Individualist and collectivist norms: when it's ok to go your own way

Mapping out the interpersonal boundary stones in contemporary China: Guanxi network structure and its association with traditional culture endorsement

Guanxi research would benefit from an empirical description of holistic guanxi network structures and consideration of sociologically meaningful antecedents such as one's cultural value endorsement. This study, inspired by the relational sociology and drawing on the reported trustworthiness of a rich array of referees in one's guanxi network collected from the Traditional Culture and Cognitive Pattern Survey, identifies two types of guanxi network structures in contemporary China: one is featured by the binary distinction between family and non-family referees, and the other displays a fourfold classification scheme, respectively concerning parents, nuclear family members (children and spouse), other relatives and close friends, and acquaintances. Furthermore, traditional culture endorsement is positively correlated with the likelihood of being subject to the binary classification scheme, while some counter social forces, such as the establishment of quasi-kinship relationships, encourage one to lean toward the more fine-grained fourfold guanxi network partitioning.

Detecting fake news during COVID-19 in Indonesia: the role of trust level

BACKGROUND

The use of social media as a platform to access news and information has the potential to lead to the spread of fake news in Indonesia. This study aims to (1) understand the trust characteristics in information of Indonesians during COVID-19; (2) identify Indonesians' ability to detect COVID-19 fake news; and (3) analyze the relationship between people's trust characteristics in information with regard to COVID-19 information and their ability to detect fake news.

METHOD

An online survey was conducted with 751 Indonesians who use social media to access information about COVID-19. Cultural theory is used to categorize people's trust characteristics in information, while signal detection theory is employed to identify people's ability to discriminate between fake and real news.

RESULTS

The results showed that 61% of respondents were categorized as having hierarchy trust characteristics. Concerning the detectability of fake news, most respondents could discriminate between fake and real news. Lastly, there was a relationship between trust characteristics in information and bias tendencies in detecting fake news.

CONCLUSIONS

The respondents have hierarchy trust characteristics, indicating they trusted government information related to COVID-19 issues. The respondents also have high ability to discriminate between fake and real news, even though they tended to miss more errors than identify false alarms when detecting fake news. The findings showed that respondents who had hierarchy and egalitarian characteristics tended to perceive real news as fake news and had a better ability to distinguish fake news compared to other trust characteristics in information.

Gender and cross-country differences in the determinants of sustainable diet intentions: a multigroup analysis of the UK, China, Sweden, and Brazil

Introduction

Gender differences have been identified in both the engagement in and the determinants of sustainable diet behaviours. However, as engagement in pro-environmental behaviours varies across countries, the consistency of gender differences could follow similar patterns. Understanding the factors underlying gender and country differences in diet intentions is important for determining how to promote sustainable diets in different populations.

Methods

Using survey data from the UK, China, Sweden and Brazil (N=4,569), this paper examines the influence of subjective norms, diet-related identity, perceived status of meat consumption, environmental identity and environmental concern on sustainable diet intentions. Multigroup analysis was used to explore gender and country differences in the influence of these variables, and whether gender differences were consistent across the four countries.

Results

The findings show that there are gender differences in the influence of diet-related identity and perceived status of meat consumption, as well as cross-country differences in all factors except subjective norms. Holding a strong diet-related meat identity negatively affected sustainable diet intentions in all groups. Crucially, however, gender differences are not consistent across countries.

Discussion

These results suggest that individuals' intentions to engage in sustainable diet behaviours are influenced by nationally unique gender associations.

Fighting inequalities in times of pandemic: The role of politicized identities and interdependent self-construal in coping with economic threat

During the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions encouraged social isolation and non-interaction with other people to prevent contagion. Still, the response to an impending economic crisis must be through the collective organization. In this set of pre-registered studies, we analyse two possible mechanisms of coping with collective economic threats: shared social identity and interdependent self-construction. We conducted three correlational studies during the pandemic in May-October 2020 (Study 1, N = 363; Study 2, N = 250; Study 3, N = 416). Results show that shared identity at two levels of politicization (i.e., working-class and 99% identities) and interdependent self-construal mediated the relationship between collective economic threat, intolerance towards economic inequality and collective actions to reduce it. The results highlight that the collective economic threat can reinforce the sense of community-either through the activation of a politicized collective identity, such as the working class or the 99% or through the activation of an interdependent self-which in turn can trigger greater involvement in the fight against economic inequality. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

"I'll eat meat because that's what we do": The role of national norms and national social identification on meat eating

