The neural basis of dialectical thinking: recent advances and future prospects

Dialectical thinking represents a cognitive style emphasizing change, contradiction, and holism. Cross-cultural studies reveal a stark contrast of dialectical thinking between East Asian and Western cultures, highlighting East Asians' superior ability to embrace contradictions and foresee transformation, fostering psychological resilience through emotional complexity and tolerance for contradictions. Despite its importance, the neural basis of dialectical thinking remains underexplored. This review synthesizes current neuroscientific findings and introduces the dialectical-integration network (DIN) hypothesis, which identifies key brain regions such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), nucleus accumbens, basal ganglia, and amygdala. These regions, along with networks like the default mode network (DMN) and frontoparietal network (FPN), facilitate holistic reasoning, conflict resolution, and sensory-emotional integration. The psychological benefits of dialectical thinking include enhanced cognitive flexibility, reduced emotional extremes, and improved conflict resolution. This review emphasizes the need for cross-cultural and neuroscientific research to explore the principle of change, a core aspect of dialectical cognition. By bridging cultural psychology and cognitive neuroscience, this work offers theoretical and methodological insights into culturally shaped cognitive styles, with practical applications in education, mental health, and intercultural communication. The DIN model provides a framework for future research on dynamic neural interactions supporting dialectical thinking.

The Effects of Value Conflicts on Stress in Chinese College Students: A Moderated Mediation Model

Limited research has explored the connection between stress and value conflicts, particularly the influence of self-construal and self-concept clarity. This study surveyed a sample of 752 Chinese college students using the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale, Self-Construal Scale, Self-Concept Clarity Scale, and Portrait Values Questionnaire. The findings demonstrated that stress levels among participants were significantly associated with conflicts between self-transcendence and self-enhancement values, but no significant relationship was observed with openness vs. conservation conflicts. Mediation analysis revealed that self-concept clarity partially mediated this relationship. Additionally, moderated mediation analysis showed that the association between value conflict and self-concept clarity was stronger in students with high levels of independent self-construal. These results offer a deeper understanding of how value conflicts contribute to stress, highlighting potential pathways for targeted mental health interventions. Future studies should address the limitations of the current research and explore these relationships in more diverse contexts.

Valence-based biases in collective temporal thought: The role of question framing, culture, and age

Collective temporal thought includes individuals' memories of group experiences and expectations about the group's collective future. Prior studies have found inconsistent valence biases (e.g., positivity) in North American collective memory and consistently negative biases in collective future thought. Discrepancies in collective memory valence biases may be due to different question framing across studies. Moreover, a limited number of studies extend collective temporal thought research beyond Western nations and few studies examine potential age-related differences in this area. Therefore, the present study investigates valence-based biases in collective temporal thought from the perspective of question framing, culture, and participant age. Participants (N = 1,548) included younger (20-39 years) and older (60+ years) adults from the USA and mainland China. Whereas Americans' collective memory biases varied across question framings, Chinese participants consistently displayed positivity biases. The American bias patterns were specific to collective memory and did not carry over to collective future thought ratings. Chinese participants showed higher dialectical thinking than American participants and dialectical thinking positively correlated with the proportion of positive events reported. Older adults generated significantly more positive events than younger adults, more so in collective memory than in collective future thought. Overall, collective temporal thinking is influenced by question framing, cultural context, and participant age.

Certainty in holistic thinking and responses to contradiction: Dialectical proverbs, counter-attitudinal change and ambivalence

The present research examined whether consideration of individuals' certainty in their holism can enhance the ability of this individual difference to predict how they respond to contradiction-relevant outcomes. Across four studies, participants first completed a standardized measure of holistic-analytic thinking. Then, they rated how certain they were in their responses to the holism scale or were experimentally induced to feel high or low certainty. Next, participants were exposed to dialectical proverbs (Study 1a and 1b), to a counter-attitudinal change induction (Study 2), or to a paradigm of attitudinal ambivalence (Study 3). Results revealed that participants with higher certainty in their holistic thinking exhibited higher preference for dialectical proverbs (Study 1a and 1b), changed their attitude less following a counter-attitudinal task (Study 2) and showed weaker correspondence between objective and subjective ambivalence (Study 3). Beyond examining new domains and discovering novel findings, the present work was designed to be the first to show moderation of previously identified effects in the domain of holistic thinking and responses to contradiction.

The Impact of Self-Transcendence on Anxiety Among Chinese College Students: The Moderating Roles of Self-Enhancement and Dominant Self-Construal

This study explores the role of self-transcendence values in reducing anxiety among Chinese undergraduates, with a particular focus on how self-enhancement values and self-construal styles moderate this relationship. A total of 567 undergraduate students were assessed using the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ-21), the Trait Anxiety Inventory (T-AI), and the Self-Construal Scale (SCS). Hierarchical regression and moderated moderation analyses were conducted to test the interactions between the variables. The findings suggest that self-enhancement moderated the association between self-transcendence and anxiety, particularly in individuals with low self-enhancement. Furthermore, the moderating effect of self-enhancement was influenced by dominant self-construal. These findings have practical implications for integrating value-based interventions in educational and public health strategies aimed at improving mental well-being among university students.

What do highly motivated people know? Balancing goals, prioritizing actions

Highly motivated individuals are healthier, more academically and professionally successful, and have stronger relationships. What sets these individuals apart? We propose that highly motivated individuals know when to balance versus prioritize goals. Specifically, they seek harmony between their multiple goals: they see these goals as advancing or complementing each other (e.g., balancing work and family, finding foods that are both tasty and healthy). They also seek to prioritize pursuing a subset of these goals within a given time and place. They make consistent action choices that highlight more important goals (e.g., prioritize studying over social media while in class). The intuition to balance goals and prioritize actions is acquired through social learning and can be enhanced through mindfulness. In turn, it enables self-regulatory success.

