Assimilation and contrast in social comparisons as a consequence of self-construal activation

Young dictators-Speaking about oneself decreases generosity in children from two cultural contexts

Sharing of resources is a common feature of human societies. Yet, there is substantial societal variation in children's generosity, and this variation emerges during middle childhood. Societal differences in self-construal orientation may be one factor influencing the ontogeny of generosity. Here, we examine anonymous Dictator Game sharing in 7-and-8-year-olds from two distinct societies: India and the UK (N = 180). We used self-construal manipulations to investigate whether priming self- or other-focused conversations would differentially influence children's generosity. There were no differences in generosity between populations. While a significant reduction in generosity was found following self-priming in both societies, other-priming was ineffectual. The findings are discussed in relation to experimental features and the role of anonymity and reputational concerns.

Experimental Effects of Viewing Thin and Plus-Size Models in Objectifying and Empowering Contexts on Instagram

To counter the negative effects of viewing unrealistically thin and attractive models in beauty and fashion advertisements, some companies depict women with larger bodies in their advertisement campaigns. Previous experimental evidence suggests women may feel more satisfied with their own bodies immediately after viewing advertisements featuring these models. The current study aimed to extend these findings by examining the moderating role of trait body discrepancies and the presence of objectifying advertising slogans in advertisements. A sample of 202 undergraduate students who identified as female viewed advertisements depicted on Instagram that varied in the model's body size (thin or plus-size) and slogan type (objectifying or empowering). Body satisfaction and actual-ideal body discrepancy were measured. As expected, the body size of the model significantly improved women's body satisfaction and this effect was moderated by participants' actual-ideal body discrepancy. No effects for objectifying slogans (versus empowering slogans) featured in the advertisements were discovered. The implications for these findings are discussed.

I am afraid, so I buy it! The effects of anxiety on consumer assimilation and differentiation needs amongst individuals primed with independent and interdependent self-construal

Individuals tend to satisfy their assimilation needs by purchasing products that bear a specific group identity. Such products might be preferred when an individual is threatened because anxiety increases affiliative needs. In contrast, individuals might be more attracted to unique-design products when they feel less anxious. We examined the impact of anxiety on assimilation and differentiation needs amongst consumers primed with independent and interdependent self-construal. We expected that anxiety would produce stronger assimilation needs and show a weaker preference for unique products. In Study 1 (N = 110), we found that individuals in the anxiety-inducing condition decreased their evaluation of unique products and exhibited stronger assimilation needs. Independents who felt anxiety reacted with a reduced preference for group-linked products. Study 2 (N = 102) found that introducing an anxiety-decreasing agent (vanilla scent) after a social identity threat reduced differentiation needs and preference for unique products. Physiological data showed that the social identity threat increased sympathetic arousal, but the vanilla scent did not have a soothing effect on physiological reactivity. Overall, this work showed that both anxiety and vanilla scent reduced consumer need for differentiation. Furthermore, for independents, anxiety reduced assimilation needs. We found novel determinants of assimilation/differentiation needs with implications for advertising and retailing products with a unique design.

Moving From Me to We: Interpersonal Coordination’s Effects on Self-Construal

We all move in time together throughout our lives, and doing so has been shown to lead to more pro-social attitudes and behaviors towards co-actors. However, little research has investigated how coordinated movement affects how individuals feel about themselves. This mixed-methods study took self-generated qualitative responses of how participants construed their own identities after either coordinated movement or a carefully matched control task. Responses were analysed qualitatively using thematic analyses, and quantitatively using content analysis. Four themes were identified from thematic analysis, and inferential statistical testing showed significant differences in how participants construed their identities post coordination (cf. control). Participants in the coordinated condition generated a higher proportion of interdependent (social) rather than independent (personal) self-construals, driven by differences in broad social structures/constructs rather than close specific social relations. Furthermore, participants in the coordinated condition reported less mental state items, and more sexual/romantic items. These findings may explain how and why coordinated movement leads to prosociality amongst those who take part, by leading individuals to think of themselves and each other in group terms.

