animal welfare, endorse universalism more, and Right-Wing Authoritarianism less, yet among Indian participants, these differences among people with different diets were not significant.  In Study 2, we show that Indian vegetarians more strongly than omnivores endorse the belief that eating meat is polluting, and show a heightened concern for the conservative ethics of Purity, Authority, and Ingroup, whereas these dietary differences are largely absent among Euro-Canadians and Euro-Americans.

#4
Cultural Norms/Values and Prejudice  
Presenter(s): Hyeyoung Shin
Affiliation(s): University of Maryland College Park

A culture develops its norms/values that influence people living in the culture.  The present research investigated cultural differences in prejudice and the role of cultural norms/values as mediators.  We hypothesized that individual- and group-oriented cultures would endorse prejudice (assessed by social distance) toward similar outgroups but to different degrees and with different reasons.  Data from the World Value Survey showed that US (vs. Korean) participants displayed more prejudice toward social deviants (e.g., drug addicts), whereas Korean (vs. US) participants displayed more prejudice toward potentially permanent outgroups (e.g., people of different race).  Competition for employment was associated with prejudice toward various outgorups more consistently in the US (vs. Korea).  We also predicted that, based on Goffman’s (1963) distinction, group-oriented (vs. individual-oriented) cultures would be more prejudiced toward both tribal outgroups (e.g., a different race) and outgroups with blemishes of character (e.g., homosexuals), because of higher value of conformity and/or lower value of uniqueness.  Country-level analyses with nine individual-oriented (e.g., US) and four group-oriented (e.g., South Korea) countries supported the hypothesis.  With college samples, US (vs. Korean) respondents displayed greater distance toward low-SES outgroups (e.g., uneducated), whereas Korean (vs. US) respondents perceived greater distance toward racial/ethnic (e.g., non-Americans/Koreans) and non-normative outgroups (e.g., homosexuals).  Moderated mediation analyses showed that social hierarchy beliefs were associated with prejudice toward low-SES outgroups in the US (but not in Korea), whereas essentialism was associated with racial/ethnic outgroups in Korea (but not in the US).  The results illuminated mediation effects of cultural norms/values on cultural differences in prejudice.    

#5
Protestant and Buddhist Differences in Control versus Acceptance Emotion Regulation Strategies and Their Mental Health Correlates
Presenter(s): Brooke Wilken and Yuri Miyamoto
Affiliation(s): University of Wisconsin

Since Protestants have been shown to believe that cognitions are controllable (Cohen & Rozin, 2001), they may tend to view the internal emotional experiences as controllable too, and thus use control strategies of emotion regulation when dealing with internal emotional experiences. On the other hand, Buddhism emphasizes acceptance of all of experience as it is without trying to change it (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), suggesting that Buddhists may not view internal emotional experiences as phenomena that should be influenced or controlled, but instead as experiences that should be accepted as they are. Thus, Buddhists may use acceptance strategies of emotion regulation when dealing with their emotional experiences. Through a series of questionnaire studies on student and community samples both locally and nationally, it was found that across a variety of emotions, Buddhists reported that their religion endorses acceptance strategies of emotion regulation, whereas Protestants reported that their religion endorses control strategies of emotion regulation. Further, such religious differences in ideal emotion regulation strategies predicted the emotion regulation strategies that Buddhists and Protestants reported actually using. Finally, the reported actual use of acceptance strategies of emotion regulation was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, especially among Buddhists. Such findings have important implications for the clinical treatment of patients from different religious traditions.

#1
Negative Impact of Seeking Independence in a Global Japanese Company.
Presenter(s): Satoshi Akutsu, Yukiko Uchida, Fumiaki Katsumura, Yuji Ogihara, & Shinobu Kitayama
Affiliation(s): Hitotsubashi University, National Center of Sciences

It has been suggested that under globalization, Japanese organizations seek “independence” (Uchida & Ogihara, in press). Unlike in the U.S., independence in Japan has negative connotations, especially when deteriorating effects on social relationships via independence are considered. In this study, we examined the impact of independence (vs. interdependence) in a large, globalizing Japanese company that was shifting away from seniority toward a pay-per-individual performance system. Twenty-nine company employees (22-58 years old) participated in the study. These participants were instructed to recall and describe situations in which they experienced independence from colleagues (N=14) or experienced interdependence with colleagues (N=15). After a 20-minute recall session, they were asked to evaluate their own emotions, their colleague’s emotions toward them, and their feelings of ability and power under the situations they described. From the study, 18 independent and 35 interdependent situations were obtained, showing that independent situations were less likely to be recalled. The results also indicate that negative emotions (e.g., miserable) were more strongly experienced by participants in the independent (vs. interdependent) situations, whereas positive emotions (e.g., joy) were more strongly experienced by participants in the interdependent (vs. independent) situations. Furthermore, participants evaluated other’s positive emotions toward them more positively in interdependent situations. Although independence is considered power-related, independent situations were less likely to be evaluated as providing “feelings of ability and power.” Confirming the theory of conjoint models of agency, Japanese workers evaluated interdependence more positively and also felt they had satisfactory autonomy and ability to act effectively in interdependent situations.