Identifying the Shared and Dissociable Neural Bases between Self-Worth and Moral Ambivalence

Self-ambivalence, a prevalent phenomenon in daily life, has been increasingly substantiated by research. It refers to conflicting self-views and evaluations, primarily concerning self-worth and morality. Previous behavioral research has distinguished self-worth and moral ambivalence, but it remains unclear whether they have separable neural bases. The present study addressed this question by examining resting-state brain activity (i.e., the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, fALFF) and connectivity (i.e., resting-state functional connectivity, RSFC) in 112 college students. The results found that self-worth ambivalence was positively related to the fALFF in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and left superior parietal lobule (SPL). The RSFC strength between the SPL and precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) was positively related to self-worth ambivalence. Moral ambivalence was positively associated with the fALFF in the left SPL (extending into the temporoparietal junction) and right SPL. The RSFC strengths between the left SPL/TPJ and OFC, as well as the RSFC strengths between the right SPL as a seed and the bilateral middle and inferior temporal gyrus, were associated with moral ambivalence. Overall, the neural bases of self-worth and moral ambivalence are associated with the SPL and OFC, involved in attentional alertness and value representation, respectively. Additionally, the neural basis of moral ambivalence is associated with the TPJ, responsible for mentalizing.

Mapping the neural mechanism that distinguishes between holistic thinking and analytic thinking

Holistic and analytic thinking are two distinct modes of thinking used to interpret the world with relative preferences varying across cultures. While most research on these thinking styles has focused on behavioral and cognitive aspects, a few studies have utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the correlations between brain metrics and self-reported scale scores. Other fMRI studies used single holistic and analytic thinking tasks. As a single task may involve processing in spurious low-level regions, we used two different holistic and analytic thinking tasks, namely the frame-line task and the triad task, to seek convergent brain regions to distinguish holistic and analytic thinking using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). Results showed that brain regions fundamental to distinguish holistic and analytic thinking include the bilateral frontal lobes, bilateral parietal lobes, bilateral precentral and postcentral gyrus, bilateral supplementary motor areas, bilateral fusiform, bilateral insula, bilateral angular gyrus, left cuneus, and precuneus, left olfactory cortex, cingulate gyrus, right caudate and putamen. Our study maps brain regions that distinguish between holistic and analytic thinking and provides a new approach to explore the neural representation of cultural constructs. We provide initial evidence connecting culture-related brain regions with language function to explain the origins of cultural differences in cognitive styles.

Using dialogue-centered approaches to community-engaged research: an application of dialectical inquiry

Rural communities across the United States experience increased risk and prevalence of chronic diseases associated with both individual and community-based factors. Thus, there is a need for rural capacity development for chronic disease prevention. Traditional health promotion and intervention approaches often focus on diet-related health disparities from a positivist, evidence-based paradigm. To counter positivist bias within health promotion research, a hybridized approach is proposed using a critical-constructivist paradigm incorporating dialectical thinking, appreciative inquiry, and dialectical inquiry to address cultural and structural barriers, as well as community-based social norms, through evaluation of community-based health promotion interventions. Three dialectical models were identified through interviews with community coalition members: social ties, infrastructure, and worldviews, examining underlying assumptions and counter assumptions. By revealing the dialectic assumptions and counter assumptions within project implementation, practitioners can engage in constructive dialogue with communities to determine more effective and culturally responsive pathways for project development.

The role of attitudes towards contradiction in psychological resilience: the cortical mechanism of conflicting resolution networks

Managing contradictions and building resilience help us overcome life's challenges. Here, we explored the link between attitudes towards contradictions and psychological resilience, examining the role of cortical conflict resolution networks. We enlisted 173 healthy young adults and used questionnaires to evaluate their cognitive thinking styles and resilience. They underwent structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. Our results revealed that contrasting attitudes toward contradictions, formal logic, and naïve dialecticism thinking styles corresponded with varying degrees of resilience. We noted structural and functional differences in brain networks related to conflict resolution, including the inferior frontal and parietal cortices. The volumetric variations within cortical networks indicated right-hemispheric lateralization in different thinking styles. These findings highlight the potential links between conflict resolution and resilience in the frontoparietal network. We underscore the importance of frontoparietal brain networks for executive control in resolving conflicting information and regulating the impact of contradictions on psychological resilience.

Analytic-holistic cognitive styles affect consumer responses to food and beverage samples during sensory evaluation

Recent studies have shown that the analytic-holistic theory is applicable in sensory science-related areas. Analytic and holistic cognitive style groups have been found to have significantly different perceptions and behaviors within food-related scenarios. These differences were further investigated and identified within the current study, focusing on specific areas of common sensory tests and analyses where analytic and holistic cognitive style groups may differ from one another. Before the main study, 419 volunteers were classified into three groups based on their scores to the Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS). The extreme groups (65 adults for each) were identified as the "analytic" and "holistic" cognitive style groups, respectively. Participants evaluated fruit-flavored beverages and fruit samples for their impression of the intensity or hedonic aspects in the study conducted over two sessions. Each session either employed solely category or line scale for the questions. Analyses focused on the analytic and holistic group comparisons in mean, variance, penalty analysis, and pre- and post-AHS score differences. Results showed that the holistic group exhibited significantly higher mean scores and standard deviations in the hedonic ratings of fruit samples than the analytic group did. Compared to the analytic group, the holistic group showed significantly smaller mean drops in overall liking across the five Just-About-Right (JAR) questions related to flavors or tastes of the mixed-fruit flavored water. A significant difference between the AHS scores measured before and after the sensory evaluation was observed in the holistic group, but not in the analytic group. In conclusion, our findings provide empirical evidence that cognitive styles affect consumer responses to food or beverage samples during sensory evaluation tasks. This implies that sensory professionals may consider these analytic-holistic contrasts while exploring consumer responses to their target samples.