Lost in the crowd: Imagining walking in synchrony with a crowd increases affiliation and deindividuation

Moving in time with others-interpersonal coordination-increases affiliation, helping behaviours and gives rise to a host of other prosocial outcomes. Recent research suggests that merely imagining coordination may lead to similar social effects. In the present study, participants were asked to imagine walking with a crowd in a coordinated (versus uncoordinated) way to explore the effects of imagined coordination on individuals' perceptions of themselves and the crowd. Imagined coordination led to greater levels of deindividuation and affiliation. That is, participants were less likely to report seeing themselves as unique individuals, instead viewing themselves as a part of a group (deindividuation) and more likely to report a sense of emotional closeness (affiliation) with the imagined group. Deindividuation partially mediated the effect of imagined coordination on affiliation. This work establishes that imagined synchrony can be employed online to foster prosocial attitudes towards groups of people, and that a process of deindividuation might mediate this effect.

Considering self or others across two cultural contexts: How children's resource allocation is affected by self-construal manipulations

Most humans share to some degree. Yet, from middle childhood, sharing behavior varies substantially across societies. Here, for the first time, we explored the effect of self-construal manipulation on sharing decisions in 7- and 8-year-old children from two distinct societies: urban India and urban United Kingdom. Children participated in one of three conditions that focused attention on independence, interdependence, or a control. Sharing was then assessed across three resource allocation games. A focus on independence resulted in reduced generosity in both societies. However, an intriguing societal difference emerged following a focus on interdependence, where only Indian children from traditional extended families displayed greater generosity in one of the resource allocation games. Thus, a focus on independence can move children from diverse societies toward selfishness with relative ease, but a focus on interdependence is very limited in its effectiveness to promote generosity.

Collectivistic Independence Promotes Group Creativity by Reducing Idea Fixation

The present study examined the joint impact of collectivistic value orientation and independent self-representation of group members upon group creativity. In a laboratory experiment involving three-person student teams ( N = 72), we induced a collectivistic (vs. an individualistic) value orientation and independent (vs. interdependent) self-representation via priming methods. Using a group-brainstorming paradigm, we found as expected that groups generated more original ideas when members combined a collectivistic value orientation with independent self-representation than with interdependent self-representation. By contrast, differences in self-representation did not have a significant effect when an individualistic value orientation was made salient. Furthermore, we found that this effect was mediated by the degree of idea fixation within the group, thereby illuminating the underlying cognitive mechanism of the observed synergy effect. Implications of the findings for research on group creativity and future directions are discussed.

The culture of social comparison

Humans have the unique ability to coordinate behavior, economic exchange, political action, and social relationships across immense distances and times. To keep this level of coordination running smoothly, we often look to others as comparison standards for how to behave, think, and feel. A detailed understanding of the relation between social comparison and broad patterns of social life is lacking, however. The current research is a step in this direction—we show that social comparison is linked to cultural practices that promote strong norms and punishment for deviance (tightness) and those that promote relational self-construal (collectivism). These findings advance our understanding of the origins of social comparison and highlight the essential role of comparison for the development of social life.

Social comparison is one of the most ubiquitous features of human social life. This fundamental human tendency to look to others for information about how to think, feel, and behave has provided us with the ability to thrive in a highly complex and interconnected modern social world. Despite its prominent role, however, a detailed understanding of the cultural foundations of social comparison is lacking. The current research aims to fill this gap by showing that two prominent cultural dimensions, tightness–looseness and individualism–collectivism, uniquely explain variation in social-comparison proclivity across individuals, situations, and cultures. We first demonstrate the yet-undocumented link between cultural tightness and comparison proclivity across individuals, and further show that perceptions of ambient tightness and interdependence are uniquely associated with stronger social-comparison tendencies. Next, we show that these associations arise across social settings and can be attributed to properties of the settings themselves, not solely to individual differences. Finally, we show that both tight and collectivistic US states show a propensity to engage in Google searches related to specific social-comparison emotions, but that the tightness–comparison link arises from a unique psychological mechanism. Altogether, these findings show that social comparison—a fundamental aspect of human cognition—is linked to cultural practices based both in prevalence and strength of social norms as well as the tendency to construe the self in relation to others.

