Beware of friends: The cultural psychology of relational mobility and cautious intimacy

The nasty neighbor effect in humans

Like other group-living species, humans often cooperate more with an in-group member than with out-group members and strangers. Greater in-group favoritism should imply that people also compete less with in-group members than with out-group members and strangers. However, in situations where people could invest to take other's resources and invest to protect against exploitation, we observed the opposite. Akin to what in other species is known as the "nasty neighbor effect," people invested more when facing an in-group rather than out-group member or stranger across 51 nations, in different communities in Kenya, and in representative samples from the United Kingdom. This "nasty neighbor" behavior is independent of in-group favoritism in trust and emerges when people perceive within-group resource scarcity. We discuss how to reconcile that humans exhibit nastiness and favoritism toward in-group members with existing theory on in-group favoritism.

Collectivism, face concern and Chinese-style lurking among university students: the moderating role of trait mindfulness

Introduction

This study focuses on understanding the unique causes and mechanisms of "Chinese-style lurking" on WeChat among university students, within a cultural context that emphasizes collectivism and face concern. The research also looks into the moderating role of trait mindfulness.

Methods

For the confirmation of these phenomena and to validate the theories, a structural equation model was constructed using the Stress-Strain-Outcome (SSO) theory and mindfulness buffering theory. The model was then tested and validated with data from 1,453 valid online surveys. These data were analyzed using the SmartPLS 4.0 software.

Results

The results indicate that collectivism increases face concern, which in turn escalates online social anxiety. Face concern completely mediates between collectivism and online social anxiety, creating a serial mediation effect between face concern, online social anxiety, and lurking behavior. Additionally, trait mindfulness was found to negatively modulate the pathways from collectivism to face concern and from online social anxiety to lurking.

Discussion

The findings underscore the influence of traditional Chinese culture on contemporary students' online behavior and provide a new perspective for understanding social media lurking in an Eastern context. The results suggest that a mindfulness-based approach could be used to mitigate the associated silence and anxiety.

Reverence and Reciprocity in Prioritization of Care to a Parent: The Role of Cultural Ecologies and Implications for Decolonizing Relationality

Relationship research in the dominant psychological science portrays the prioritization of conjugal over consanguine relationships as a healthy standard. We argue that this "standard" pattern is only evident in cultural ecologies of independence. Drawing on the Confucian concept of filial piety, we conducted five studies and two mini meta-analyses to normalize the prioritization of mother over spouse. Cultural ecologies were operationalized by a variety of indexes, including histories of residential mobility, country, manipulated relational/residential mobility, and race. While participants situated in cultural ecologies of independence prioritized care to spouse over mother, participants inhabited in interdependence prioritized care to mother over spouse. Both American and Chinese participants showed greater prioritization of care for mother over spouse when they imagined a relational ecology of interdependence versus independence. Authoritarian filial piety mediated cultural-ecological variation on relational prioritization. Results illuminate cultural-ecological foundations of care and naturalize love as dutiful fulfillment of obligation.

Who Do We Turn to and What Do We Get? Cultural Differences in Attachment Structure and Function Among East Asian and Western Individuals

To whom do we turn for support in times of need, and what does the support from close others convey? The present research investigated how the structure and function of attachment differ for individuals in East Asian and Western cultures. In three studies, using survey and daily diary data, we examined the role of the romantic partner as an attachment figure, and the consequences of receiving responsive support in close relationships among individuals in Korea and the United States. As expected, the role of the romantic partner as an attachment figure was less emphasized for Koreans compared with U.S. participants. Also, responsive support from close others was more strongly linked to affiliation-related end states (i.e., in-group agency) for Koreans than U.S. individuals. The present research demonstrates the need to consider nuanced cultural influences in the attachment literature for the broader application of the theory.

Shame and anger differentially predict disidentification between collectivistic and individualistic societies

In the present research we tested the differential effects of anger versus shame as emotional predictors of ingroup disidentification in one rather collectivistic (Japan) and two rather individualistic societies (Germany, Canada). We tested the idea that individuals cope with socially undesired emotions by disidentifying from their group. Specifically, we predicted that after a group conflict, anger, an undesired emotion in Japan, would elicit disidentification in Japan, whereas shame, an undesired emotion in Canada and Germany, would elicit disidentification in Germany and Canada. Study 1 (N = 378) found that anger, but not shame, was related to disidentification in Japan, whereas shame, but not anger, was related to disidentification in Canada and Germany. Study 2 (N = 171) shows that, after group conflict, Japanese disidentified more when imagining to feel angry, whereas Germans disidentified more when imagining to feel ashamed. Implications for these findings are discussed.