How does social complexity facilitate coping flexibility? The mediating role of dialectical thinking

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Past research has shown that worldviews can influence coping strategies but coping is often regarded as a stable person-based behavioral characteristic. The present research aims to examine how one component of worldviews - social complexity - influences the flexibility of coping strategies across situations.

DESIGN

In two cross-sectional studies and one prospective study, we tested a mediation model in which the perceived complexity of the social world (i.e., social complexity) predicted coping flexibility through dialectical thinking.

RESULTS

Across three studies, social complexity consistently facilitated dialectical thinking, which in turn fostered the cross-situational flexibility of coping strategies at a single time point and over 12 months.

CONCLUSIONS

Believing in complex causes of phenomena and multiple solutions to problems facilitates a cognitive style of viewing issues from multiple perspectives and tolerating contradictions, which are conducive to the flexible evaluation and implementation of effective strategies to cope with problems. Theoretical and practical implications of the present research are discussed.

Development and validation of a food-related analysis-holism scale (F-AHS)

Recent studies have indicated analytic-holistic cognitive style differences of consumers can significantly impact perceptions, opinions, and behaviors toward foods. Interestingly, these studies have also offered evidence that the sole measurement tool to assess analytic-holistic tendencies, the analysis-holism scale (AHS), may not accurately apply to food-experience-related research scenarios. Due to these notions, Studies 1 and 2 employed the use of 465 and 487 participants, respectively, to develop, refine, and finalize a food-related AHS (F-AHS) using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and prior research on analytic-holistic differences and scale development. Study 3 was conducted to validate the newly developed F-AHS, based on the results of Studies 1 and 2, by replicating the procedures and analyses from prior research while using the F-AHS instead of the AHS to segment participants (N = 130). The results of Study 3 provided consistent evidence that the F-AHS better separated participants into analytic and holistic groups than the AHS through larger analytic-holistic differences that more closely aligned with prior analytic-holistic research. Our findings showed that the F-AHS is capable of separating consumers into analytic and holistic cognitive style groups and is better suited to sensory and consumer-related applications than the AHS. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Our findings provide researchers with an optimized tool to separate consumers into analytic and holistic groups in food-experience-related situations. The food-related analysis-holism scale can then be used in both academia and industry to separate consumers based on cognitive style to better understand how and why consumers show variations in perception, acceptance, and behavior in food-related experiences.

Cultural Variations in Perceived Partner Responsiveness: The Role of Self-Consistency

Past research has shown that perceived partner responsiveness (PPR) is a key process contributing to individual and relational outcomes and identified dispositional, relational, and situational factors that can influence it. However, little is known about how cultural factors play a role in the process of PPR. In Studies 1 ( n = 4,041) and 2 ( n = 414), we examined whether the degree of PPR differs across cultures by comparing European Americans and East Asians. We found that East Asians are less likely to experience perceived responsiveness from others than European Americans (Cohen’s d = 1.11–1.25 for Study 1 and Cohen’s d = 0.23 for Study 2). Furthermore, we found that self-consistency explained the cultural difference in PPR, indicating that East Asians underperceived partner responsiveness compared with European Americans because they behave less consistently across social situations. We conclude by highlighting the importance of exploring the process of PPR from a cultural perspective.

Cross-valence inhibition in forming and retrieving ambivalent attitudes

Many things in life are ambivalent, and it might sometimes be useful or necessary to ignore their positive attributes when judging their negative attributes and vice versa. Cross-valence inhibition may complicate this task, leading people to underestimate the positive and negative attributes of ambivalent stimuli. In three studies (total N = 155), participants learned to associate combined evaluative information (gains and losses) with attributes of unfamiliar objects (size and colour of Chernoff faces). Participants then estimated (Studies 1-3) or experienced and recalled (Study 3) the gains and losses associated with novel ambivalent attribute combinations. As predicted, both in estimation and recall, participants rated gains (losses) to be lower, the higher the losses (gains) associated with the stimulus. The effect occurred only when the two attributes were evaluatively conflicting (Study 2). Cross-valence inhibition might lead to maladaptive behaviour when positive and negative attributes are in fact separable in hedonic experience.

Trait dialectical thinking is associated with the strength of functional coupling between the dACC and the default mode network

Dialectical thinking is an overarching and sophisticated thinking style that involves accepting and resolving contradictions. The current study examined whether the dispositional tendency of dialectical thinking is mediated by organizational patterns of intrinsic brain networks. Based on previous theoretical and empirical works, we hypothesized that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), the hub for conflict processing, shows increased couplings with nodes in the default mode network (DMN). A sample of 380 young and healthy participants completed a self-reported measure of dialectical thinking and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Results of seed-based correlational ROI and whole-brain analyses supported our hypothesis that trait dialectical thinking was positively correlated with the strength of the dACC-DMN couplings. These findings demonstrate the possibility of identifying network-level neural representations of sociocultural orientations.