Thinking of me: Self-focus reduces sharing and helping in seven- to eight-year-olds

By 7-to 8-years of age, most children readily adhere to prosocial norms aimed at benefiting others through giving up time and effort (helping) or resources (sharing). Two studies explored whether sharing and helping by 7-to 8-year olds (N = 180) could be influenced by priming children's attention on themselves or their friends through a semi-structured interview. Results revealed that self-priming led to reductions in both sharing and helping compared to friendship-priming or a control condition. These findings are considered as indicative of the fragile state of prosocial behaviours at this age that can be easily shifted towards more selfish biases by simple priming.

Do individualism and collectivism on three levels (country, individual, and situation) influence theory-of-mind efficiency? A cross-country study

This study investigated whether individualism and collectivism (IC) at country, individual, and situational level influence how quickly and accurately people can infer mental states (i.e. theory of mind, or ToM), indexed by accuracy and reaction time in a ToM task. We hypothesized that collectivism (having an interdependent self and valuing group concerns), compared to individualism (having an independent self and valuing personal concerns), is associated with greater accuracy and speed in recognizing and understanding the thoughts and feelings of others. Students (N = 207) from individualism-representative (the Netherlands) and collectivism-representative (Vietnam) countries (Country IC) answered an individualism-collectivism questionnaire (Individual IC) and were randomly assigned to an individualism-primed, collectivism-primed, or no-prime task (Situational IC) before performing a ToM task. The data showed vast differences between the Dutch and Vietnamese groups that might not be attributable to experimental manipulation. Therefore, we analyzed the data for the groups separately and found that Individual IC did not predict ToM accuracy or reaction time performance. Regarding Situational IC, when primed with individualism, the accuracy performance of Vietnamese participants in affective ToM trials decreased compared to when primed with collectivism and when no prime was used. However, an interesting pattern emerged: Dutch participants were least accurate in affective ToM trials, while Vietnamese participants were quickest in affective ToM trials. Our research also highlights a dilemma faced by cross-cultural researchers who use hard-to-reach populations but face the challenge of disentangling experimental effects from biases that might emerge due to an interaction between cultural differences and experimental settings. We propose suggestions for overcoming such challenges.

The influence of nonconscious processes on perceptions of downsizing and terminations

Although social and cognitive psychologists have developed a large body of research on priming and other nonconscious processes, relatively little research has focused on how these issues influence organizationally relevant phenomena. The current research sought to partially fill this void by examining the influence of nonconscious processes on perceptions of organizational downsizing. In three studies, individuals were primed with traits of self-reliance or employer-reliance either supraliminally (Study 1) or subliminally (Studies 2 and 3). Studies 1 and 2 found that individuals primed with self-reliance had less negative views of downsizing. Experiment 3 found that those primed with self-reliance reported greater perceptions of fair treatment, respect for their boss, and decreased levels of anger in response to a termination scenario. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Dispositional Envy Revisited

Previous research has conceptualized dispositional envy as a unitary construct. Recently however, episodic envy has been shown to emerge in two qualitatively different forms. Benign envy is related to the motivation to move upward, whereas malicious envy is related to pulling superior others down. In four studies ( N = 1,094)—using the newly developed Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS)—we show that dispositional envy is also characterized by two independent dimensions related to distinct motivational dynamics and behavioral consequences. Dispositional benign and malicious envy uniquely predict envious responding following upward social comparisons. Furthermore, they are differentially connected to hope for success and fear of failure. Corresponding to these links, dispositional benign envy predicted faster race performance of marathon runners mediated via higher goal setting. In contrast, dispositional malicious envy predicted race goal disengagement. The findings highlight that disentangling the two sides of envy opens up numerous research avenues.