Through meat-eating choices, people are able to express their national social identification and adhere to broader cultural norms. The current research examines the relationship between people's perceptions of national descriptive and injunctive meat-eating norms and their national social identification, on the one hand, and their attitudes toward meat-eating and their intentions to eat meat, on the other hand. In a sample that includes American, British, and Australian participants, we observe that: (1) favorable attitudes toward meat eating are positively predicted by national injunctive but not descriptive norms, and (2) intentions to eat meat are positively predicted by national descriptive but not injunctive norms. National social identification positively predicts both attitudes and intentions. Intentions to eat meat were also predicted by a three-way interaction between descriptive and injunctive norms, and social identification. Alignment of relatively high descriptive and injunctive meat-eating norms predicted meat-eating intentions more than alignment of relatively low descriptive and injunctive norms. With normative misalignment, however, people began to rely on their national social identifications as a basis for meat-eating intentions. The data are discussed with reference to the impact of social factors in influencing meat consumption. Moreover, we consider the potential for national social identification to have a normative component of meat consumption independent of descriptive and injunctive norms. This work advances our understanding of meat consumption by revealing national-level normative and identity processes beyond more focused identities of, for example, an environmentalist, a health conscious person, or an animal rights activist.

I'll emulate you…only if you want me to: The impact of ingroup norms and status on the identification-assimilation relationship

High identifiers are generally more willing to affiliate to their group and, as a result, perceive themselves and behave as prototypical members of their group. But is this always the case? The present research investigates the when and the why of the positive relationship between ingroup identification and assimilation by focusing on the role of the content of the injunctive ingroup norm (collectivistic vs. individualistic) and the ingroup status. Two experiments showed a positive identification-assimilation relationship in the low-status group when the ingroup norm was collectivistic, but not when the norm was individualistic. Moreover, the relationship was unreliable in the high-status group, regardless of the content of the norm. In a third study, these findings were extended to a more general measure of group affiliation (i.e., the need to belong). This research suggests that the greater tendency of high identifiers to assimilate to their group–and, more generally, to affiliate to groups–is accounted for by conformity motivations and strategies aimed at coping with an unfavorable social identity.

Factional conflict in groups: How majorities and minorities relate to one another

Disagreement between numerically larger (majority) and smaller (minority) factions in groups is both common and consequential. For these reasons, there is a long tradition of social psychological interest in the causes and consequences of such disagreement. Early work focused on minority members’ movement toward the majority (majority influence) and majority members’ (negative) perceptions and evaluations of those who refused to move. Later work focused on similarities and differences between majority influence and its mirror opposite, minority influence, and on majority members’ (sometimes relatively positive) perceptions and evaluations of minority members. This paper summarizes current knowledge on these topics and suggests promising avenues for future research.

Collective resistance despite complicity: High identifiers rise above the legitimization of disadvantage by the in-group

How do individuals deal with group disadvantage when their fellow in-group members conceive it as legitimate? Integrating research on the normative conflict model (Packer, 2008, Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev., 12, 50) and collective action, we expect high identifiers to reject the in-group norm of legitimacy that justifies the inequality, and to assert that the group is actually able and willing to contest the disadvantage by collective means. In Study 1 and Study 2, we tested this hypothesis in different intergroup contexts. The results confirmed our predictions and also showed one boundary condition for high identifiers, namely that the content of the social identity supports resistance. In Study 3, we found support for our hypothesis using artificial groups and manipulating identification experimentally. These results show that even when a disadvantaged group appears to accept its situation, high identified in-group members will still contest this and, moreover, expect other in-group members to support them in this endeavour.

Joking about ourselves: Effects of disparaging humor on ingroup stereotyping

In three studies, we examined whether ingroup disparaging humor leads to greater stereotyping of the ingroup. First, in Study 1, ( N = 101) university students were exposed to (a) ingroup disparaging humor, (b) neutral humor, or (c) ingroup disparaging nonhumorous text. Participants exposed to disparaging humor reported more stereotypic evaluations than those in the neutral humor or disparaging text condition. Study 2 ( N = 167) replicated these findings with humor conditions (disparaging vs. neutral) and showed that ingroup identification moderated the effects of the type of humor. Low identifiers exposed to ingroup disparaging humor (vs. those in the control condition) reported a greater frequency of stereotypic evaluations, whereas the manipulation did not affect high identifiers. Finally, Study 3 ( N = 153) also manipulated the source of the jokes. As in Study 2, we found an interaction effect showing that high identifiers were not affected by the manipulation, whereas for low identifiers disparaging humor increased stereotyping and led to more negative emotions toward the ingroup. No significant effects were found for source of the jokes. We discuss findings in terms of how the traditional pattern of humor facilitating outgroup stereotyping also seems to apply to ingroup stereotyping.

