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Psychology 307:
Cultural Psychology
Group Processes,
Relationships,
Interpersonal Attraction,
and Love
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Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal
Attraction, and Love
1. How does culture influence (a) ingroup-outgroup
relations, (b) conformity to social norms, and (c)
cooperative behaviour?
2. What characteristics are perceived to be attractive
across cultures?
3. Are attitudes regarding romantic love similar across
cultures?
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How does culture influence ingroup-outgroup relations?
● Ingroup: A group of people with whom one shares
a sense of belonging or a feeling of common
identity (i.e., “us”).
● Outgroup: A group of people with whom one
perceives dissimilarity or a lack of familiarity (i.e.,
“them”).
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● Theorists have come to believe that “individualism”
leads people to develop relatively low levels of
commitment towards their ingroups and to view the
distinction between ingroups and outgroups as
relatively fluid or permeable.
● In contrast, collectivism leads people to develop
relatively high levels of commitment towards their
ingroups and to view the distinction between
ingroups and outgroups as relatively stable or fixed.
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● Among the studies that have provided support for
this theory are those that have compared: (a) the
day-to-day interactions of people from different
cultures and (b) the attitudes that people from
different cultures have towards ingroup and
outgroup members.
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(a) Day-to-day interactions:
● Research has shown that people from collectivistic
cultures engage in fewer social interactions per day
than people from individualistic cultures. Moreover,
their social interactions are more likely to involve
ingroup members than the social interactions of
people from individualistic cultures.
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● Example: Wheeler, Reis, and Bond (1989)
 Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.
 Had participants complete the Rochester
Interaction Record (RIR).
 The RIR requires that participants record details
related to social interactions of 10 minutes or more.
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Sample Copy of a Rochester Interaction Record
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(b) Attitudes towards ingroup and outgroup members:
● Research has shown that, in contrast to people from
individualistic cultures, people from collectivistic
cultures are more likely to engage in subordinate
behaviour when interacting with ingroup members,
and superordinate and “dissociative” behaviour when
interacting with outgroup members.
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● Example: Triandis, McCusker, and Hui (1990)
 Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.
 Had participants rate their “social distance” from
20 stimuli (e.g., their father, their closest friend).
 Had participants indicate how appropriate they
believed subordinate behaviour, superordinate
behaviour, and dissociative behaviour were when
interacting with each stimulus:
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Relationship Between Subordinate Behaviour
and Social Distance
*
* PRC = People’s Republic of China
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Relationship Between Superordinate Behaviour
and Social Distance
* PRC = People’s Republic of China
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Relationship Between Dissociative Behaviour
and Social Distance
* PRC = People’s Republic of China
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How does culture influence conformity to social norms?
● For several decades, researchers have been
interested in identifying the factors that lead people
to conform to social norms.
● The most influential research examining these
factors was conducted by Asch (1951), who
developed a line judgment task to study
conformity.
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Asch’s Line Judgment Task
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 Across several studies using the line judgment task,
Asch found that American participants agreed with
the group’s incorrect response (i.e., conformed) in
37% of the trials.
 Subsequent research demonstrated that conformity
was greatest when:
(a) the group was relatively large.
(b) the group provided a unanimous incorrect
response.
(c) the participant admired, liked, or felt a sense
cohesiveness or similarity among group members.
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● Theorists have come to believe that individualism
promotes a resistance to conformity, whereas
collectivism promotes a tendency toward conformity.
● Bond and Smith (1996) conducted a meta-analysis
of conformity studies in an effort to determine the
precise relationship between IC and conformity:
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 133 experiments were included in the metaanalysis: 97 were conducted in the U.S., 1 was
conducted in Canada, the remaining were
conducted outside of North America (e.g., Brazil,
Fiji, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait,
Zimbabwe).
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 Examined:
(a) differences in conformity across individualistic
cultures and collectivistic cultures.
(b) changes in conformity across time in the U.S.
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 Found:
(a) a negative relation between individualism and
conformity, indicating that conformity is lower in
individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures.
(b) a negative relation between date of publication
and conformity in the U.S. studies, suggesting
that the U.S. is becoming increasingly
individualistic across time.
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How does culture influence cooperative behaviour?
● Theorists have come to believe that individualism
promotes competitiveness among individuals,
whereas collectivism promotes cooperation among
individuals.
● Among the studies that have provided support for
this theory are those that have compared how
bicultural people who have been “culturally primed”
respond when given the choice to compete or
cooperate.
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● Cultural priming is a method used to activate
“cultural frames” among bicultural people.
● Example: Wong and Hong (2005)
 Recruited bicultural participants from Hong Kong.
 Randomly assigned participants to one of 3
conditions:
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American priming condition: Exposed
to slides of American cultural icons.
Chinese priming condition: Exposed to
slides of Chinese cultural icons.
Neutral priming (control) condition:
Exposed to slides of geometric figures.
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 Had participants take part in a prisoner’s dilemma
game in which their partners were 5 friends.
 Among the options that were given to participants
were:
(a) to compete, in which case the participant would
receive 4 points and each of his or her partners
would receive 0 points.
(b) to cooperate, in which case the participant and
each of his or her partners would receive 3 points.
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 Found the following pattern of results:
80
70
Percentage of
Cooperative Choices
60
50
40
American
Neutral
Chinese
Priming Condition
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 When researchers conducted a similar study in
which they paired participants with strangers, the
percentage of cooperative choices made by
participants in the Chinese priming condition
dropped to the same level as the percentage of
cooperative choices made by participants in the
American priming condition.
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What characteristics are perceived to be attractive
across cultures?