Analysis of the private, collective, and relational self-cognitions among Han and Tibetan Chinese

Differences in the concepts of private, collective, and relational selves between two Chinese ethnic groups, the Han and Tibetan-adhering to the philosophies of Confucianism and Tibetan Buddhism, respectively-were examined. 128 students (54 men, 74 women; M age = 20.9 yr., SD = 2.2) completed the revised Twenty Statements Test and self-reference paradigm. Study 1 found that for Han participants relational and private selves were ranked similarly and as more important than the collective self. Studies 2 and 3 found that adjective words describing private and relational selves were recalled in greater proportions than words describing the collective self. Tibetan participants showed no significant differences between the three self-cognitions. The findings correspond to differences in self-identity among these two subcultures.

Self-Construal as a Mediator Between Identity Structure and Subjective Well-Being

An examination of the assumptions underlying identity conceptualizations in psychology of self indicates the assumptions are based on an independent, individualistic view of self. If self is constructed as interdependent with others, such identity characteristic as a sense of uniqueness, separateness, and continuity may be less important in promoting well-being. The results of the conducted study (N = 226) indicated that there were weaker relations between various features of identity structure and subjective well-being for individuals with a highly interdependent self-construal than for those with a highly independent self-construal. The results also showed that specificity, separateness, and stability of identity content influenced positive and negative affect through the mediating agency of independent and interdependent self-construals. These findings emphasize the importance of applying a self-construal perspective in considering adaptive functions of identity.

How Will "I" Versus "We" Perform? An Investigation of Future Outlooks and Self-Construals

Previous theory and research suggests that people generate predictions to prepare for an uncertain future, often basing predictions on task-relevant information like prior performance. Four studies test the hypothesis that preparation via prediction occurs more readily when interdependent (vs. independent) self-construals are salient. This hypothesis was supported when examining chronic tendencies to generate negative predictions (Study 1) and spontaneous predictions in response to task-relevant information (Studies 2, 3, and 4), as well as when self-construals were measured (Studies 1, 2, and 4) and primed (Study 3). Moreover, performance prediction occurs in conjunction with increases in task persistence, but only for individuals with interdependent self-construals. Individuals with independent self-construals tend toward preparation via prediction only when preparation is urgent. Discussion centers on the applicability of within-cultural differences in self-construal on cross-cultural investigations, and implications for future research on predictive judgments.

From a Distance …

Egocentric anchoring, that is, overimputing one’s own perspective onto others constitutes a major obstacle for successful perspective taking. Accordingly, differentiating between the self and others is beneficial for perspective taking because it highlights the inadequacy of egocentric anchoring. The current research tested whether activating avoidance motivational orientation enhances perspective-taking performance (compared to approach motivational orientation), because self-other differentiation is facilitated under avoidance orientation. Supporting these predictions, two experiments showed that inducing avoidance motivational orientation (compared to approach orientation) either via goal framing or via the respective arm position enhances perspective-taking performance. Using experimental causal chain design, Study 3a supported the hypothesis that avoidance motivational orientation fosters self-other differentiation, while Study 3b showed that fostering self-other differentiation experimentally enhanced perspective-taking performance. The findings are discussed with regard to the role of psychological distance in perspective taking.

Self-construal priming affects speed of retrieval from short-term memory

We investigated the effects of collective or individual self-construal priming on recall in a short-term memory (STM) task. We primed participants to either their individual or their collective self-construals or a neutral control condition. Participants then completed a STM retrieval task using either random or patterned digit strings. Findings revealed that priming an individual self-construal resulted in faster retrieval of information from STM for both stimulus types. These results indicate that individual self-accessibility improves retrieval speed of digits from STM, regardless of set configuration. More broadly, the present findings extend prior research by adding further evidence of the effects of self-construal priming on cognitive information processing.