Building the Culture of Public Health as a Positive Reflection from the COVID-19 Crisis

The goal of this study was to look at the impact of different components of COVID-19 on the development of a public health culture during the COVID-19 pandemic. Culture is largely acknowledged to have the greatest and most profound influence on many aspects of human and group behavior. Culture is the process of integration that distinguishes members of one group or category of people through others; in other words, culture is the operating system of the communities, cultural nuances among societies cause people to demonstrate different behavioral patterns in the face of events. However, the cultural differences of each community make it impossible to apply these metrics universally. Observing the impact of countries’ cultural traits in the fight against outbreaks is one area where social scientists have not put much attention. As a result, this study demonstrates how cultural shifts affect their fight against outbreaks and public health challenges. The human response to COVID-19 is likely to be influenced by country culture and how (and when) overcome will be determined by it. Cultural ideas and assumptions should be assessed as part of public health interventions. These interventions should indeed be addressed at the societal level to stimulate awareness and participation while also guaranteeing culturally relevant events. Healthcare practitioners should emphasize public health exertions on culturally relevant forms of instruction, prevention, behavior and follow-up for successful pandemic management, effective screening, and diagnosis in infected individuals. Public health professionals must recognize the significance of this and learn to use communication messaging and guidelines, which must be culturally acceptable and context-dependent rather than merely grounded on medical methodologies, as was the case in many countries with COVID-19 management.

A Half-Century Assessment of the Study of Culture and Emotion

Research on emotion and affective sciences is flourishing today like never before. The impetus for this surge is largely rooted in studies of emotion across cultures and coincides with the half century existence of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP). Beginning with studies initially documenting the universality of the expression and recognition of certain facial expressions of emotion in the 1970s, cross-cultural research was crucial in providing further evidence for the universality of antecedents, appraisals, subjective experiences, self-reported responses, and physiological reactions throughout the 1980s and 1990s. That same literature also demonstrated the existence of many cultural variations in these emotion domains, as well as in the concepts, language, attitudes, beliefs, and values about emotion. We review this literature with the goal of demonstrating some of the many meaningful and important contributions IACCP and cross-cultural studies have made to the field of emotion and affective sciences. This area of research has also been marred by considerable controversies for almost the entire period of study, and we describe those as well. We conclude with a presentation of current models of understanding the association between culture and emotion that integrate disparate cross-cultural findings and address controversies in the field, in the hope that such models can serve as a platform for renewed cross-cultural research in this area for the next half century and beyond.

You Eat How You Think: A Review on the Impact of Cognitive Styles on Food Perception and Behavior

Sensory perception is understood to be a complex area of research that requires investigations from a variety of different perspectives. Although researchers have tried to better understand consumers’ perception of food, one area that has been minimally explored is how psychological cognitive theories can help them explain consumer perceptions, behaviors, and decisions in food-related experiences. The concept of cognitive styles has existed for nearly a century, with the majority of cognitive style theories existing along a continuum with two bookends. Some of the more common theories such as individualist-collectivist, left-brain-right-brain, and convergent-divergent theories each offered their own unique insight into better understanding consumer behavior. However, these theories often focused only on niche applications or on specific aspects of cognition. More recently, the analytic-holistic cognitive style theory was developed to encompass many of these prior theoretical components and apply them to more general cognitive tendencies of individuals. Through applying the analytic-holistic theory and focusing on modern cultural psychology work, this review may allow researchers to be able to answer one of the paramount questions of sensory and consumer sciences: how and why do consumers perceive and respond to food stimuli the way that they do?

Event Time Perspective in Adaptation to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preliminary Insights from Two Chinese Samples

Little is known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the way people construct their time perspective (TP). This study investigated past and future TP in Hubei, China, comparing a ‘pre-pandemic’ sample collected before the pandemic (late 2019, n = 138) to a ‘habitual-pandemic’ sample collected when the pandemic was largely under control (beginning 2021, n = 109). Using the time line paradigm, participants generated significant past and future personal events indicating dates, emotional valence, and intensity for each. We used these data to test the predictions that the COVID-19 pandemic would shorten TP and evoke pessimism for the future and disappointment for the past. Counter to these predictions, we found: (a) typical levels of positivity in both samples for both past and future events; (b) a higher proportion of positive memories in the habitual-pandemic sample than pre-pandemic one; (c) past and future time extension in the habitual-pandemic sample; and (d) the future was more often completed with one’s own ‘peaceful death’ in the habitual-pandemic sample. To determine whether the ‘peaceful death’ phenomenon is adaptive or maladaptive we examined its coincidence with other timeline characteristics. The analyses indicated that the ‘peaceful death’ phenomenon in both samples was associated with a moderately positive TP and a plurality of prospects with frequent references to travel. These results allow to propose that an elongated TP and a distant ‘peaceful death’ may buffer pandemic-related uncertainty and that an accelerated TP functions in the service of self-continuity and well-being.

Zhongyong Thinking Style and Resilience Capacity in Chinese Undergraduates: The Chain Mediating Role of Cognitive Reappraisal and Positive Affect

Previous studies have suggested that the Zhongyong thinking style (influenced by Chinese culture) is associated with psychological features. However, little is known about the direct association between Zhongyong thinking and resilience and the underlying mechanisms of this relationship in Chinese culture. The present study aimed to investigate the association between Zhongyong thinking and undergraduates' resilience and to assess whether cognitive reappraisal and positive effects mediated this association. A sample of undergraduates (n = 1,356, 70.4% female, mean age = 19 years) was recruited for this study and the participants completed the Zhongyong Thinking Style Scale (ZYTS), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and the Resilience-11. Results indicated that the Zhongyong thinking style was positively and significantly associated with resilience. Undergraduates' resilience was affected by Zhongyong thinking partly through 3 different pathways: the mediating role of cognitive reappraisal, the mediating role of positive effect, and the mediating chain role of both cognitive reappraisal and positive effect. These findings might provide a deeper understanding of the protective factors for resilience among Chinese undergraduates.