The impact of overqualification on the intention of urban withdrawal from the perspective of talent crowding

Talent agglomeration greatly promotes the development of cities as a special form of talent allocation. However, excessive agglomeration of talent also leads to talent crowding and overqualification, which undermines the effectiveness of employing human resources and stimulates talent urban withdrawal. Based on the data from 327 questionnaires, data analysis was performed using Mplus 8.0 and HLM 6.08, this study explores the internal mechanism between overqualification and talent's intention of urban withdrawal from the perspective of talent crowding. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) Overqualification is positively correlated with talents' intention of urban withdrawal. (2) Psychological contract breach plays a mediating effect between overqualification and the talents' intention of urban withdrawal. (3) Relational mobility is negatively correlated with talents' intention of urban withdrawal. (4) Relational mobility plays a moderating role in the relationship between overqualification and talents' intention of urban withdrawal. (5) Urban livability is negatively correlated with talents' intention of urban withdrawal. (6) Urban livability plays a moderating role in the relationship between overqualification and talents' intention of urban withdrawal. The results can further improve the human resource management theory and serve as a foundation for developing and implementing population management policies in cities.

Association between relational mobility, brain structure, and prosociality in adolescents

Trust plays a vital role in human society. Previous studies have suggested that trust comprises general trust and caution. General trust is a belief that others, in general, are trustworthy, and caution is a belief in the importance of vigilance in dealing with others. Adolescence is a critical period for establishing these psychological traits. It is a period of physical and mental development, and the social environment during this period influences adolescents' psychology, including their brain structures. In this study, we focus on relational mobility as a socio-environmental factor that influences the development of adolescents' psychology and the brain. Relational mobility refers to the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships and consists of two subfactors (the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships and the number of opportunities to meet new people). Accordingly, we analyzed each subfactor separately. Results showed that the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships was only negatively associated with caution and left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) volume in adolescents. Furthermore, the effect of the freedom to choose and replace social relationships on caution was significantly relevant to the left pSTG volume. In contrast, the degree of opportunities to meet new people was associated with neither general trust nor caution, whereas it was positively associated with the right supramarginal gyrus volume. This study suggests that the social environment during adolescence influences brain structures related to prosociality.

The casual effect of relational mobility on integration of social networks: An agent-based modeling approach

Despite converging evidence for the importance of relational mobility on shaping people's social experiences, previous work suggested mixed findings for its influence on the structure of sociocentric networks, which lays the basis for the development of all types of social relationships. Additionally, as it is timely and economically intractable to administer such longitudinal experiments in real-life settings, most previous work mainly relied on cross-sectional correlation analyses and provided limited causal evidence. The current research used an agent-based modeling approach to examine whether higher relational mobility (i.e., the number of opportunities to meet new people) would promote integration among social networks over time. Using parameters derived from survey data, we simulated how the integration of sociocentric social networks evolves under different levels of relational mobility. Based on the data of three network structural indicators, including modularity, global efficiency, and standard deviation of nodal betweenness, we obtained causal evidence supporting that higher relational mobility promotes greater network integration. These findings highlight the power of socioecological demands on our social experiences.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03130-x.

Relationship Seekers Versus Relationship Selectors: Influence of Residential Mobility on How to Evaluate Others

The present study examined the effect of residential mobility on impression formation. In the study, participants were first engaged in a residential mobility priming task where they were asked to imagine and describe either frequent moving life (high-mobility condition) or less frequent moving life (low-mobility condition). They then evaluated their attitudes toward four types of target persons: competent vs. incompetent and warm vs. cold. As a result, in the high-mobility condition, the effect of competence was observed only when participants evaluated a warm person, whereas in the low-mobility condition, it appeared only when participants evaluated a cold person. The potential influence of individual residential mobility on the relationship formation is also discussed.

Obligation or Desire: Variation in Motivation for Compliance With COVID-19 Public Health Guidance

Why do people comply with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health guidance? This study considers cultural-psychological foundations of variation in beliefs about motivations for such compliance. Specifically, we focused on beliefs about two sources of prosocial motivation: desire to protect others and obligation to society. Across two studies, we observed that the relative emphasis on the desire to protect others (vs. the obligation to the community) as an explanation for compliance was greater in the United States settings associated with cultural ecologies of abstracted independence than in Chinese settings associated with cultural ecologies of embedded interdependence. We observed these patterns for explanations of psychological experience of both others (Study 1) and self (Study 2), and for compliance with mandates for both social distancing and face masks (Study 2). Discussion of results considers both practical implications for motivating compliance with public health guidance and theoretical implications for denaturalizing prevailing accounts of prosocial motivation.