● Research suggests that there are many similarities
across cultures with respect to the factors that
influence interpersonal attraction.
● Among these factors are the following:
(a) Propinquity
 Researchers have found that, across cultures,
propinquity is positively correlated with attraction.
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 Propinquity allows for more frequent contact
between individuals.
 Frequent contact results in the “mere exposure
effect.”
 The mere exposure effect has been found to occur
with both animate stimuli and inanimate stimuli.
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 Example: Moreland and Beach (1992).
 Had 3 female confederates pretend to be students
and attend a university classroom. One attended
the class 5 times, one had attended the class 10
times, and one had attended the class 15 times
 At the end of the term, the students were asked
to rate the attractiveness of the confederates, as
well as the attractiveness of a fourth female who
had never attended the class.
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 Found the following pattern of results:
5.00
4.75
4.50
4.25
Attraction
Rating
4.00
3.75
3.50
3.25
3.00
0
5
10
15
Number of Times in Classroom
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(b) Physical characteristics
 Researchers have found that, across cultures,
people are attracted to similar physical characteristics:
 Example: Cunningham, Roberts, and Wu (1995)
 Recruited Asian, Hispanic, and European American
participants.
 Found an average correlation of .93 between
the facial attractiveness ratings provided by the
3 groups.
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Faces Rated as Being Highly Attractive
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 Among the characteristics that have been found to
be attractive across cultures are the following:
 Bilateral symmetry of the face and body.
 A complexion that is free of blemishes and sores.
 Facial features that are relatively average in size
and shape.
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Bilateral Facial Symmetry (Braun et al., 2001)
Original Face
Symmetrically
Optimized Face
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Facial “Smoothness” (Braun et al., 2001)
Original Face
Smoothed Face
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Average-Sized Facial Features (Braun et al., 2001)
+
Original Face 1
=
Original Face 2
Morphed Face
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 In addition to these findings, research has shown that
the faces that are perceived to be most attractive are
those that result from morphing people from different
ethnic groups:
 Example: Rhodes et al. (2005)
 Recruited European-Australian and Japanese
participants.
 Had participants provide attractiveness ratings
and health ratings for several composite
images created by morphing multiple faces:
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 Found that:
(a) for both males and females, the Eurasian face
was perceived to be most attractive.
(b) for both males and females, the Eurasian face
was perceived to be most healthy.
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(c) Personality characteristics
 Researchers have found that, across cultures,
people are attracted to similar personality
characteristics:
 Example: Buss et al. (1990)
 Recruited participants from 33 countries (e.g.,
Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France,
India, Japan, Iran, Nigeria, Poland, U.S., Zambia).
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 Had participants rate a number of personality
characteristics for how desirable they would be in
choosing a mate.
 Found:
(a) an average cross-cultural correlation of .78,
suggesting cultural similarity with respect to
preferred personality characteristics.
(b) an average male-female correlation of .87,
suggesting sexual similarity with respect to
preferred personality characteristics.
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Are attitudes regarding romantic love similar across
cultures?
● Theorists have come to believe that individualism
promotes an emphasis on the married couple; romantic
love is viewed as the force that binds the couple
together.
● In contrast, collectivism promotes an emphasis on
the extended family and the married couple’s position
within the family; familial support is viewed as the
force that binds the couple together.
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● Among the studies that have provided support for
this theory are those that have compared: (a) the
beliefs that people from different cultures have about
love and (b) the importance of love as a basis of
marriage in different cultures.
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(a) Beliefs about romantic love:
● Although romantic love has been documented in
virtually all cultures, research suggests that there is
cultural variation in the extent to which romantic love
is believed to be associated with positive affect.
● Example: Rothbaum and Tsang (1998)
 Examined the lyrics of 38 American and 42
Chinese love songs.
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 Found that:
(a) significantly more Chinese love songs than
American love songs depicted love as
embedded within a broader social context.
(b) significantly more Chinese love songs than
American love songs indicated that there were
negative outcomes associated with the
relationship.
(c) significantly more Chinese love songs than
American songs expressed suffering as a
consequence of the love relationship.
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 Consistent with these findings, Wu (1992) found
that Chinese students agreed more strongly than
did American students with the statement “love
without pain is not true love.”
 Similarly, following from an analysis of emotionrelated concepts in Chinese, Shaver, Wu and
Schwartz (1992) found that the Chinese
conception of love has a distinctive “hedonically
negative” connotation, which they labeled “sad or
painful.”
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(b) The importance of romantic love as a basis of
marriage
● Research suggests that romantic love is more likely
to be viewed as a necessary precondition for
marriage in individualistic cultures than collectivistic
cultures.
● Example: Levine et al. (1995)
 Recruited participants from 11 countries (e.g.,
Australia, Brazil, England, Hong Kong, India,
Pakistan, Thailand, U.S.).
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 Asked participants to respond to the following
question:
If a man (woman) had all the other qualities
you desired, would you marry this person if you
were not in love with him (her)?
 Found that participants from collectivistic cultures
were more likely to respond “yes” than participants
from individualistic cultures.
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 E.g., Percentage of participants who responded
“yes”:
Australia
4.8%
India
49.0%
England
7.3%
Pakistan
50.4%
U.S.
3.5%
Thailand
18.8%
 Consistent with these findings, people from
collectivistic cultures often report that they “love the
person they marry,” not “marry the person they
love.”
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Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal
Attraction, and Love
1. How does culture influence (a) ingroup-outgroup
relations, (b) conformity to social norms, and (c)
cooperative behaviour?
2. What characteristics are perceived to be attractive
across cultures?
3. Are attitudes regarding romantic love similar across
cultures?
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