Dialectical Thinking: A Proposed Foundation for a Post-modern Psychology

For the authors, the way from a modern to a post-modern psychology requires dialectical thinking. Dialectical thinking recognizes the importance of contradiction, change, and synthesis; it also includes recognition of the value as well as limits of modern epistemological approaches. The article describes foundations for both ongoing efforts to understand and research the ontogeny of dialectical thinking and for appreciating the scope of dialectical thinking and its relevance for establishing a bridge from modern to post-modern psychology.

Cultural Differences in Rumination and Psychological Correlates: The Role of Attribution

Cross-cultural research suggests that rumination may have weaker maladaptive effects in Eastern than in Western cultural contexts. This study examines a mechanism underlying cultural differences in mental health correlates of rumination from sociocultural cognitive perspective. We propose that cultures differ in how people attribute rumination, which can lead to cultural differences in the link between rumination and mental health correlates. We developed the Attribution of Rumination scale, tested cultural differences (Study 1), and examined its relationship with theoretically related constructs (Study 2). In Study 3, self-doubt attribution moderated the association between rumination and mental health, partly explaining cultural differences in the rumination-mental health link. Study 4 replicated self-doubt attribution moderating the link between rumination and mental health among Asians. Furthermore, greater exposure to American culture was associated with self-doubt attribution. This work provides a novel approach to understanding cultural differences in the association between rumination and negative psychological correlates.

Specificity in the Study of Mixed Emotions: A Theoretical Framework

Research on mixed emotions is yet to consider emotion-specificity, the idea that same-valenced emotions have distinctive characteristics and functions. We review two decades of research on mixed emotions, focusing on evidence for the occurrence of mixed emotions and the effects of mixed emotions on downstream outcomes. We then propose a novel theoretical framework of mixed-emotion-specificity with three foundational tenets: (a) Mixed emotions are distinguishable from single-valenced emotions and other mixed emotions based on their emotion-appraisal relationships; (b) Mixed emotions can further be characterized by four patterns that describe relationships between simultaneous appraisals or appraisals that are unique to mixed emotions; and (c) Carryover effects occur only on outcomes that are associated with the appraisal characteristics of mixed emotion. We outline how mixed-emotion-specific effects can be predicted based on the appraisal tendency framework. Temporal dynamics, the application of mixed-emotion-specificity to individual difference research, methodological issues, and future directions are also discussed.

With rhyme and reason: Recognizing reasons for disliked practices increases tolerance

Disapproval of others' beliefs and practices is an inevitable consequence of living with diversity, and the ability to tolerate, or put up with, these differences is crucial to maintain a functional society. Considering reasons to condone what one disapproves of is considered a key aspect of tolerance. Across three national samples (N = 1,708), the current research examines how recognizing arguments to support practices that one disapproves of increases tolerance. Studies 1-2 demonstrate that when participants generate arguments to support Muslim minority practices (Study 1) and Orthodox Protestant minority practices (Study 2), they disapprove of, they show increased tolerance towards such practices in society. In Study 3, the importance of considerations is experimentally extended by demonstrating that perceiving objectionable behaviour as more reasonable increases tolerance. Collectively, these studies demonstrate the importance of engaging in and perceiving reasonable considerations to enhance tolerance of dissenting beliefs or practices.

Meating Conflict: Toward a Model of Ambivalence-Motivated Reduction of Meat Consumption

An increasing number of people are concerned about eating meat, despite enjoying doing so. In the present research, we examined whether the desire to resolve this ambivalence about eating meat leads to a reduction in meat consumption. Our model of ambivalence-motivated meat reduction proposes that the pervasive nature of evaluative conflict motivates meat avoidance, and we highlight two potential mechanisms involved: the anticipation of ambivalence reduction through behavioral change, and information seeking for contents that facilitate meat reduction. Study 1 drew on a cross-sectional 6-day food diary with 7485 observations in a quota sample to investigate why meat-related ambivalence arises and to demonstrate the correlation of ambivalence with meat reduction. Two experiments investigated the causal direction of this association by showing that ambivalence-induced discomfort motivated participants to eat less meat when they introspected on their preexisting incongruent evaluations (Study 2 and 3), which was mediated by the aforementioned mechanisms involved (Study 3; preregistered). The studies utilized diverse samples from Germany, England, and the US (total N = 1192) and support the proposed model by indicating that behavioral change is an important coping strategy to resolve ambivalent discomfort in the context of meat consumption. Our model of ambivalence-motivated meat reduction contributes to theorizing on the consequences of ambivalence and the psychology of (not) eating meat.

Culture as a Moderator of Epistemically Suspect Beliefs

A consistent finding reported in the literature is that epistemically suspect beliefs (e.g., paranormal beliefs) are less frequently endorsed by individuals with a greater tendency to think analytically. However, these results have been observed predominantly in Western participants. In the present work, we explore various individual differences known to predict epistemically suspect beliefs across both Western and Eastern cultures. Across four studies with Japanese (n = 666) and Western (n = 650) individuals, we find that the association between thinking style and beliefs varied as a function of culture. Specifically, while Westerners who scored higher on measures of Type-2 analytic thinking tended to endorse epistemically suspect beliefs less, this association was not observed in Japanese samples, suggesting that the often-observed negative association between analytic thinking and epistemically suspect beliefs may be exclusive to Western individuals. Additionally, we demonstrate that a tendency to think holistically (specifically with regards to causality) is positively associated with the endorsement of epistemically suspect beliefs within both samples. Overall, we discuss how various individual differences predict the endorsement of epistemically suspect beliefs across cultures.