Epistemic Violence in Research on Eldercare

Decolonial perspectives challenge the notion that standard knowledge in hegemonic psychology is productive of progress and enlightenment. They instead emphasise its association with the colonial violence that constitutes the darker underside of modern development. Our contribution to the special issue applies a decolonial perspective to theory and research on obligation to an elderly parent. Thinking from the standpoint of West African epistemic locations not only illuminates the culture-bound character of standard models but also reveals their foundations in modern individualist selfways. Although modern individualist selfways can liberate well-endowed people to pursue fulfilling relationships and avoid unsatisfying connections with burdensome obligations, these ways of being pose risks of abandonment for people—like many elders—whose requirements for care might constitute a constraint on others’ satisfaction. In contrast, the cultural ecologies of embedded interdependence that inform everyday life in many West African settings afford selfways that emphasise careful maintenance of existing connections. Although these selfways may place constraints on the self-expansive pursuit of satisfying relationships, they provide elders and other vulnerable people with some assurance of support.

Talking about cancer: Explaining differences in social support among Chinese American and European American breast cancer survivors

Cultural models of emotional disclosure and its impact on seeking support are understudied in the context of cancer diagnosis. We argue that two different cultural norms must be considered: (1) the importance of emotional disclosure and (2) attitudes toward seeking support from loved ones. Our interviews with 37 foreign-born Chinese American and 23 European American breast cancer survivors revealed differences in disclosure of cancer diagnosis and perception of social support. Both Chinese American and European American survivors receive and provide emotional and social support with loved ones, but their manifestations of disclosure and help-seeking behaviors are culturally specific.

How Does Collectivism Affect Social Interactions? A Test of Two Competing Accounts

How does the cultural construct of collectivism impact social interactions? Two accounts of collectivism offer diverging predictions. The collectivism-as-values account proposes that people in collectivistic cultures prioritize their ingroup relationships; accordingly, this account predicts that collectivistic cultures will have more harmonious ingroup interactions than individualistic cultures. The socioecological account holds that individualistic cultures have high relational mobility, which requires people to invest in their ingroup relationships, whereas collectivistic cultures feature more fixed relationships that do not require positive engagement. To test these competing hypotheses about ingroup relationships across cultures, we sampled the daily interactions of college students in China and the United States. Results revealed that the individualistic culture (United States) had more positive ingroup interactions, more gratitude, and more emotional support than the collectivistic culture (China). The current findings are consistent with the socioecological account of collectivism and the effects of relational mobility on social relationships.

How robust is the own-group face recognition bias? Evidence from first- and second-generation East Asian Canadians

There is mounting evidence that North Americans are better able to remember faces of targets who belong to the same social group, and this is true even when the social groups are experimentally created. Yet, how Western cultural contexts afford the development of this own group face recognition bias remains unknown. This question is particularly important given that recent findings suggest that first-generation East Asian Canadians do not show this bias. In the current research, we examined the own-group bias among first- and second-generation East Asian Canadians, who vary systematically in their exposure to and engagement in a Western cultural context, and tested mediators that could explain any difference. In Study 1, second-generation East Asian Canadians showed better memory for same-group (vs. other-group) faces. In Studies 2 and 3, as well as a meta-analysis of all three studies, we found some additional evidence that second-generation East Asian Canadians show better memory for same-group (vs. other-group) faces, whereas first-generation East Asian Canadians do not, but only when each cultural group was examined separately in each study, as no interaction with generational status emerged. In Study 2, and in a higher powered pre-registered Study 3, we also examined whether second- (vs. first-) generational status had a positive indirect effect on same-group face recognition through the effects of acculturation and perceived relational mobility in the immediate social environment, however this mediation model was not supported by the data. Overall, the results provide some additional evidence that the effect of mere social categorization on face recognition may not be as consistently found among East Asian participants.

Culture and Patterns of Reciprocity: The Role of Exchange Type, Regulatory Focus, and Emotions

Reciprocity is a fundamental mechanism for sustained social relationships. Escalation-based theories suggest that reciprocity intensifies over time. In contrast, equity-based theories propose that people reciprocate behaviors in kind. We reconcile these conflicting perspectives by examining social exchanges across different cultural contexts. Using three complementary experiments, we investigate when, how, and why individuals in East Asian settings and those in North American settings differentially reciprocate positive versus negative behaviors over time. Study 1 demonstrated that in positively framed exchanges (i.e., giving) Americans escalated their reciprocity, but Singaporeans reciprocated in kind. However, in negatively framed exchanges (i.e., taking), Singaporeans escalated their reciprocity, but Americans reciprocated in kind. Study 2 replicated the results using Hong Kongers and showed that cultural differences in regulatory focus were associated with specific emotions (i.e., anxiety and happiness), which then escalated reciprocity. To establish causality, Study 3 manipulated regulatory focus within one culture and replicated the pattern of results.