Who Uses Groups to Transcend the Limits of the Individual Self? Exploring the Effects of Interdependent Self-Construal and Mortality Salience on Investment in Social Groups

Terror management theory posits that people identify with and invest in culturally derived social groups, in part, to attach the self to something more permanent than one’s physical existence. Accordingly, research demonstrates that reminders of mortality (mortality salience) increase investment in culturally derived in-groups. The current research extends this analysis by examining whether amplified in-group investment following mortality salience is primarily characteristic of people who define the self in terms of social groups (interdependent self-construal). Three studies provided support for this assertion. Mortality salience increased: identification with one’s nation among Chinese (high interdependence culture) but not American (low interdependence culture) participants (Study 1); positivity toward one’s university for students with high, but not low, interdependent self-construal (Study 2); and willingness to self-sacrifice for one’s religious group among participants induced to adopt an interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal (Study 3).

On reducing an empathy gap: the impact of self-construal and order of judgment

Empathy gaps, in which individuals exaggerate self-other similarities or differences, generate errors in social judgments. We investigated whether changing individuals' self-construal may reduce one specific empathy gap: the illusion of courage. Participants primed with independent or interdependent self-construal made judgments about their own and other people's willingness to dance in public. Participants in the interdependence condition showed a reduction of the empathy gap, but only when judging the other first. This finding highlights that simple contextual manipulations have the potential to reduce egocentric biases in social judgments.

Altogether now: Activating interdependent self-construal induces hypermotor resonance

Nonconscious mimicry (NCM) has been widely studied but the mechanisms underlying it remain unspecified. One possibility is that NCM is mediated by motor resonance (MR). If so, factors that moderate NCM may affect MR. Priming interdependent self-construal (InterSC) increases NCM. We measured MR in a cued-response task using electromyography (EMG) while participants squeezed a rubber ball hard or softly in response to colored words. Words were superimposed on videos depicting hard or soft squeezes. Words primed InterSC or independent self-construal (IndSC). When observed squeezes were incongruent with word color, reaction time (RT) slowed and EMG activity was modulated. These effects were greater for InterSC primes than IndSC primes. Participants who failed to notice any difference in the actions in the videos also showed the effect. Activating InterSC causes MR processes to become hypersensitive to observed actions, even in the absence of awareness of what the action was.

The What, How, Why, and Where of Self-Construal

Since the publication of Markus and Kitayama’s pivotal article on culture and the self, the concepts of independent, relational, and interdependent self-construal have become important constructs in cultural psychology and research on the self. The authors review the history of these constructs, their measurement and manipulation, and their roles in cognition, emotion, motivation, and social behavior. They make suggestions for future research and point to problems still to be sorted out. Researchers interested in these constructs have many opportunities to make important contributions to the literature in a variety of fields, including health psychology, education, counseling, and international relations.

Parasocial interaction with my avatar: effects of interdependent self-construal and the mediating role of self-presence in an avatar-based console game, Wii

The "self" concept has grown increasingly important in interactive media environments. This study investigated self-related processes in an avatar-based game console, Wii. A key feature of the Wii is its motion-sensing capability that empowers players to manipulate and interact with items on-screen via movement. The present study examined the effects of video game players' self-construal on parasocial interaction with their avatars and feelings of self-presence. In this study, parasocial interaction was operationally defined as the extent of game players' interpersonal involvement with their avatar and the extent to which game players perceive themselves as interacting with the avatar. Self-presence was defined as the degree to which video game players feel as if their avatar on the screen were their real self. Based on an experiment, the study discovered that game players with high interdependent self-construal showed closer parasocial interaction and higher level of self-presence than those with low interdependent self-construal. Results also showed that self-presence mediated the effects of interdependent self-construal on the parasocial relationship with game players' avatars. Thus, the study discovered an important individual difference factor, interdependent self-construal, affecting the degree to which people form a parasocial relationship with their virtual self that is visually manifested in the form of an avatar. In addition, the present study added empirical evidence about the mediating role played by self-presence in avatar-based video games.

