The CuPS (Culture × Person × Situation) approach attempts to jointly consider culture and individual differences, without treating either as noise and without reducing one to the other. Culture is ...important because it helps define psychological situations and create meaningful clusters of behavior according to particular logics. Individual differences are important because individuals vary in the extent to which they endorse or reject a culture's ideals. Further, because different cultures are organized by different logics, individual differences mean something different in each. Central to these studies are concepts of honor-related violence and individual worth as being inalienable versus socially conferred. We illustrate our argument with 2 experiments involving participants from honor, face, and dignity cultures. The studies showed that the same "type" of person who was most helpful, honest, and likely to behave with integrity in one culture was the "type" of person least likely to do so in another culture. We discuss how CuPS can provide a rudimentary but integrated approach to understanding both within- and between-culture variation.
This research has three goals. First, it sets out to compare consumer acceptance of lab-grown meat in the U.S. and in Singapore. Second, it seeks to explain the difference in Americans' and ...Singaporeans' acceptance of lab-grown meat by examining their eating motivations. Specifically, we focused on social image motivations – the motivations to present oneself positively in social contexts. Third, this study also aims to assess if exposure to information about lab-grown meat communicated by celebrity versus expert social media influencers (SMIs) can impact people's acceptance of lab-grown meat products. Our analysis showed that Singaporean participants had greater acceptance of lab-grown meat compared to their American counterparts, and this cultural difference was explained by Singaporeans' stronger social image eating motivations. In other words, cross-country differences in motivation to eat for a favorable social image can explain differences in consumer acceptance of lab-grown meat. The Singaporean cultural trait of kiasuism, which is exemplified by the fear of losing out or being left behind, may explain Singaporeans' motivation to project an image of being ‘trailblazers’ (vis-a-vis other nationalities) by expressing a higher acceptance of novel foods such as lab-grown meat. Results also revealed that the information about lab-grown meat being communicated by a celebrity or an expert SMI did not make a difference in participants' acceptance of lab-grown meat in both countries. Together, this research suggests an interesting implication that novel food industries and marketers can promote product branding by boosting media coverage (including online social media) of their lab-grown products' ‘firsts’ (e.g., the first production line in the world, the first technological breakthrough), especially in markets with high social image concerns.
Due to rising popularity of vegetarianism in recent years, research interest has surged in examining the relationship between vegetarianism and psychological health. However, given inconsistent ...findings in prior research, the answer to whether practicing vegetarianism is associated with better or worse psychological health is still elusive. The present investigation aimed to demonstrate that vegetarians are not homogeneous in terms of psychological experiences, such that it is crucial to consider the motives behind vegetarians' dietary choice when examining their psychological health. In a survey study with 266 vegetarians and 104 omnivores, it was shown that health vegetarians displayed higher levels of disordered eating as compared to moral vegetarians and omnivores. Mediation analyses further revealed that, among vegetarians, health motivation was positively correlated with disordered eating tendencies, indirectly linking it with poorer psychological health; moral motivation was positively correlated with prosocial behavior, which in turn predicted better psychological health. These findings have implications for understanding the psychological health of vegetarians with different dietary motives and for developing interventions to promote their psychological health.
Thriving in increasingly complex and ambiguous environments requires creativity and the capability to reconcile conflicting demands. Recent evidence with Western samples has suggested that ...paradoxical frames, or mental templates that encourage individuals to recognize and embrace contradictions, could produce creative benefits. We extended the timely, but understudied, topic by studying the nuances of for whom and why creative advantages of paradoxical frames emerge. We suggest that people endorsing a middle ground approach are less likely to scrutinize conflict and reconcile with integrative solutions, thus receiving less creative benefits of paradoxical frames. Five studies that examined individual and cultural differences in middle ground endorsement support our theory. Study 1 found that paradoxical frames increased creativity, but failed to replicate that experienced conflict mediated the relationship in a Taiwanese sample. In both within- and between-culture analysis, we showed that the creative advantages of thinking paradoxically and experiencing conflict emerged among individuals who endorse lower (vs. higher) levels of middle ground (Study 2) and among Israelis whose culture predominantly endorses middle ground strategy less, but not among Singaporeans whose culture predominantly endorses middle ground more (Study 3). Study 4 further demonstrated the causal role of middle ground in the paradox-conflict-creativity link. To answer "why," Study 5 situationally induced integrative complex thinking that sets distinctions and forms syntheses among contradictory elements, and found that low endorsers of middle ground performed more creatively when they engaged integrative complex thinking to cope with paradoxes. This program of studies offers important insights on harnessing paradoxical experiences to catalyze creativity.