Dialectical Thinking Is Linked With Smaller Left Nucleus Accumbens and Right Amygdala

Our current work examined the interface between thinking style and emotional experience at both the behavioral and neuropsychological levels. Thirty-nine Chinese participants completed the triad task, and we calculated the rate of individually selected relationship pairings to overall selections to represent their holistic thinking tendencies. In addition, participants in the top one-third of the ratio score were classified into the high holistic thinking group, while those in the bottom one-third of the ratio score were classified into the low holistic thinking group. We used the sensitivity to punishment and sensitivity to reward questionnaire (SPSRQ) to examine how people elicit positive and negative affective behaviors. Additionally, we examined the volume of the amygdala and nucleus accumbens and their functional connectivity in the resting-state. We found that high holistic thinkers were much less sensitive to rewards than low holistic thinkers. In other words, individuals with high holistic thinking are less likely to pursue behaviors that have positive emotional outcomes. Furthermore, their bilateral nucleus accumbens and right amygdala volumes were smaller than those of low holistic thinkers. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that holistic thinking tendency can negatively predict the volume of the left nucleus accumbens and right amygdala. Finally, resting-state functional connectivity results showed increased functional connectivity FC between left nucleus accumbens and bilateral amygdala in high holistic thinkers. These findings provide emotion-related manifestations of thinking styles at the behavioral and neural levels.

The role of dialecticism in objective and subjective attitudinal ambivalence

Although attitudes are often considered positive or negative evaluations, people often have both positive and negative associations with a target object or issue, and when people are ambivalent, they are typically presumed to find the experience aversive because they are motivated to hold clear, univalent attitudes. Cross-cultural research, however, has shown cultural variation in the propensity for dialectical thinking, which is characterized by a tolerance for contradiction. Two studies examined the role of dialectical thinking tendencies in the occurrence of attitudinal ambivalence and how much people subjectively experience their state of ambivalence. Study 1 measured individual differences in dialectical thinking within a culture, and Study 2 compared participants across two cultures (United States and Taiwan) that differ in dialecticism. Across studies, greater dialectical thinking was associated with holding both positive and negative evaluations of the same topic (objective ambivalence) and weaker correlations between objective ambivalence and subjective reports of being conflicted (subjective ambivalence).

Development and Validation of the Holistic Cognition Scale

This paper introduces a new scale to measure cognitive cultural differences, drawing on the theory of analytic versus holistic thought. Examining culture from a cognitive perspective is a challenge to traditional values-based approaches. Existing measures based on this framework are methodologically problematic and warrant renewal. This paper presents development and validation studies for a new instrument that measures analytic versus holistic cognitive tendencies at the individual level. The scale assesses four previously established dimensions: attention, causality, contradiction, and change. The present work follows well-established scale development protocols and the results show that the 16-item Holistic Cognition Scale (HCS) is a valid and reliable measure of analytic versus holistic thought. Three new studies with four unique samples (N = 41; 272; 454; and 454) provide evidence to support the content validity, reliability, and factor structure of the new instrument, as well as its convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity against comparable constructs. Convergent validity is established against measures of compromise, intuition, complexity, and collectivism; predictive validity is established against Hofstede's (1980) five cultural value dimensions; and discriminant validity is established using the average variance extracted from a confirmatory factor analysis. The new HCS is an improvement over previous attempts with a balanced number of forward- and reverse-scored items, superior reliability, less redundancy, and stronger factor loadings.

Culture and Health: Recent Developments and Future Directions 1

Evidence of cultural differences in relationships and emotions has accumulated over the past few decades. As findings on cultural differences in psychological processes have accumulated, there has been growing interest in investigating whether they have implications for other phenomena such as health. Using scientific advances from the MIDUS and MIDJA studies, both publicly available, we examine links between culture and health. We first briefly review the accumulated evidence on cultural influences on health correlates of psychosocial factors. We then feature two recent developments - a more micro-level perspective on biological factors that may be involved in the culture and health linkage, and a more macro-level view of socioeconomic inequality, which also matters for health. Both perspectives inform the pathways through which health effects occur. Finally, we conclude our review by highlighting the changing historical contexts surrounding these cross-cultural investigations. Specifically, we draw attention to widening of economic inequality across cultures and the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. These happenings bring notable implications for future research on health across cultural contexts.

Individual differences in thinking style and dealing with contradiction: The mediating role of mixed emotions

The present research examined how individuals’ thinking style (holistic vs. analytic) is associated with the way they deal with contradictory information and whether experiencing mixed emotions can mediate this relationship. Participants first completed the thinking style measure and then were exposed to two contradictory pieces of information (Studies 1 and 2). In study 2, we also measured the experience of mixed emotions to test the mediating role of this variable. Across two studies, we found that individuals with a holistic thinking style were more able to reconcile contradictory information compared to individuals with an analytic thinking style. Study 2 showed that the relationship between thinking style and dealing with contradiction was mediated by the experience of mixed emotions. This research extends previous findings on confrontation of contradiction and mixed emotions by using an individual-differences rather than a cultural-differences approach, and establishes mixed emotions as a plausible mediating variable.