The influence of trait and induced state impulsivity on food intake in normal-weight healthy women

Previous research has linked overeating and overweight/obesity to impulsivity. To find out whether impulsivity causes overeating and hence overweight and obesity, we attempted to prime the concept of impulsivity in healthy participants. In a within-subjects design one sample participated in two conditions. In both conditions participants did a priming task that either hinted subtly at the concept of impulsivity or that was neutral in content. Each time the priming task was followed by a bogus taste test. Trait impulsivity was measured by means of a behavioural task and self-report. Firstly, we hypothesized that participants would eat more during the taste test after they had been primed with the concept "impulsivity" compared to after the control session. Secondly, we expected that a more impulsive personality would predict a heightened food intake. Thirdly, we expected that impulsivity would predict food intake better than restraint. The results showed that both the self-report measure of impulsivity and the behavioural task predicted food intake. Restraint did not significantly predict food intake. Primed impulsivity did not increase food intake, possibly because the priming effect did not last long enough.

Better, Stronger, Faster: Self-Serving Judgment, Affect Regulation, and the Optimal Vigilance Hypothesis

Self-serving judgments, in which the self is viewed more favorably than other people, are ubiquitous. Their dynamic variation within individuals may be explained in terms of the regulation of affect. Self-serving judgments produce positive emotions, and threat increases self-serving judgments (a compensatory pattern that restores affect to a set point or baseline). Perceived mutability is a key moderator of these judgments; low mutability (i.e., the circumstance is closed to modification) triggers a cognitive response aimed at affect regulation, whereas high mutability (i.e., the circumstance is open to further modification) activates direct behavioral remediation. Threats often require immediate response, whereas positive events do not. Because of this brief temporal window, an active mechanism is needed to restore negative (but not positive) affective shifts back to a set point. Without this active reset, an earlier threat would make the individual less vigilant toward a new threat. Thus, when people are sad, they aim to return their mood to baseline, often via self-serving judgments. We argue that asymmetric homeostasis enables optimal vigilance, which establishes a coherent theoretical account of the role of self-serving judgments in affect regulation.

Eine erweiterte Version des Semantisch-Prozeduralen Interface-Modells des Selbst:

Zusammenfassung. Das Semantisch-Prozedurale Interface-Modell des Selbst (SPI, Hannover & Kühnen, 2002 ; Kühnen & Hannover, 2003 ; Kühnen, Hannover & Schubert, 2001 ) beschreibt, auf welche Weise unterschiedliche Selbstkonstruktionen Einfluss auf das Denken, Handeln und Fühlen von Personen nehmen. Vermittelt wird diese Einflussnahme zum einen durch die relative kognitive Zugänglichkeit von (interdependenten versus independenten) Selbstkonstruktionen, d.h. die Leichtigkeit, mit der Personen auf spezifisches Selbstwissen zugreifen. Zum anderen gelten unterschiedliche Informationsverarbeitungsstile, die mit den jeweiligen Selbstkonstruktionen assoziiert sind, als verantwortlich für den Einfluss von Selbstwissen auf individuelles Erleben: Ist überwiegend interdependentes Selbstwissen zugänglich, so werden Informationen tendenziell mit Bezug auf den Kontext verarbeitet, in dem sie erscheinen (kontextabhängiger Verarbeitungsmodus). Ist hingegen eher independentes Selbstwissen verfügbar, wird Information tendenziell unabhängig von ihrem Kontext verarbeitet (kontextunabhängiger Verarbeitungsmodus). Im vorliegenden Aufsatz stellen wir eine zweifache Erweiterung des SPI-Modells vor. Erstens bot das Modell bislang keine Erklärung dafür, durch welche kognitiven Prozesse die unterschiedlichen Verarbeitungsmodi der beiden Selbstkonzeptarten implementiert werden. Wir nehmen nun an, dass der Grad der Kontextabhängigkeit der Informationsverarbeitung von übergeordneten kognitiven Kontrollfunktionen abhängt, nämlich von der a) Fokussierung auf handlungsrelevante Information in einem Kontext, b) von der aktiven Inhibition aufgabenirrelevanter Information und c) vom Aufgaben-Management. Zum zweiten beansprucht unser erweitertes Modell - hinausgehend über die bisherige Betrachtung des Selbst als kognitives System - auch rein motivationale Effekte independenten versus interdependenten Selbstwissens zu erklären. Dazu integrieren wir neben Annahmen über das aktuelle Selbst Annahmen über angestrebte Selbstbilder in das SPI-Modell.