#2
The Mexican-American Biculturalism Scale
Presenter(s): Camille D. Basilio, George P. Knight, Megan O’Donnell, Mark W. Roosa, Nancy A. Gonzales, Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, & Marisela Torres
Affiliation(s): Arizona Sate University

Empirical research on biculturalism is limited, in part because of the lack of quality measures that effectively assess levels of biculturalism and the varying definitions of this construct. The currently available measures often have pairs of items that assess some ethnic and mainstream behaviors or attitudes and then rely on some computation involving the relative difference between, or the sum of, the scores on these items. Furthermore these measures often sample only a narrow range of behaviors and attitudes, most often over emphasizing language use behaviors. Our research used a very different approach to develop a biculturalism scale for Mexican-Americans that captures a broader range of the bicultural experience and using a scoring system, which better represents the varying levels of biculturalism.  The Mexican-American Biculturalism Scale (MABS) includes 3 subscales: bicultural comfort, bicultural ease, and bicultural advantage.  These subscales represent the affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of biculturalism respectively. The measure was administered to a stratified random sample of 310 Mexican-American families from a large southwestern metropolitan city. Responses were collected from mothers, fathers, and children. The MABS has good reliability for bicultural comfort (α=.85), bicultural ease (α=81), and bicultural advantage (α=.86).  The construct validity was established by relating each of the bicultural subscales to theoretically related constructs. The MABS was also tested for measurement invariance and reached strict invariance for reporters (i.e., mothers, fathers, and adolescents), gender (i.e., male and female adolescents), and language of administration (i.e., English and Spanish). 

#3
Attitudes toward Spanish-Speakers: The Role of Intercultural Communication Barriers, Intergroup Anxiety, and Symbolic/cultural Threat
Presenter(s): Kelsey Carney & Julie Spencer-Rodgers
Affiliation(s): California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo

Intercultural communication barriers arise from group differences in cognition (e.g., fundamental epistemologies, norms, etc.), affect (e.g., types and levels of emotional expressivity), and patterns of behavior (e.g., language, customs, communication styles, etc.). In 2 studies, the psychological impact of perceived intercultural communication barriers on intergroup attitudes was examined by testing a model of global attitudes toward Spanish-speaking people (Stephan, Diaz-Loving, & Duran, 2000). Perceived intercultural communication barriers (ICBs), intergroup anxiety, and symbolic/cultural threats (i.e., the belief that one’s sociocultural system is being obstructed, undermined, or violated by an outgroup; Rokeach, 1968) were investigated as determinants of prejudice toward people from Spanish-speaking countries (Study 1) and Latinos/Hispanics in the United States (Study 2). Participants were American college students enrolled in eight introductory-level Spanish classes. Regression analyses indicated that ICBs were uniquely related to prejudice toward members of Spanish-speaking countries (Study 1), but not Latinos/Hispanics (Study 2). Implications for intergroup relations and international educational exchange programs are discussed.

#4
Is Buddha Tolerant? Eastern Religiosity as Related to Low Prejudice
Presenter(s): M. Clobert, & V. Saroglou
Affiliation(s): Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Research on religiosity and prejudice in the last decades has almost been limited to Christian Westerners. Religiosity has thus been found to predict prejudice against ethnic, religious, and moral outgroups. Does this also hold for Buddhism (perceived as a tolerant religion/spirituality) and Eastern Asian cultures (characterized more by holistic thinking)? Is the (positive) relation between religiosity and prejudice universal? This question was addressed through two studies carried out within different populations. In Study 1, religiosity among Taiwanese people from a Buddhist/Taoist tradition was found to predict low prejudice against various religious outgroups (except atheists), especially among participants low in authoritarianism. In Study 2, priming supraliminally Westerners converted to Buddhism with Buddhist words lead to decreased islamophobia and prejudice against ethnic, religious and moral outgroups. These findings challenge earlier research and suggest that the religiosity–prejudice relation may depend on the specific religious and cultural context.

#5
Cultural Differences in the Assignment of Punishment for Moral Transgressions
Presenter(s): Tyler Collette & Richard L. Miller
Affiliation(s): University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Nebraska at Kearney

The study of culture has contributed significantly to our understanding of how individuals respond to moral dilemmas. Studies of morality in different cultures have refined our understanding of moral concepts and shown how culture influences our perception of moral standards (Vasquez et al., 2001). In general, people respond negatively to those who violate cultural norms and values (e.g., Miller & Anderson, 1979). For example, a recent study by Fu and colleagues (2007) found that Chinese children (collectivists) rated lying to help a collective but harm an individual less negatively whereas Canadian children (individualists) did the opposite. The present study examined how individualists and collectivists react to moral transgressions that violate either individualist or collectivist values. Participants were 35 boys and 35 girls, ages 8-12, enrolled in a summer camp on the island of Mallorca, Spain. Participants completed the I/C Scale for Children (Lewis, Maras & Simonds, 2000) and then indicated how severely a child should be punished for several moral transgressions on a 7 point children’s Likert Scale. The seven moral transgressions were phrased to either violate an individualist or collectivist value, e.g., refusing to play with another child vs. refusing to let another child play with his/her group. Analysis of variance indicated that collectivists chose to punish the child who violated collectivist values more severely than did individualists except in the case of “fighting with siblings.” However, individualists did not choose to punish the child who violated individualist values more severely than did collectivists.

#6
Suicide in Southern Cultures of Honor: New Insights
Presenter(s): Marisa Crowder & Markus Kemmelmeier
Affiliation(s): University of Nevada, Reno

Cultural variables, such as collectivism and honor culture, have been associated with variations in suicide rates. Specifically, collectivism has been linked to lower suicide rates (Rudmin et al., 2003; Vandello & Cohen, 1999), whereas Osterman and Brown (2011) document that in the U.S., Southern cultures of honor are associated with higher suicide rates. They argued that the pressure to uphold one’s reputation prevents southerners from seeking help when depressed, thus making them more vulnerable to suicide. The present study re-examines the cultural effects of collectivism and Southern honor culture (using Gastil’s Southerness Index, 1971) on suicide rates while controlling for economic factors, gun ownership, and availability of medical professionals. We documented that the effects of culture were moderated by age, race and gender. Results did provide some support for Osterman and Brown’s hypothesis, and we did find that higher levels of Southerness were more strongly related to suicide in older than younger Southern men and women. This suggests that aging may render individuals less able to conform to cultural ideals of gender and thus, unable to uphold one’s honor. Furthermore, Southerness was more strongly related to suicide in older white males than any other group. Not only does this reflect the consequences of the inability to uphold expectations of masculinity, but the historically European origins of the Southern honor culture as well. The discussion emphasizes the need for process-focused and subgroup analyses when examining the effects of culture on suicide.