Beyond Cohesiveness

Despite a general consensus that cohesiveness promotes positive outcomes in group psychotherapy, the empirical evidence for this notion is limited. In this article the literature on group cohesiveness and its relation to clinical outcomes is reviewed. Three interrelated problems with this literature are highlighted: A lack of consensus as to how to conceptualize cohesiveness, inconsistent measurements of cohesiveness, and lack of attention to possible mediators of the cohesiveness-outcome relationship. The authors argue that the term cohesiveness is too vague and amorphous to be useful as a unitary construct and that the field could benefit by identifying more specific group processes that facilitate—or impede—clinical outcomes. They review social psychological research on group processes, and discuss how three constructs— group identification, independence, and homogeneity—might be applied to the clinical literature. Furthermore, in an attempt to stimulate a closer examination of mediational paths in the literature on group psychotherapy, they discuss possible mechanisms through which group processes affect clinical outcomes.

The Social Identity Perspective

The historical development, metatheoretical background, and current state of the social identity perspective in social psychology are described. Although originally an analysis mainly of intergroup relations between large-scale social categories, and more recently an analysis with a strong social cognitive emphasis, this article shows that the social identity perspective is intended to be a general analysis of group membership and group processes. It focuses on the generative relationship between collective self-conception and group phenomena. To demonstrate the relevance of the social identity perspective to small groups, the article describes social identity research in a number of areas: differentiation within groups; leadership; deviance; group decision making; organizations; computermediated communication; mobilization, collective action, and social loafing; and group culture. These are the areas in which most work has been done and which are therefore best placed for further developments in the near future.

Protecting Threatened Identity: Sticking with the Group by Emphasizing Ingroup Heterogeneity

In two studies (Ns=163, 164), the authors tested the prediction that perceptions of group variability can steer and guide the way that loyalty is expressed in times of identity threat. In both studies, participants were classified as lower or higher identifiers on the basis of their scores on a group identification measure, and manipulations involved group variability perceptions (homogeneous ingroup vs. heterogeneous ingroup) and threat to the ingroup. Higher identifiers presented with a homogeneous ingroup perceived more ingroup homogeneity under threat than when there was no threat. In contrast, higher identifiers who perceived the ingroup initially as heterogeneous perceived more ingroup heterogeneity under threat than in no threat conditions. Lower identifiers perceived more ingroup heterogeneity under threat (vs. no threat) irrespective of manipulated group variability perceptions. Discussion focuses on different ways that group loyalty can be expressed in times of identity threat.

Beyond old dichotomies: Individual differentiation can occur through group commitment, not despite it

The target article resuscitates an old but outdated dichotomy: a theoretical dualism between group belonging and intragroup differentiation. A convergence of evidence - including that within the social identity tradition - shows that intragroup differentiation is not incompatible with strong group identity. Indeed, when norms encourage autonomy, dissent, and individual freedom, intragroup differentiation occurs through group commitment, not despite it.

Marginal and happy? The need for uniqueness predicts the adjustment of marginal immigrants

Marginalization is often presented as the strategy associated with the worst adjustment for immigrants. This study identifies a critical variable that buffers marginal immigrants from the negative effects of marginalization on adjustment: The need for uniqueness. In three studies, we surveyed immigrants recruited on university campuses (n = 119, n = 116) and in the field (n = 61). Among marginal immigrants, a higher need for uniqueness predicted higher self-esteem (Study 1), affect (Study 2), and life satisfaction (Study 3), and marginally higher happiness (Study 2) and self-esteem (Study 3). No relationship between the need for uniqueness and adjustment was found among non-marginal immigrants. The adaptive value of the need for uniqueness for marginal immigrants is discussed.

South African Hindu psychologists' perceptions of mental illness

Conceptualisations of mental illness are not universally applicable, as culture shapes the expression, perceptions and treatment preferences thereof. By focusing on the perceptions of Hindu psychologists regarding mental illness, this study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the impact that religious beliefs have on such conceptualisations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six Hindu psychologists around the Johannesburg area, South Africa. Responses were analysed using thematic content analysis. From the findings, it was evident that religion plays a critical role in the understanding and treatment of mental illness. Hindu beliefs around psychological disturbances were salient. Additionally, it was found that a tension existed between psychologists' awareness of the influential function of religion, particularly amongst collectivistic communities such as the Hindu community, and their occupational understandings and practices, which are deeply rooted in Western thought. Furthermore, it was suggested that the fear of stigma prevented Hindu clients from reaping the benefits of seeking help from culturally competent psychologists.