Do Happy Events Love Company? Cultural Variations in Sharing Positive Events With Others

The present study examined cultural differences in the act of sharing positive events with others, called capitalization attempts. The first three studies tested whether capitalization attempts differ between two cultures using multiple methods: self-reports (Study 1), children's storybooks (Study 2), and Facebook (Study 3). We found that Koreans are less likely to share their positive events with others than European Americans. Study 4 further examined the antecedents and consequences of capitalization attempts. We replicated the earlier findings that Koreans are hesitant to share their positive events and demonstrated that this is because Koreans are more concerned about the potential negative consequences for social relationships. Moreover, we found that the cultural differences in capitalization attempts partly account for mean-level differences in well-being between cultures. Implications for capitalization, culture, and well-being are discussed.

Marriage is like a groundnut, you must crack it to see what is inside: Examining romantic relationship rules in Akan proverbs

Proverbs are a valuable part of African culture. They transmit messages of shared, communal values about different facets of life inter-generationally. In an exploration of one West-African ethnic group, the Akan, the present study investigates messages that proverbs communicate about interpersonal relationships. A total of 79 Akan proverbs that addressed romantic relationships were examined using thematic analysis. The main components of advocated values as captured in the proverbs were identified. The thematic analysis determined that Akan romantic relationships tend to lean towards a “work-it-out” approach as opposed to the “soul mate” approach typical of Western romantic relationship norms. Overall, this study demonstrates that analyzing cultural artifacts such as proverbs can teach us about cultural rules that define relationships.

Relational mobility predicts social behaviors in 39 countries and is tied to historical farming and threat

Biologists and social scientists have long tried to understand why some societies have more fluid and open interpersonal relationships and how those differences influence culture. This study measures relational mobility, a socioecological variable quantifying voluntary (high relational mobility) vs. fixed (low relational mobility) interpersonal relationships. We measure relational mobility in 39 societies and test whether it predicts social behavior. People in societies with higher relational mobility report more proactive interpersonal behaviors (e.g., self-disclosure and social support) and psychological tendencies that help them build and retain relationships (e.g., general trust, intimacy, self-esteem). Finally, we explore ecological factors that could explain relational mobility differences across societies. Relational mobility was lower in societies that practiced settled, interdependent subsistence styles, such as rice farming, and in societies that had stronger ecological and historical threats.

The Cultural Boundaries of Perspective-Taking: When and Why Perspective-Taking Reduces Stereotyping

Research conducted in Western cultures indicates that perspective-taking is an effective social strategy for reducing stereotyping. The current article explores whether and why the effects of perspective-taking on stereotyping differ across cultures. Studies 1 and 2 established that perspective-taking reduces stereotyping in Western but not in East Asian cultures. Using a socioecological framework, Studies 2 and 3 found that relational mobility, that is, the extent to which individuals' social environments provide them opportunities to choose new relationships and terminate old ones, explained our effect: Perspective-taking was negatively associated with stereotyping in relationally mobile (Western) but not in relationally stable (East Asian) environments. Finally, Study 4 examined the proximal psychological mechanism underlying the socioecological effect: Individuals in relationally mobile environments are more motivated to develop new relationships than those in relationally stable environments. Subsequently, when this motivation is high, perspective-taking increases self-target group overlap, which then decreases stereotyping.

The Role of Regulatory Focus in How Much We Care About Enemies

Past cross-cultural research studies in regulatory focus have showed that East Asians in general tend to be prevention-focused, whereas Westerners tend to be promotion-focused. Three studies extend these findings by investigating the role of regulatory focus on people’s experiences in enemyship—how people deal with their personal enemies. Study 1 demonstrated that Hong Kong Chinese, as one of representative prevention-focused East Asian groups, showed greater concern about their enemies in terms of perceived threats from their enemies, subjective awareness of enemies, and negative emotional experiences in enemyship, compared with European Canadians as one of representative promotion-focused Western groups. In addition, Study 2 demonstrated that Hong Kong Chinese memorized more pieces of information about a hypothetical enemy than did their Canadian counterparts, which demonstrated a greater concern about enemies among Hong Kong Chinese. Finally, while replicating Study 1, Study 3 demonstrated that participants’ regulatory focus explained the cultural differences in enemyship experiences. Implications for regulatory focus, cross-cultural research, and interpersonal relationship research are discussed.