Prediction of dispositional dialectical thinking from resting-state electroencephalography

This study aims to explore the possibility of predicting the dispositional level of dialectical thinking using resting-state electroencephalography signals. Thirty-four participants completed a self-reported measure of dialectical thinking, and their resting-state electroencephalography was recorded. After wave filtration and eye movement removal, time-frequency electroencephalography signals were converted into four frequency domains: delta (1-4 Hz), theta (4-7 Hz), alpha (7-13 Hz), and beta (13-30 Hz). Functional principal component analysis with B-spline approximation was then applied for feature reduction. Five machine learning methods (support vector regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, K-nearest neighbors, random forest, and gradient boosting decision tree) were applied to the reduced features for prediction. The model ensemble technique was used to create the best performing final model. The results showed that the alpha wave of the electroencephalography signal in the early period (12-15 s) contributed most to the prediction of dialectical thinking. With data-driven electrode selection (FC1, FCz, Fz, FC3, Cz, AFz), the prediction model achieved an average coefficient of determination of 0.45 on 200 random test sets. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was found between the alpha value of standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography activity in the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and dialectical self-scale score. The prefrontal and midline alpha oscillations of resting electroencephalography are good predictors of the dispositional level of dialectical thinking, possibly reflecting these brain structures' involvement in dialectical thinking.

Cultural Differences in People's Psychological Response to COVID-19

The present research studied Chinese and Euro-Canadian students during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on their affect, optimism, well-being, and meaning in life. The results revealed both differences and similarities across cultures. As predicted, Chinese participants reported more positive affect and less negative affect, higher optimism, higher state psychological well-being, and higher meaning presence, compared to Euro-Canadian participants. The findings were replicated after a week's delay. Analyses on longitudinal data showed that state optimism, state well-being, and meaning presence influenced one another over time. These variables also mediated the cultural differences in one another. These results are consistent with cultural work on naïve dialecticism and non-linear lay theory of change. Results also demonstrate underlying relationships among the constructs that are common to both cultural groups. Broadly, the present research highlights the impact of culture on people's response to challenging life situations and the mechanisms underlying these cultural differences.

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Self-Change in Close Relationships: Evidence From Hong Kong Chinese and European Americans

Three studies examined cultural perceptions of self-change in romantic relationships. In Study 1 (N = 191), Chinese participants perceived hypothetical couples who changed for the sake of the relationship to have better relationship quality than couples who did not, compared to European American participants. In Study 2 (N = 396), Chinese individuals in a dating relationship were more likely to perceive that they had changed in the relationship, and self-change was a stronger predictor of relationship quality for them than for American dating individuals. In Study 3 (N = 115 dyads), Chinese married couples perceived greater self-change, and their perceived self-change was due in part to higher endorsement of dutiful adjustment beliefs than American couples. Self-change was a stronger predictor of relationship quality for Chinese married couples than American couples. Our studies provide support for cultural differences in the role of self-change in romantic relationships, which have implications for partner regulation and relationship counseling across cultures.

Cultural Determinants of Cancer Fatalism and Cancer Prevention Behaviors among Asians in Singapore

This research aims to better understand cultural disparities in cancer prevention behaviors. To do this, we investigate how four cultural beliefs - optimism, pessimism, naïve dialecticism, and superstition - associate with cancer fatalism, which has been recognized as a major barrier to cancer prevention behaviors. Based on an online survey of 1,021 Singapore residents, the results reveal that cancer fatalism is positively associated with pessimism, naïve dialecticism and superstitions, and associated negatively with optimism. Mediation analyses further reveal that cancer fatalism is a significant mediator between these four cultural beliefs and four cancer prevention behaviors including fruit and vegetable intake, regular exercise, avoidance of smoking, and sunscreen use. This study offers theoretical insights into the understanding of how people develop cancer fatalism and practical guidance on the promotion of cancer prevention behaviors, particularly among Asian populations.

Sociocultural Influences on Psychopathy Traits: A Cross-National Investigation

It is important to consider cultural implications in the development and manifestation of psychopathy because this construct is often understood in reference to behavioral deviance from social norms. This study examined the construct of psychopathy as it relates to three psychological constructs that are shaped by sociocultural contexts: collectivism-individualism, Zhongyong thinking, and dialectical self-concept. The authors recruited 636 participants from four nations and examined differences between Western English-speaking populations and East Asian Chinese-speaking populations. The results showed that collectivism and Zhongyong thinking negatively correlated with the maladaptive aspects of psychopathy (affective/interpersonal and behavioral), whereas individualism and dialectical self-concept positively correlated with the behavioral aspect of psychopathy. Dialectical self-concept also negatively correlated with Boldness. The majority of these associations did not differ significantly between the Western and East Asian samples. This finding suggests the potential universality of the psychological processes of psychopathy in relation to cultural values and thinking styles.

The Three Teachings of East Asia (TTEA) Inventory: Developing and Validating a Measure of the Interrelated Ideologies of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism

Objectives: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism have influenced societies and shaped cultures as they have spread across the span of history and ultimately across the world. However, to date, the interrelated nature of their impacts has yet to be examined largely due to the lack of a measure that comprehensively assesses their various tenets. Building on a conceptual integration of foundational texts on each ideology as well as on recent measure development work (much of which is unpublished), the current studies developed a comprehensive measure of these ideologies (the Three Teachings of East Asia Inventory; TTEA) and validated it across four languages.