Evaluating Group Member Behaviour Under Individualist and Collectivist Norms

Research has shown that people in group contexts prefer group members who display collectivist as opposed to individualist behavior, but that preference is attenuated when the prevailing group norm prescribes individualism. The present study investigated this effect in people from a predominantly individualist or collectivist cultural background. Due to their greater sensitivity to contextual social cues, individuals from a collectivist background were expected to give more polarized evaluations of group members than individuals from an individualist background. Group member evaluations were gathered in samples from a collectivist and an individualist background, manipulating the prevailing group norm (individualist or collectivist) and the behavior of a hypothetical group member (individualist or collectivist). The previously observed attenuation effect in which people provided more positive evaluations of individualist behavior under an individualist, as opposed to a collectivist, group norm was found only in participants from a collectivist cultural background. Implications of our findings and the absence of an attenuation effect in the individualist sample are discussed.

Cultural values and performance appraisal: assessing the effects of rater self-construal on performance ratings

Much of the prior research investigating the influence of cultural values on performance ratings has focused either on conducting cross-national comparisons among raters or using cultural level individualism/collectivism scales to measure the effects of cultural values on performance ratings. Recent research has shown that there is considerable within country variation in cultural values, i.e. people in one country can be more individualistic or collectivistic in nature. Taking the latter perspective, the present study used Markus and Kitayama's (1991) conceptualization of independent and interdependent self-construals as measures of individual variations in cultural values to investigate within culture variations in performance ratings. Results suggest that rater self-construal has a significant influence on overall performance evaluations; specifically, raters with a highly interdependent self-construal tend to show a preference for interdependent ratees, whereas raters high on independent self-construal do not show a preference for specific type of ratees when making overall performance evaluations. Although rater self-construal significantly influenced overall performance evaluations, no such effects were observed for specific dimension ratings. Implications of these results for performance appraisal research and practice are discussed.

The Motivational Dynamics of Dissent Decisions

We propose that dissent decisions involve a tension between shorter term group stability goals and longer term group change goals. Strongly identified members may be animated by either goal, and their behavior with respect to group norms is influenced by which is currently dominant. In two experiments, we manipulated construal level, a factor that affects goal selection, such that people are more likely to make decisions that further long-term goals at high (vs. low) construal level. As predicted, at high construal level, strong identifiers were more willing to dissent from group norms than weak identifiers; at low construal level, strong identifiers were equally or more conformist. These findings advance understanding of the motivational dynamics of dissent decisions and speak to the nature of depersonalization/self-categorization in groups. Identified members retained individual agency and exercised their own judgment regarding group norms, choosing to deviate when they perceived it to be in the group’s interest.

Individualism and Collectivism: What Differences between Portuguese and Romanian Adolescents?

This article presents the results of a series of preliminary comparisons, between the Portuguese and Romanian cultural contexts, on the individualism-collectivism (IND/COL) cultural dimension. The IND/COL was evaluated with the Individualism-Collectivism Questionnaire – ICQ –, constructed in New Zealand by Shulruf, Hattie and Dixon (2003, Anonymous Questionnaire of Self-Attitudes –AQSA), and adapted to the Portuguese and Romanian contexts by Ciochină and Faria (2007), using studies of confirmatory factor analysis. The ICQ composed by 26 items, 15 evaluating the IND scale– with three subscales (Uniqueness, Competition and Responsibility) –, and 11 evaluating the COL scale – with two subscales (Harmony and Advice) –, was administered to 395 subjects, 200 Portuguese and 195 Romanian, 10th and 12th graders. On the whole, in the Portuguese and Romanian samples, the multivariate and univariate statistical analyses evidenced the existence of two independent variables – gender and cultural context –, with significant effects, main and of interaction, on the scales and subscales of the ICQ. The results were discussed taking into consideration the specificities of the educational systems in the two cultural contexts, which are inevitably shaped by socio-cultural factors characteristic of the two countries considered in the present study – Portugal and Romania.

Impact of an individualist vs. collectivist context on the social valorization of internal explanations

The theory of the norm of internality emphasizes the role of Western individualism in the normativity of internal explanations. The present study examines the link between the social value accorded to targets expressing internal vs. external explanations and individualist vs. collectivist contexts. Sixty-three male and female French management sciences students evaluated two targets (internal vs. external) in a simulated recruitment situation. The job vacancy was partially manipulated to create individualist vs. collectivist contexts. Participants were asked to state whether or not they would recruit the targets and to describe the targets on traits relating to social utility (market value) and social desirability (likeability). As expected, the results showed that the effect of the targets' internality on recruitment judgments and perceived social utility was stronger in the individualist context than in the collectivist context. However, the analysis also revealed that the participant's gender moderated the impact of the context on the evaluation of the targets. The results showed that the context strongly affected the men's judgments, whereas it had no effect on the women's judgments.