#7
Cultural Values and Etiological Beliefs about Depression: An Examination among Euro-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian Undergraduates
Presenter(s): Jessica Dere, Sylvanna Vargas, & Andrew G. Ryder
Affiliation(s): SAMI Training Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health/University of Toronto, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Concordia University, SMBD-Jewish General Hospital

Cultural context profoundly shapes people’s conceptions of mental illness, including beliefs about etiology (e.g., Kirmayer & Sartorius, 2007). Within the depression literature, etiological beliefs have been linked to a number of treatment-related variables, including help-seeking (e.g., Weich et al., 2007) and treatment preferences (e.g., Dunlop et al., 2012). However, recognition of significant cultural variation in illness beliefs and the role of cultural factors in shaping these beliefs are frequently lacking. People of Chinese heritage have been found to endorse beliefs about depression that differ from the dominant psychiatric model (e.g., Yeung et al., 2004), but few studies have included direct group comparisons on etiological beliefs or examined factors that may help to explain cultural group differences in beliefs. To help address these gaps, the current study examined the link between cultural values and etiological beliefs about depression among Euro-Canadian (n=271) and Chinese-Canadian (n=236) undergraduates. As predicted, Euro-Canadians showed greater endorsement of biomedical causes (e.g., genetics, hormonal imbalance; p < .01), whereas Chinese-Canadians showed greater endorsement of ‘traditional’ causes (e.g., fate, bad luck; p < .01). Bootstrapping analyses were conducted to examine the hypothesis that cultural values would mediate the effect of group membership on etiological beliefs. Both Euro-American and Asian values mediated the effect of group membership on the endorsement of ‘traditional’ beliefs, while Asian values mediated the effect of group membership on the endorsement of biomedical beliefs. These findings suggest that cultural values play a role in shaping beliefs about depression, and can help to explain cultural variation in such beliefs.

#8
Culture of Honor and Intimate Partner Violence: Adherence to Culture of Honor in Latinos is Examined in Relationship to Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).
Presenter(s): Dorothee Dietrich & Jessica Schuett
Affiliation(s): Hamline University

Culture of honor can be identified in groups that place a great deal of importance on social image in connection to family reputation (Nisbett, 1993; Brown, Osterman & Barnes, 2009). In general, Latinos who adhere to honor traditions are more accepting of honor-related IPV than non-honor-related IPV (Vandello, Cohen, Grandon, & Franiuk, 2009). Honor-related IPV can be understood as abuse that is jealousy-related or spurred by an offense that compromises a man’s or his family’s honor. In student samples, honor-culture- adherent participants are more likely to approve of verbal aggression if confronted with a shameful insult than their non-honor-adherent peers (Rodriguez Mosquera, Fischer, Manstead, & Zaalberg, 2008). In the current study utilizing Latino participants from the community, high and low reputation threat conditions were manipulated via a scenario to measure the influence of the participants’ honor adherence (assessed via the culture of honor scale by López-Zafra, 2007) on various measures of intimate partner violence approval, including attitudes toward the violence itself, toward the perpetrator, toward the victim and toward victim help-seeking. Findings suggest that participants who adhere more greatly to culture of honor are more accepting of intimate partner violence [r(68) = .20, p = .05], more approving of the perpetrator [ r(69) = .32, p = .003], and less approving of seeking help [r(65) = -.22, p = .04].

#9
Culture, Choice, and Indecisiveness: How Culture Influences When and Why People Hesitate to Choose?
Presenter(s): Kimin Eom and Heejung Kim
Affiliation(s): University of California, Santa Barbara

Choice has different meanings across cultures. In spite of the well-defined cultural differences in choice and decision-making, little research has examined cultural differences in indecisiveness. The current research investigated this neglected topic in cultural psychology; how culture influences the way indecisiveness is affected by choice situations (target of choice: self vs. other) and what different factors can predict the extent of indecisiveness between cultures. The study had a 2 (cultural group: Asian/Asian American vs. European American) X 2 (target of choice: self vs. other) mixed-subjects design, with cultural group as a between-subjects variable, and target of choice as a within-subjects variable. Participants were given two hypothetical scenarios (self and other) and were asked to choose one option among several options either for themselves or for others (their romantic partner) according to the scenarios. As a measure of indecisiveness, the time that each participant took to make a choice was recorded. Also, we measured participants’ lay beliefs about ripple effects of an event as a prospective predictor of their degree of indecisiveness. As a result, Asians/Asian Americans were more indecisive when choosing for others than for themselves, whereas European Americans tended to be more indecisive when choosing for themselves than for others. In addition, interestingly, the lay belief regarding ripple effects was a significant predictor of the degree of indecisiveness only in Asians/Asian Americans, and not in European Americans. This study suggests the importance of understanding the characteristics of indecisiveness from cultural perspectives.

