TY - JOUR
T1 - Likes, dislikes, and the perception of choice as self-expression across cultures
AU - Yan, Song
AU - Kahnen, Ulrich
AU - Kokkoris, Michail D.
PY - 2013/7/25
Y1 - 2013/7/25
N2 - Self-expressive functions of choice, routinely found in individualistic cultures, have also been evidenced in collectivistic cultures, when choice involves culturally relevant aspects of the self. In this research, we focus on the perception of choice by others, and set off to determine which culture-specific contexts make a choice self-expressive, according to the disjoint and the conjoint model of agency. We predict that choice reflecting exclusive preferences, with clear boundaries between likes and dislikes, will be perceived as more diagnostic of the self for Westerners than choice reflecting inclusive preferences, with broadened likes, but no dislikes. However, choice reflecting inclusive preferences will be perceived as more self-expressive for Easterners than for Westerners. Results from a study comparing how Germans and South/Southeast Asians make inferences about choice, confirm our hypothesis. Perceptions of exclusive preferences as extrovert by Germans, but as introvert by South/Southeast Asians, mediate the effect of culture on choice diagnosticity, suggesting that choice can be self-expressive in both the West and the East, if it corresponds to basic premises about agency held in a given culture.
AB - Self-expressive functions of choice, routinely found in individualistic cultures, have also been evidenced in collectivistic cultures, when choice involves culturally relevant aspects of the self. In this research, we focus on the perception of choice by others, and set off to determine which culture-specific contexts make a choice self-expressive, according to the disjoint and the conjoint model of agency. We predict that choice reflecting exclusive preferences, with clear boundaries between likes and dislikes, will be perceived as more diagnostic of the self for Westerners than choice reflecting inclusive preferences, with broadened likes, but no dislikes. However, choice reflecting inclusive preferences will be perceived as more self-expressive for Easterners than for Westerners. Results from a study comparing how Germans and South/Southeast Asians make inferences about choice, confirm our hypothesis. Perceptions of exclusive preferences as extrovert by Germans, but as introvert by South/Southeast Asians, mediate the effect of culture on choice diagnosticity, suggesting that choice can be self-expressive in both the West and the East, if it corresponds to basic premises about agency held in a given culture.
KW - agency
KW - choice
KW - culture
KW - preference
KW - Self-expression
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84880490778&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84880490778&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/15685373-12342088
DO - 10.1163/15685373-12342088
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84880490778
SN - 1567-7095
VL - 13
SP - 129
EP - 143
JO - Journal of Cognition and Culture
JF - Journal of Cognition and Culture
IS - 1-2
ER -