Motivinhalte und Handlungs- versus Lageorientierung

Zusammenfassung: Personen unterscheiden sich darin, wie stark sie ihr Selbst als autonom und unabhängig vom sozialen Kontext (Independente) oder aber als sozial und verbunden mit dem Kontext (Interdependente) definieren. Während die Auswirkungen der Selbstkonstruktion auf kognitive Variablen Gegenstand zahlreicher Studien gewesen sind, wurden mögliche Beziehungen zu motivationalen Prozessen bisher kaum geprüft. Es werden drei Studien vorgestellt, in denen Zusammenhänge zwischen Personunterschieden in motivationalen/volitionalen Tendenzen und interindividuellen Unterschieden in der Art der Selbstkonstruktion untersucht wurden. Unsere Annahme war, dass sich Independente von Interdependenten sowohl in den Inhalten unterscheiden, die in ihren Motiven dominieren, als auch darin, auf welche Art und Weise sie Handlungsabsichten in die Tat umsetzen. Erwartungsgemäß waren Interdependente stärker anschlussmotiviert und weniger leistungsmotiviert, und sie zeigten sich stärker durch Furcht vor Misserfolg motiviert als Independente (Studien 2 und 3, Inhalte). Weiter Interdependente stärker lageorientiert und weniger handlungsorientiert als Independente (Studie 1, Art der Umsetzung von Absichten in Handlungen).

Kultur, Selbstkonzept und Kognition

Zusammenfassung. Mitglieder individualistischer Kulturen definieren ihr Selbst vor allem als eine autonome, von anderen unabhängige Einheit (independente Selbstkonstruktion). Demgegenüber sehen Mitglieder kollektivistischer Kulturen ihre Identität vorwiegend in ihrer Verbundenheit mit anderen Menschen (interdependente Selbstkonstruktion). Frühere Autoren haben postuliert, dass Personen in Abhängigkeit ihrer Selbstkonstruktion soziale Information unterschiedlich verarbeiten. Auf welche Weise Selbstkonstruktionen das Denken, Fühlen und Handeln von Menschen beeinflussen, war bislang jedoch nur ungenau spezifiziert. Ein Grund hierfür kann darin gesucht werden, dass kausale Annahmen über den Einfluss beider Selbstwissensarten in rein kulturvergleichenden Studien nicht überprüft werden können. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein Modell des Selbst dargestellt, das die kulturvergleichende Perspektive und kognitionspsychologische Annahmen über die Dynamik der menschlichen Informationsverarbeitung zu integrieren versucht. Es werden verschiedene Experimente geschildert, die die aus dem Modell ableitbaren Hypothesen überprüfen sollten. Abschließend wird diskutiert, inwieweit das vorgestellte Modell sowohl die kulturvergleichende Forschung als auch die Kognitionspsychologie bereichern kann.

It takes two to mimic: behavioral consequences of self-construals

The present studies demonstrated the moderation of self-construal orientation on mimicry. Recent research has indicated that an interdependent self-construal is associated with assimilation of the other to the self whereas an independent self-construal is associated with minimizing the influence of others on the self (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991; D. Stapel & W. Koomen, 2001). Therefore, the authors hypothesized that an interdependent self-construal would be associated with more mimicry than an independent self-construal. When self-construal orientations were experimentally primed, as in Studies 1 and 2, independent self-construals produced less nonconscious mimicry than interdependent self-construals. When self-construals were examined as cultural differences with either a chronically dominant independent (Americans) or interdependent (Japanese) construal of the self, these results were replicated.