#10
Visibility of the Vertical Self: Social Status in Aristocratic versus Meritocratic Cultures
Presenter(s): Matthias S. Gobel, Heejung S. Kim, William W. Maddux, & Daniel C. Richardson
Affiliation(s): UCL, University of California, Santa Barbara, INSEAD

In line with theory proposing that status beliefs determine who attains high social status and research suggesting that culture may define status beliefs, we investigated cultural differences in how status is signaled and perceived. While research conducted in meritocratic cultures (e.g. the U.S.) has demonstrated that status is based on competence, we propose that in aristocratic cultures (e.g. France) status is based on class background. In study 1, when watching thin-slice videos of community members talking about topics unrelated to identity, French estimated targets’ status more on the basis of targets’ class background than Americans. Coding the nonverbal behavior of targets revealed that cultural differences in perceiving status were due to increased dominance signaling among French upper class targets. Status perception was not associated with dominance signaling among U.S. targets. In study 2, we examined direct eye gaze as signal indicating superior social standing using eye-tracking methodology. We orthogonally manipulated the two status dimensions: social class and competence. When targets were described as upper class and incompetent, French more than Americans avoided the direct eye gaze presumably signaling their deference. In contrast, when targets were described as lower class and competent, French more than Americans starred back into targets’ eyes possibly signaling their superior rank. Our research contributes to a better understanding of cultural differences within Western societies. The complementarities of signaling and perceiving status may explain one way how social inequality is maintained in aristocratic cultures.

#11
Modesty in Self-Presentation: A Comparison between the U.S. and Japan 
Presenter(s): Hirofumi Hashimoto & Toshio Yamagishi
Affiliation(s): University of Tokyo, The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tamagawa University

In this study American and Japanese participants judged whether their performance was above or below the school average after taking a bogus intelligence test. The results of Studies 1 and 2 replicate the standard finding that Japanese are self-effacing. But this result obtained only in the control condition, in which no reason was given as to why the participants were being asked to make these self-evaluation judgments. In the experimental condition in which the participants were offered a monetary bonus for making the correct judgment, Japanese participants became self-enhancing. In Study 3, the same experiment was administered to American participants. The cultural difference in levels of self-evaluation between Japanese and American participants, which was observed in the control condition, disappeared in the bonus condition. These results support the view that the modesty observed in self-evaluations among Japanese participants can be viewed as a “default strategy” used to avoid offending others under certain circumstances.

#12
Self-Referential Processing and Encoding in Bicultural Individuals
Presenter(s): Sarah Huff, Carolyn Yoon, Fiona Lee, Alekhya Mandadi, & Angela H. Gutchess
Affiliation(s): University of Michigan, Brandeis University

Prior neuroimaging evidence suggests that the medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC and vmPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) are involved in self-referential processing and memory, and that culture can affect the specific patterns of activation.  In the current study, we investigated how having a bicultural identity influences self-referential processing and memory as compared to a close other (mother) and a distant, familiar other (Gandhi), using an adjective trait judgment task and a surprise recognition memory task.  Individuals were identified as having either a blended (i.e., compatible and competent in both cultures) or an alternating (i.e., identifying with only one culture and/or seeing cultural identities as oppositional or conflicting) bicultural identity.  Contrary to expectations, results indicate that the dmPFC is more engaged for mother-referencing than self-referencing in our sample of bicultural Asian Americans.  In terms of subsequent memory, there was increased activation in the PCC for processing of mother-relevant and other-relevant (compared to self-relevant) information that supported the encoding of information into memory.  Finally, we observed reversals in the pattern of activity in the dmPFC implicated in subsequent memory for those with a blended bicultural identity versus those with alternating bicultural identity. Specifically, those with alternating bicultural identities engage canonical self-referential regions for encoding of self-relevant information, while those with blended bicultural identities recruit these same areas for the encoding of mother-relevant information.  These findings suggest that cultural effects, specifically individual differences in bicultural identity, modulate neural activity during judgment and encoding of information relevant to the self and others.

#13
Cross-Cultural Friendships: Social Closeness with Cultural-Outgroup Members Increases Well-being
Presenter(s): Sarah Ketay, Meghan Brady, Kristin Davies, & Arthur Aron
Affiliation(s): University of Hartford, Harvard University, York College, Stony Brook University

The present study examined the effects of cross-cultural social interactions on well-being and positive affect. Participants were matched with either a cultural ingroup member (in this case, both participants were born and raised in the United States) or a cultural outgroup member (one participant was from the United States and one participant was from a country outside of the United States). Participants completed the “fast friends” procedure (Aron et al., 1997) in which a pair of strangers interact, alternating answering a series of questions with escalating levels of self-disclosure shown in previous work to create a high level of experienced closeness. This activity is also designed to create an experience conducive to deep conversation. Meaningful, substantive conversation such as that experienced during the “fast friends” activity is associated with greater overall well-being (Mehl et al., 2010). Measures of well-being and positive and negative affect were collected pre and post closeness manipulation. Overall, pairs that achieved closeness increased their level of well-being and positive affect. Participants paired with a cultural outgroup member achieved the greatest increase in positive affect. Implications for cross-cultural interactions are discussed.

#14
Social Ecology and Evaluation of Cooperation: Over-cooperators Are Not Liked in Low Relational Mobility Environment
Presenter(s): Mizuho Komatsu, Masaki Yuki, & Pat Barclay
Affiliation(s): Hokkaido University, University of Guelph

Previous research on cooperation has shown that people generally like those who are cooperative while disliking those who are not (e.g., Fehr & Fischbacher, 2003). However, a recent cross-national study has shown that there are some countries where people who are "overly-cooperative" (i.e., cooperating with one’s group to a much greater degree than others) are negatively evaluated and are even punished (Herrmann et al., 2008). Why are there such differences? To answer this question, we focus on a socio-ecological factor called relational mobility (RMob), which is referred to the degree of available opportunities to form and belong to new interpersonal relationships and groups in a given society or social situation (Schug et al., 2010). An over-cooperator will be preferred by others in high RMob societies because over-cooperation implies that the person has lots of resources (e.g. money, social capital, and skills) to provide as well as that the person has cooperative personality, and high RMob societies makes it possible for many others to access his/her resources. In contrast, an over-cooperator will not be preferred in low RMob societies, where there are few chances to dissolve the current relationships, because his/her over-cooperative behavior enlarges status differences among ingroup members, and thus creates competition among the current group members who must stay together. To test this, we conducted a preliminary experiment in Japan, a typical low RMob societies. Participants were asked to evaluate behaviors of hypothetical over-cooperators or average-cooperators to the group. As predicted, over-cooperators were evaluated significantly less positively than average-cooperators.