Effects of self-categorization on orientation towards health

Two studies examined the effects of self-categorization on people's orientation towards health. In Study 1, making salient a social identity which did not advocate a positive orientation towards health led group members to report weaker intentions to engage in health promotion behaviours in the future than did making salient a social identity which had a more positive health orientation. Study 2 showed that orientation towards health is influenced by the intergroup comparative context in which social identity is made salient. When social identity was made salient via an upward intergroup social comparison, participants' evaluation of the in-group's health was more negative, but their commitment to performing health promotion behaviours in the future was stronger, compared to when that same identity was made salient via a downward intergroup comparison. The findings are discussed in relation to the emerging debate concerning the impact of social group processes on health.

Children's group nous: understanding and applying peer exclusion within and between groups

In Study 1, 167 English children aged 6-8 or 9-11 evaluated peer English or French soccer fans that were loyal or partially disloyal. In Study 2, 149 children aged 5-11 made judgments about generic inclusion norms between and within competitive groups. In both studies, children's understanding of intergroup inclusion/exclusion norms (group nous) was predicted by theory of social mind (a social perspective taking measure) but not multiple classification skill. In Study 2, the number of groups children belonged to (an index of peer group experience) also predicted group nous. Supporting the developmental subjective group dynamics model (D. Abrams, A. Rutland, & L. Cameron, 2003), children's experience and perspective taking help them make sense of inter- and intragroup inclusion and exclusion.

Social categorization and empathy for outgroup members

Three experiments (N=370) investigated the effects of social categorization on the experience of empathy. In Experiment 1, university students reported their empathy for, and intentions to help, a student who described a distressful experience. As predicted, participants reported stronger empathy and helping intentions when the student belonged to an ingroup compared to an outgroup university. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that stronger empathy for outgroup members was experienced following the activation of an ingroup norm that prescribed the experience of this emotion. Activating this norm also led to the expression of more positive attitudes towards the outgroup (Experiment 3), and empathy fully mediated this effect. These findings indicate that like other emotions, empathy is influenced by social categorization processes.

When group members admit to being conformist: the role of relative intragroup status in conformity self-reports

Five studies examined the hypothesis that people will strategically portray the self as being more group influenced the more junior they feel within the group. Among social psychologists (Study 1), ratings of self-conformity by group members were greater when the status of the participant was low than when it was high. These effects were replicated in Studies 2, 3, and 4 in which relative intragroup status was manipulated. In Study 3, the authors found junior group members described themselves as more conformist than senior members when they were addressing an ingroup audience, but when they were addressing an outgroup audience the effect disappeared. Furthermore, junior members (but not senior members) rated themselves as more conformist when they were led to believe their responses were public than when responses were private (Study 5). The discussion focuses on the strategic processes underlying low-status group members' self-reports of group influence and the functional role of conformity in groups.

Successful or Friendly? Inferring Achievement and Relational Competence from Individualist and Collectivist Attitudes

Two experiments investigated to what extent different types of individualist and collectivist attitudes are perceived as leading to achievement and relational competence. In Study 1, the degree of unique (horizontal individualism) and competitive (vertical individualism) attitudes of a fictitious target person were manipulated, whereas in Study 2 interdependent (horizontal collectivism) and group-dependent (vertical collectivism) attitudes were varied. The results showed that both horizontal individualism and collectivism were perceived as leading to achievement and relational competence. In turn, vertical individualism led to achievement, whereas vertical collectivism was perceived as inducing only modest relational competence and achievement. Overall, the findings demonstrate that horizontal attitudes were considered functional for a wider range of social outcomes than vertical attitudes.

Individuality and social influence in groups: inductive and deductive routes to group identity

A distinction between forms of social identity formation in small interactive groups is investigated. In groups in which a common identity is available or given, norms for individual behavior may be deduced from group properties (deductive identity). In groups in which interpersonal relations are central, a group identity may also be induced from individual group members' contributions, making individuality and individual distinctiveness a defining feature of the group (inductive identity). Two studies examined the prediction that depersonalization produced by anonymity has opposite effects for groups in which social identity has been induced or deduced. Results confirmed the prediction that depersonalization increases social influence in groups whose identity was more deductive. In contrast, depersonalization decreases social influence in inductive identity groups. Implications for the role of social identity in small groups are discussed. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).