Methods: A combined sample of 2,091 online respondents (Study 1: 322 Chinese respondents, Study 2: 400 Japanese respondents, Study 3: 362 Taiwanese respondents, Study 4: 688 White Americans and 319 Asian Americans) completed 25–35 min online survey in their preferred language: English, Traditional Mandarin, Simplified Mandarin, or Japanese.

Results: Exploratory Factor Analyses within a 122-item pool identified 18 stable dimensions across all samples. Measurement invariance analyses identified the final 61-items of the TTEA inventory (demonstrating reasonable invariance across all languages), confirming 18 individual tenet subscales that organize into four higher-order composites: Buddhism, Taoism, Restrictive Confucianism, and Empowering Confucianism. A shorter 36-item version of the TTEA inventory was also developed. The TTEA scales demonstrated (1) acceptable internal consistency, (2) discriminant validity, and (3) incremental predictive validity for current life satisfaction and vitality.

Conclusions: The TTEA inventory offers one of the first comprehensive, multilingual measures that will allow cross-cultural researchers to examine the influence of three related Eastern ideologies on societies across the world.

Unpredictable Changes: Different Effects of Derailment on Well-Being Between North American and East Asian Samples

Some individuals experience the feeling that they have become a person they had not anticipated. The life path they had expected to take is not consonant with the one they are taking in reality. This perception of "off-course" in identity and self-direction is referred to as derailment. Although previous studies have postulated and demonstrated that derailment causes a low level of well-being, no studies have examined its existence and effect across cultures. We hypothesized that East Asians (Japanese) are less vulnerable to feeling derailed than North Americans (Canadians/Americans), and that those Japanese who feel derailed do not necessarily experience long-term damage to their well-being. Two correlational studies and one longitudinal study with a one-year interval supported these hypotheses and also demonstrated metric invariance of the Derailment Scale between countries. We discuss that these findings may be explained by East Asian's dialectical thinking, in which the perception of one's life direction is flexible.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at (10.1007/s10902-021-00375-4).

Temporal distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Letter writing with future self can mitigate negative affect

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) is spreading across the world, threatening not only physical health but also psychological well‐being. We reasoned that a broadened temporal perspective may attenuate current mental distress and tested a letter‐writing manipulation designed to connect people to their post‐COVID‐19 future selves. We conducted an online experiment with 738 Japanese participants recruited from two common survey platforms. They were randomly assigned to either send a letter to their future self (letter‐to‐future) condition, send a letter to present self from the perspective of future self (letter‐from‐future) condition, or a control condition. Participants in both letter‐writing conditions showed immediate decrease in negative affect and increase in positive affect relative to the control condition. These effects were mediated by temporal distancing from the current situation. These findings suggest that taking a broader temporal perspective can be achieved by letter writing with a future self and may offer an effective means of regulating negative affect in a stressful present time such as the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Dialectical Versus Linear Thinking Shapes People's Anticipation of Climate Change

Dialectical thinking refers to a constellation of beliefs that consist of expectation of change, tolerance of contradiction, and holism. The current research explored whether dialectical thinking would affect people’s anticipation of climate change, which has been propagated globally. Study 1 compared the responses between Chinese participants, representing people from cultures that promote dialectical thinking, and North American participants, representing people from cultures that promote linear thinking. The results showed that Chinese participants demonstrated a stronger non-linear pattern regarding the anticipation of climate change as compared with American participants, in which Chinese participants were more likely to anticipate a stable trend but less likely to anticipate an increasing trend for global warming. Study 2 with a manipulation of dialectical and linear thinking was conducted and provided some generally supportive evidence for the causal relation between dialectical beliefs and the anticipation of climate change. Implications for cross-cultural environmental research and international climate change education programs were discussed.

The role of culture on the link between worldviews on nature and psychological health during the COVID-19 pandemic

Worldviews about human's relationship with the natural world play an important role in psychological health. However, very little is currently known regarding the way worldviews about nature are linked with psychological health during a severe natural disaster and how this link may differ according to cultural context. In this study, we measured individual differences in worldviews about nature and psychological health during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic within two different cultural contexts (Japan and United States). We found that across Japanese and American cultural contexts, holding a harmony-with-nature worldview was positively associated with improved psychological health during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found that culture moderated the link between mastery-over-nature worldviews and negative affect. Americans showed a stronger link between mastery-over-nature worldviews and negative affect than Japanese. These findings support the biophilia hypothesis and contribute to theories differentiating Japanese and American cultural contexts based on naïve dialecticism and susceptibility to cognitive dissonance.

The development of temperament and maternal perception of child: A cross-cultural examination in the United States and Japan

Previous research shows cross-cultural differences in adult personality and child temperament, yet the developmental origin of these cultural differences remains unclear. To understand a potential role of socialization grounded in cultural values, this study investigated culturally specific maternal perceptions of child and children's development of temperament in the U.S. and Japan. Maternal perception of child was assessed via maternal interview in the U.S. (n = 42) and Japan (n = 40). Six months after the interview, child's temperament was assessed. Cross-cultural differences in maternal perception of child and child's temperament, and the relation between the two were analyzed. US-American infants scored higher on the surgency/extraversion trait than Japanese infants, whereas Japanese infants scored higher on the negative affectivity/neuroticism trait than US-American infants. US-American mothers used more positive evaluation and private/autonomy descriptions of their infants, whereas Japanese mothers used more negative evaluation and context-specific descriptions of their infants by making references to other people, time, or location. Child's negative affectivity trait was closely related to maternal perception of child's social/context characteristics and negative evaluations. The findings provide support for the socio-cultural framework of temperament development and suggest an important consideration of cultural factors when designing educational and parenting programs.