#15
Culture and Auditory Distraction: Cultural Differences in Attention in Auditory Processing
Presenter(s): Jessica LeClair
Affiliation(s): UC Santa Barbara

Psychologists long assumed the universality of cognitive and perceptual processes. However, recent evidence suggests that participation in different social practices and cultural contexts may lead to chronic changes in cognitive styles and perception (Nisbett and Miyamoto, 2005; Nisbett and Masuda, 2006). Cross-cultural research suggests that East Asians and Westerners have different cognitive styles: East Asians tend to be more holistic attending to the entire field, while Westerners tend to be more analytic attending primarily to the object (Nisbett et al., 2001). Previous research has shown that when processing visual scenes, Westerners focus on salient target objects, whereas East Asians attend to contextual information. In the poster, we will report the results of an experiment conducted in Santa Barbara and in Kobe, which examined whether there are cultural differences in the processing of auditory information. After listening to three short passages presented with none, white, or social background noise, participants completed a quiz testing their comprehension of target material. We predicted and found that Japanese would be more distracted by background noise compared to European Americans, and Asian Americans’ responses would be between the other two cultures, showing the effect of acculturation. Our results suggest that previously described cultural differences in analytic versus holistic cognitive styles between East Asians and European Americans extend to auditory processing.

#16
“I” Value Competence but “We” Value Social Competence: The Moderating Role of Voters’ Individualistic and Collectivistic Orientation in Political Elections
Presenter(s): Jeong Min Lee, Fang Fang Chen, & Yiming Jing
Affiliation(s): University of Delaware

This investigation distinguishes interpersonally oriented social competence from intrapersonally oriented competence. It examines the influence of voters’ individualism and collectivism orientation on the roles of these two dimensions in predicting electoral outcomes. Participants made judgments of personality traits based on inferences from faces of political candidates in the U.S. and Taiwan. Two social outcomes were examined: actual election results and voting support of the participants. With respect to actual electoral success, perceived competence is more important for the candidates in the U.S. than for those in Taiwan, whereas perceived social competence is more important for the candidates in Taiwan than for those in the U.S. With respect to subjective voting support, within cultural findings mirror those found cross-culturally. Competence is valued more among voters who are more individualistic, and social competence is valued more among voters who are more collectivistic. These results highlight important omissions in the social perception/judgment literature.

#17
Narratives Contribute to Maintaining Cultural Variation in Causal Attribution
Presenter(s): Minha Lee & Shigehiro Oishi
Affiliation(s): University of Virginia

Every day people spend enormous time figuring out why a particular event occurred.  Interestingly, research has shown that East Asians are less likely to commit the fundamental attribution error than Americans.  The present study investigated whether the cultural variation in causal attribution is maintained through narratives, using the serial reproduction paradigm (Study 1) and story writing (Study 2).  In Study 1, sixty American undergraduates and the same number of Korean counterparts read a news summary about a Finnish school shooting, and reproduced it later.  The results showed that, on average, dispositional information spread more than situational information among Americans, while dispositional information spread as much as situational information among Koreans.  In Study 2, forty-nine American and thirty-one Korean undergraduates created a story about a Finnish shooting incident based on a given story prompt.  The preliminary analysis revealed that a target’s shooting behavior was more attributable to dispositional factors than to situational factors in stories created by American participants, whereas the opposite pattern was clear in stories created by Korean participants.  It was concluded that narratives contribute to maintaining cultural patterns of causal attribution.

#18
Cross-Cultural Differences in the Online Processes of Decision Making Between European Canadians and Hong Kong Chinese
Presenter(s): Liman Man Wai Li, Takahiko Masuda, & Matthew J. Russell
Affiliation(s): University of Alberta

Previous studies on cross-cultural differences in decision making primarily focus on final outcomes but usually ignore the online processes involved in decision making. In the current study, the online processes of apartment selection were compared between European Canadians and Hong Kong Chinese. The results indicated that: 1) Hong Kong Chinese searched for information faster than European Canadians and 2) European Canadians focused on their preferred attributes whereas Hong Kong Chinese showed relatively more equal attention to all apartment attributes (i.e. room size, location, etc.).This was supported by a significantly stronger association between the apartment attribute importance and the amount of information sought for among European Canadians relatively to Hong Kong Chinese. The results are consistent with previous research showing analytic and holistic tendencies across cultures in other research areas. The present study provides evidence showing that the influence of thinking style extends to the online process of decision making.

#19
Title: Culture, Interdependence, and Survival in Natural Disaster
Presenter(s): Christine Ma-Kellams
Affiliation(s): Harvard University

How does culture facilitate or hinder survival? Research over the past two decades has compellingly demonstrated the extent to which cultural differences in the self permeate a wide range of everyday behaviors; however, little is known about how cultural selves plays a role in life’s most extenuating circumstances—i.e., when survival on either the individual or collective level is at stake. Although the culturally-bound independent and interdependent ways of construing of the self may each be strategic insofar as their odds of producing favorable outcomes in many common, daily situations for members of their respective cultural groups, independence vs. interdependence may not be created equal in more extreme contexts involving life-or-death. Rather, the independent construal of the self (embodied in “every man for himself”) should be more adaptive in extreme survival contexts. To examine the role of cultural variability in self-construal (independence-interdependence) on a nation-level in promoting survival advantages of its group members, I analyzed survival outcomes from natural disasters in both maritime and earthquake contexts. Analysis of 594 individuals’ survival outcomes across three major maritime disasters in the last century revealed that after controlling for other determinants of survival (i.e., gender, class), interdependence negatively predicted survival, such that individuals from more interdependent nations were less likely to survive. Similarly, analysis of 293 earthquakes in the past two decades revealed that after controlling for earthquake magnitude, gross national product and development index of the nation impacted, more interdependent nations exhibited greater numbers of deaths relative to independent nations.

