Cultural variation in correspondence bias: the critical role of attitude diagnosticity of socially constrained behavior.

Full Abstract

Upon observing another's socially constrained behavior, people often ascribe to the person an attitude that corresponds to the behavior (called the correspondence bias [CB]). The authors found that when a socially constrained behavior is still diagnostic of the actor's attitude, both Americans and Japanese show an equally strong CB. A major cultural difference occurred when the behavior was minimally diagnostic. Demonstrating their persistent bias toward dispositional attribution, Americans showed a strong CB. But Japanese did not show any CB (Study 1). Furthermore, a mediational analysis revealed that this cross-cultural difference was due in part to the nature of explicit inferences generated online during attitudinal judgment (Study 2). Implications for the cultural grounding of social perception are discussed.

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Author information

Author/s: Miyamoto, Yuri (Y); Kitayama, Shinobu (S);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109, USA. ymiyamot(-atsign-)umich.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of personality and social psychology (J Pers Soc Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Nov; vol 83 (issue 5) : pp 1239-48

Dates: Created 2002/11/05; Completed 2003/02/21; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12416925, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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