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Psychology 307:
Cultural Psychology
February 27
Lecture 13
1
Optional Paper
Topic due date: March 25 (Option A or B, 3-5 sentence
summary; e-mail to your TA for approval).
Paper due date: April 8.
Option A: Review psychological literature on a topic not
discussed in class that interests you.
Option B: Consider how an issue of universal psychological
importance is addressed in at least two different cultures.
Note: The grade on the paper will be included in the
computation of a student’s final grade only if it increases the
student’s standing in the course.
2
Groups, 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
By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. describe how individualism-collectivism (IC) influences
attitudes and behaviour toward ingroup and outgroup
members.
2. discuss the relationship between IC and conformity.
3. describe “cultural frame” switching among bicultural
people.
4
4. discuss the relationship between IC and cooperative
behaviour.
5. discuss the relationship between propinquity and
attraction.
5
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 maintain that individualism leads people to
develop relatively low levels of commitment towards
ingroups and to view the ingroup-outgroup distinction
as fluid.
● In contrast, collectivism leads people to develop
relatively high levels of commitment towards ingroups
and to view the ingroup-outgroup distinction as stable.
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 Triandis, McCusker, and Hui (1990; also see
Matsumoto, 2008):
 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, superordinate, and dissociative
behaviours are 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
10
Relationship Between Dissociative Behaviour
and Social Distance
* PRC = People’s Republic of China
11
How does culture influence conformity to social norms?
● For decades, researchers have been interested factors
that lead people to conform to social norms.
● The most influential research examining these
factors was conducted by Asch (1951):
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Asch’s Line Judgment Task
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 Using this task, Asch found that American participants
agreed with the group’s incorrect response (i.e.,
conformed) in 37% of trials.
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 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 maintain that individualism promotes a
resistance to conformity, whereas collectivism
promotes a tendency toward conformity.
16
● Bond and Smith (1996):
 Conducted a meta-analysis of 133 experiments on
conformity across diverse nations (e.g., Brazil, Canada,
Fiji, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, U.S.,
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.
(b) a negative relation between date of publication and
conformity in the U.S. studies.
19
How does culture influence cooperative behaviour?
● Theorists maintain that individualism promotes
competitiveness, whereas collectivism promotes
cooperation.
20
 Wong and Hong (2005):
 Recruited bicultural participants from Hong Kong.
 Employed cultural priming to activate “cultural frames”
among bicultural people.
 Randomly assigned participants to 1 of 3 conditions:
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American priming condition
Chinese priming condition
Neutral priming (control) condition
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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: participant receives 4 points and each
partner receives 0 points.
(b) to cooperate: participant and each partner receives
3 points.
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Priming Condition
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 When participants were paired with strangers, the
percentage of cooperative choices made in the
Chinese priming condition dropped to the same level
as 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:
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(a) Propinquity
 Across cultures, propinquity is positively correlated
with attraction.
 Propinquity is associated with the “mere exposure
effect.”
 The mere exposure effect has been found to occur
with both animate and inanimate stimuli.
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 Moreland and Beach (1992):
 Had 3 female confederates pretend to be students
in a university classroom. They attended class 5
10, and 15 times, respectively.
 At the end of term, the students rated the attractiveness
of the confederates and a fourth female who never
attended class.
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Number of Times in Classroom
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(b) Physical characteristics
 Across cultures, people are attracted to similar
physical characteristics:
 Cunningham, Roberts, and Wu (1995):
 Recruited Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and
European Americans.
 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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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:
1. describe how individualism-collectivism (IC) influences
attitudes and behaviour toward ingroup and outgroup
members.
2. discuss the relationship between IC and conformity.
3. describe “cultural frame” switching among bicultural
people.
32
4. discuss the relationship between IC and cooperative
behaviour.
5. discuss the relationship between propinquity and
attraction.
33