#21
The Dual Influence on Morality: Culture-Gene Coevolution of Tightness-Looseness and Allelic Variation of the Serotonin Transporter Gene
Presenter(s): Alissa J. Mrazek, Joan Y. Chiao, Katherine D. Blizinsky, Janetta Lun, & Michele J. Gelfand
Affiliation(s): Northwestern University, University of Maryland

Judgments of moral permissibility vary dramatically across the globe. To understand why humans can have divergent perspectives on fundamental topics such as morality, we draw on culture-gene coevolutionary theory, which asserts that behavior is influenced by two complementary, interacting processes: genetic and cultural selection (Boyd & Richerson, 1985; Chiao & Blizinsky, 2010). Within this framework, cultural norms, like biological traits, are adaptive and may emerge in tandem with specific genetic variants in response to environmental pressures to produce advantageous behavior. In Study 1, we found a significant culture-gene coevolutionary model for the emergence of moral permissibility across 21 nations. We found that allelic frequency within the serotonin transporter gene predicts moral justifiability, and this relationship is mediated by TL. This shows that the relationship between S allele frequency and moral justifiability becomes non-significant when accounting for TL. In Study 2, we demonstrate for the first time that tightness-looseness is correlated with moral justifiability at the individual level. Tightness-looseness is often measured with regard to self-monitoring behavior and views on social appropriateness (Gelfand et al., 2011). In a U.S. sample of 195 participants, there was a significant correlation between TL(appropriateness) and moral justifiability (r= .256, p < .001), as well as between TL(self-monitoring) and moral justifiability (r= -0.141, p < .05), suggesting that individuals who endorse tighter norms judge moral topics as less justifiable. These two studies provide converging evidence, at both the individual and cross-national levels, for the cultural influence of tightness-looseness on morality.

#22
Influence and Adjustment in the Friendship
Presenter(s): Yuji Ogihara, Yukiko Uchida, Beth Morling & Takashi Kusumi
Affiliation(s): Kyoto University

In daily life, people both control their environment and adjust themselves to their environment (Rothbaum et al., 1982). Former process is called influence and latter one is called adjustment. Previous studies suggested that these processes are differently generated across cultures (Morling et al., 2002). In Japanese cultural context, adjustment is emphasized, whereas in the American cultural context, influence is emphasized. The present research asked how people experience influence and adjustment within a social relationship. We predicted that in Japan, complementary patterns of influence and adjustment would be found, which means that when one friend influences the other friend, he/she adjusts to their friend. Pairs of Japanese same-sex friends participated. First, they were individually asked to write situations in which they had influenced their friend and situations in which they had adjusted themselves to their friend. Second, these collected situations were shown to the other friend in the pair. Participants were asked to rate what their own feelings of influence and adjustment had been in the situations generated by their partner. The situations were modified so that participants could not recognize whether the situations had been described as influence or adjustment by their partner. As predicted, we found the positive correlation between ratings of influence from one friend and ratings of adjustment from the other friend. This result suggests that friends in Japan tend to adjust to their friends’ influence behavior.

#23
Why is Cheating So Ubiquitous? Different Cultural Values Predict Different Types of Cheating
Presenter(s): Caroline Pulfrey & Fabrizio Butera
Affiliation(s): University of Lausanne

Cheating in school is prevalent worldwide. Whilst the majority of research to date has dealt with individual forms of cheating, acts of academic dishonesty are frequently carried out in collusion with in-group members, be they friends or family. Drawing on Schwartz’ (1992) Universal Values Theory and Moral Foundations Theory (Graham et al., 2011), this research empirically distinguishes between these two distinct forms of cheating and investigates the different motivational drivers of each. Results of three studies carried out with college students revealed that adherence to vertical individualist, self-enhancing values of power and achievement positively predicted individual cheating attitudes and behavior. An experimental study showed this effect to be subject to contextual social influence, the core relation being maintained in a context in which self-enhancing values were directly promoted but becoming non-significant in a context in which opposing self-transcendence values were promoted. Results of two further experimental studies revealed that, in contexts where self-enhancing values and competitive societal conditions were rendered salient, adherence to horizontal collectivist, benevolence values, which prioritize the wellbeing of the in-group and its members, the positively predicted the acceptance of collective cheating behaviors, in which group members collaborate to attain an illicit academic advantage. In contexts where cooperative values and societal conditions were made salient, benevolence value adherence negatively predicted such collective cheating. These results provide new nuances in our understanding of different types of academic dishonesty and also indicate the potential of cultural values in interaction with social context to explain such variations.

#24
Low Self-Esteem Matters for Lonely People in Societies or Social Contexts High in Relational Mobility: Cross-National and Cross-Situational Comparisons
Presenter(s): Kosuke Sato
Affiliation(s): Hokkaido University

Loneliness, one’s perceived isolation or dissatisfaction with one’s social relationships, is one of the strong predictor of SWB as well as self-esteem, one’s positive appraisal of self. There are studies which have shown that self-esteem has a meditational effect on the relationship between loneliness and SWB. Is this meditational effect of self-esteem pan-cultural? From a socio-ecological/adaptationist perspective, the answer is “no.” Based on the view that self-esteem is a subjective indicator of generalized relational value, self-esteem should only be a mediator in societies or social contexts high in relational mobility, such as the U.S., but not in those of low, such as Japan. Relational mobility (RMob) is a socio-ecological factor reflecting the general amount of opportunities to form new relationships in a given society or social contexts. Societies or social contexts high in RMob are comprised of open markets of interpersonal relations where people constantly invest effort into finding superior interaction partners with whom to establish relationships. In this competitive marketplace, if one feels lonely, it should entail that one does not consider oneself as having relational value to other people. Thus, self-esteem strongly mediates the relationship between loneliness and SWB. However, in societies low in RMob, one’s success in acquiring desirable interpersonal relationships is not affected much by one’s market value because people tend to form committed relationships. To test this, I did cross-national and cross-situational comparisons. The results indicated, as predicted, the mediation effect of self-esteem was stronger in high RMob society and situation than those of low.

