Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

10-2009

Abstract

The authors propose that culture affects people through their perceptions of what is consensually believed. Whereas past research has examined whether cultural differences in social judgment are mediated by differences in individuals’ personal values and beliefs, this article investigates whether they are mediated by differences in individuals’ perceptions of the views of people around them. The authors propose that individuals who perceive that traditional views are culturally consensual (e.g., Chinese participants who believe that most of their fellows hold collectivistic values) will themselves behave and think in culturally typical ways. Four studies of previously well-established cultural differences found that cultural differences were mediated by participants’ perceived consensus as much as by participants’ personal views. This held true for cultural differences in the bases of compliance (Study 1), attributional foci (Study 2), and counterfactual thinking styles (Study 3). To tease apart the effect of consensus perception from other possibly associated individual differences, in Study 4, the authors experimentally manipulated which of 2 cultures was salient to bicultural participants and found that judgments were guided by participants’ perception of the consensual view of the salient culture.

Keywords

culture, cross-country comparison, norms, priming, perceptions, consensual beliefs, personal values

Discipline

Multicultural Psychology | Personality and Social Contexts | Social Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Volume

97

Issue

4

First Page

579

Last Page

597

ISSN

0022-3514

Identifier

10.1037/a0016399

Publisher

American Psychological Association

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016399

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