#25
Factors Protective Against Mental Disorders in Rwandan Youth
Presenter(s): Pamela Scorza
Affiliation(s): Harvard School of Public Health

The findings I will present are situated within a project that aims to develop and evaluate an intervention to prevent mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders in youth in families affected by HIV/AIDS in Rwanda.  Because the objective of the intervention is to promote sources of strength to prevent mental disorders, we sought to understand these sources of strength more deeply, and to assess whether these protective factors are uniquely important in Rwanda or whether they represent a more universal set of resilience factors. While there is widespread agreement that some mental disorders, such as depression, are quite similar across cultures, the extent to which protective factors are similar across cultures is not well known.  Instead of assuming cross-cultural similarity, our research group conducted qualitative research to explore protective factors that were identified as being important locally for youth faced with HIV/AIDS, poverty, and other adversities. I will present the factor analytic structure and measurement of the individual-level protective factors in a sample of 367 Rwandan youth.  We find that in Rwanda, protective factors important for resilient psychosocial outcomes at the individual level include:  a sense of survival, faith, engagement in social interaction, self-motivation/self-efficacy, and sense of self-worth or self-esteem. The majority of research conducted on individual-level protective factors in Western settings has centered around factors like self-esteem and self-efficacy.  This analysis in a Rwandan context found that these factors were important, however, engagement in social interactions was the most strongly related to depression and functional impairment. I will discuss implications of these findings for prevention strategies in similar contexts.

#26
Do Chinese Psychiatric Outpatients Still Somatize Depression? Evidence of Changing Symptom Patterns between 2002 and 2008
Presenter(s): Jiahong Sun, Jessica Dere, Xiongzhao Zhu, Shuqiao Yao, & Andrew G. Ryder
Affiliation(s): Concordia University, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, SMBD-Jewish General Hospital

The Chinese tendency to emphasize somatic symptoms of depression has been a well-studied topic in the area of culture and depression. From the now-classic example of Kleinman’s study (1982) to more recent cross-cultural studies (e.g., Parker et al., 2001), there is ample empirical evidence to support this claim. Meanwhile, a number of explanations have been proposed to account for this phenomenon. Some of these explanations are contingent on the greater sociocultural environment of Chinese society, which itself is dynamic. Indeed, recent epidemiological studies suggest that rates of depression have increased dramatically in China. We explored patterns of change in depressive symptoms in clinical samples from two phases. Phase I (2002) consisted of 175 Chinese and 107 Euro-Canadian outpatients; and phase II (2008) included 186 Chinese outpatients. Two psychological and two somatic symptom subscales were calculated using items from Structured Clinical Interview (SCI) and Symptom Questionnaires. We found that phase I Euro-Canadian outpatients reported significantly higher levels of psychological and lower levels of somatic symptoms compared to Chinese outpatients (e.g. SCI mean difference on psychological symptoms = .38, p < .000); however, these difference were significantly diminished when the same Euro-Canadian sample was compared with the phase II Chinese sample (e.g. SCI mean difference on psychological symptoms = .12, p = .21). The cross-cultural difference in depressive symptom presentation observed in 2002 was markedly reduced when a recent Chinese sample was being compared. Our finding suggests that depressive symptom profile in China may be moving towards a more typically “Western” profile.

#27
Self-Expression as a Socially Adaptive Psychology in "Open" Societies: A Study of Dual Users of an American (Facebook) and a Japanese (Mixi) Social Networking Site
Presenter(s): Kosuke Takemura & Satoko Suzuki
Affiliation(s): Kyoto University, Japan Science and Technology Agency, RISTEX

The current research proposes that self-expression, one aspect of independence, is socially adaptive psychology in circumstances where social relationships are open and mobile. In societies characterized by a high mobility of relationships (relational mobility) that creates market-like competitive circumstances (e.g., America), individuals need to express their unique values to acquire new social relationships. In contrast, self-expression has lesser effect on relationship acquisitions in societies characterized by a low relational mobility where social relationships are generally ascribed and stable (e.g., Japan). Rather, risks associated with openly expressing oneself (e.g., a risk of conflicting others) would be greater in low mobility societies than in high mobility societies. The risks would be lower for high mobility societies since there are more opportunities to build new social relationships. This hypothesis was examined and confirmed by a study of Japanese users of two social networking sites (SNS): Facebook and mixi (the "Facebook of Japan"). It was found that the participants who used both Facebook and mixi had more chances to make new friends in Facebook, originated in a high mobility society (the U.S.), than in mixi. We examined the association between self-expression motivation and the number of new friends made during the past month through Facebook/mixi. As expected, the participants with stronger self-expression motivation made more friends in Facebook (high mobility SNS). In mixi (low mobility SNS), however, there was no relationship between the two.

#28
Contextual Qualities Related to Latino and African-American Adolescents’ Academic Engagement
Presenter(s): Vivian Tran
Affiliation(s): California State University, Northridge

Academic motivation is the extent that youth value, meet responsibilities, and are committed to educational pursuits. Academic motivation increases their academic success, which is critical to future job prospects, earnings, and preventing poverty. Latinos and African American adolescents often experience ethnic discrimination, which can undermine their efficacy, motivation, and engagement. Maternal monitoring can keep youth focused on academic tasks and away from counter-productive activities. Maternal educational involvement and academic encouragement from peers and teachers can encourage youth to stay academically engaged. Substance use can undermine the initiative needed to focus on school endeavors. We examined how adolescents’ perceptions of ethnic discrimination, school climate, maternal monitoring and academic involvement, teacher and peer academic encouragement, and substance use would relate to Latino and African American girls’ and boys’ academic motivation. Self-report data were collected from 1056 Latino and 400 African American adolescents from schools in southern California and North Carolina (13-19 years, 55.3% female). Regressions indicated the predictor variables accounted for significant variance (8-28%) in each model (Latino boys, Latino girls, AA boys, AA girls). Respectful school climate was significant in all four models. Substance use and maternal educational involvement were significant in three models. Maternal monitoring and peer academic encouragement were significant in two models. Teacher academic encouragement was significant in one model. Thus, school, family, peer group, and individual qualities can impact academic motivation. Educators and counselors interested in promoting the academic motivation of African American and Latino youth have many points of intervention. Specific implications will be discussed.

#29
Marginalization due to Globalization May Dissociate Individuals from Local Identity
Presenter(s): Vinai Norasakkunkit & Yukiko Uchida
Affiliation(s): Gonzaga University, Kyoto University

About 14% of Japanese teens and young adults (about ages 15-34), cutting across all social classes, are living lifestyles that deviate significantly from collectivistic norms predominant in Japanese society due to globalization pressures being exerted on Japanese society (Norasakkunkit, Uchida, & Toivonen, 2012). These marginalized individuals, the majority of whom do not meet any diagnostic criteria for a psychological disorder (Norasakkunkit & Uchida, under review), can be described as cultural dropouts.  Recently, Uchida and Norasakkunkit (under review) developed a self-report measure to determine the risk of becoming marginalized in their society. This risk factor has been associated with a culturally deviant motivational style as well as attitudes that deviate from collectivistic ideals (Norasakkunkit & Uchida, 2011). However, lower levels of collectivistic attitudes at the perceived self level are not necessarily associated with lower levels of collectivistic attitudes at the ideal self level. Furthermore, lower levels of collectivistic attitudes are not necessarily associated with lower levels of a local identity. To test these relationships more directly, the current study employed an Ideal Collectivism Scale and a Local Identity Scale. 119 Japanese university participants were recruited.  28 of them were classified as being high risk of dropping out of society according to the marginalization risk scale. As expected, high risk students scored significantly lower on local identity relative to low risk students, and this relationship was significantly mediated by levels of collectivistic ideal self. Thus, results suggest that when individuals expect to be marginalized in their society, they may dissociate themselves from local identity and culturally dominant values and that this dissociation may be one of the consequences of globalization.

#30 “I” Feel Good When I Win, “We” Feel Good When You Win: Self-Construal Priming Modulates the Neural Response to Reward for Self vs. Others
Presenter(s): Michael E. W. Varnum, Zhenhao Shi, & Shihui Han
Affiliation(s): Peking University

We tend to experience more pleasure when we get rewards than when we watch others receive those same reward. In the present study we sought to test whether it is possible to feel an equal sense of reward when the self and others are rewarded by manipulating participants’ self-construal (independent vs. interdependent) in an fMRI paradigm. Participants’ played a card guessing game while in the scanner in which their guesses were linked to bonus payments or the loss of money for the participant or a gender-matched friend who had also been recruited for the study. Before half of the blocks participants were primed with Independence by reading sentences with first person singular pronouns, and before the other half they were primed with Interdependence by reading sentences with first person plural pronouns. Consistent with our predictions, we observed significant 2x2 interactions such that when primed with Independence subjects showed greater activation in the right and left ventral striatum in response to own rewards vs. friend’s rewards, whereas there was no difference in activation in response to own vs. friend’s rewards when subjects were primed with Interdependence. These results provide the first demonstration that neural response to others reward may be equal to response to one’s own rewards. When we incorporate others into the self we experience their rewards as our own. Further, this study demonstrates that self-construal, one of the key dimensions of culture, affects psychological processes as basic as the experience of reward.

#31
Cross-Cultural Similarities and Differences in Future Expectations and Desires for Personality Change
Presenter(s): Rachel Woods
Affiliation(s): Willamette University

Research suggests that the period of emerging adulthood contains the most pervasive pattern of personality change within the lifespan (Roberts et al., 2006). However, little work has considered the individual as a potential agent of such change, and their expectations and desires for change. The present study examines emerging adults across different cultures on Big Five traits and two aspects of well-being: life satisfaction and self-esteem. Across three college samples (USA: N=237; Japan: N=74; Russia: N=104), participants rated their expectations and desires to change throughout the next four years. Results demonstrated all samples had similar, high expectations and desires for change in Extraversion and Conscientiousness, but expectations and desires for the other traits varied across the samples. This suggests both cultural similarity and specificity in an active account of personality change. Potential cultural value differences such as collectivism vs. individualism that may have an impact on personality change are discussed.

#32
Do East Asian Men Prefer Sons? The Role of Culture and Gender in Offspring Sex Preference under Mortality Salience
Presenter(s): Yang Fong
Affiliation(s): University of Alberta

Desire for offspring is a terror management defense mechanism to cope with death anxiety (Wisman & Goldenberg, 2005). We propose cultural differences for workings of this mechanism. Since East Asian culture prizes the importance of carrying on family lines more than North American culture, we expect reminders of their death, but not pain, to increase male East Asians’ preference for sons, who typically pass on their family names to their children. This prediction does not hold for female East-Asians, who are not expected to pass on family names to their children, and North Americans, whose culture lacks this imperative. We found support for this hypothesis in a sample of Euro-Canadian and East-Asian undergraduates in Canada using a between-subjects design: under mortality salience, male East-Asians, but not all other groups, increased their preference for sons, and believed more strongly that carrying on the family line is important to their family.
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