Prior research has documented cultural dimensions that broadly characterize between-culture variations in Western and East Asian societies and that bicultural individuals can flexibly change their ...behaviors in response to different cultural contexts. In this article, we studied cultural differences and behavioral switching in the context of the fast emerging, naturally occurring online social networking, using both self-report measures and content analyses of online activities on two highly popular platforms, Facebook and Renren (the “Facebook of China”). Results showed that while Renren and Facebook are two technically similar platforms, the Renren culture is perceived as more collectivistic than the Facebook culture. Furthermore, we presented evidence for the first time that users who are members of both online cultures flexibly switch and adapt their in-group sharing behaviors in response to the online community in which they are: They perform more benevolent in-group sharing when they participate in the Renren community and less so when they participate in the Facebook community. We discussed both the theoretical and methodological implications of the current research.
While national parochialism is commonplace, individual differences explain more variance in it than cross-national differences. Global consciousness (GC), a multi-dimensional concept that includes ...identification with all humanity, cosmopolitan orientation, and global orientation, transcends national parochialism. Across six societies (N = 11,163), most notably the USA and China, individuals high in GC were more generous allocating funds to the other in a dictator game, cooperated more in a one-shot prisoner's dilemma, and differentiated less between the ingroup and outgroup on these actions. They gave more to the world and kept less for the self in a multi-level public goods dilemma. GC profiles showed 80% test-retest stability over 8 months. Implications of GC for cultural evolution in the face of trans-border problems are discussed.
Creativity is a highly sought-after skill. Prescriptive advice for inspiring creativity abounds in the form of metaphors: People are encouraged to "think outside the box," to consider a problem "on ...one hand, then on the other hand," and to "put two and two together" to achieve creative breakthroughs. These metaphors suggest a connection between concrete bodily experiences and creative cognition. Inspired by recent advances in the understanding of body-mind linkages in the research on embodied cognition, we explored whether enacting metaphors for creativity enhances creative problem solving. Our findings from five studies revealed that both physical and psychological embodiment of metaphors for creativity promoted convergent thinking and divergent thinking (i.e., fluency, flexibility, or originality) in problem solving. Going beyond prior research, which focused primarily on the kind of embodiment that primes preexisting knowledge, we provide the first evidence that embodiment can also activate cognitive processes that facilitate the generation of new ideas and connections.
Much research has examined individuals' values and beliefs as antecedents or correlates of pro-environmental behaviors (PEB). We approach this question from the novel perspective of individuals' ...cosmopolitan orientation (CO). We define CO as made up of three essential qualities. First, cultural openness captures individuals' receptiveness to immerse in and learn from other cultures. Second, global prosociality denotes a sense of collective moral obligation to universally respect and promote basic human rights. Third, respect for cultural diversity concerns high tolerance of and appreciation for cultural differences. Across two studies, we validated the Cosmopolitan Orientation Scale (COS) with theoretically related criterion measures across Singaporean, Australian, and American samples. Analyses showed good fit with a three-factor model. Next, we demonstrated the theoretical utility of CO, in particular the global prosociality subscale, in predicting PEB above and beyond pro-environmental worldview, motivation, and belief. We discussed the implications of studying cosmopolitanism on environmental psychology.
•We developed a 3-factor Cosmopolitan Orientation Scale and validated it in 3 cultures across 2 studies.•Cosmopolitan orientation and pro-environmental behaviors are positively correlated.•Global prosociality is an incrementally important factor predicting pro-environmental behaviors.
It is evident that over-consumption of meat can contribute to the emission of hazardous greenhouse gases. One viable way to address such climate impact is to make people become more aware of more ...sustainable diet options, such as cultivated meat. However, it is challenging to instigate change in people's meat-eating habit, and empirical works have been examining the psychological factors that are related to consumers' willingness to consume cultivated meat. Research has suggested that psychological well-being can play a role in the meaning-making of food consumption, with higher well-being individuals showing more recognition of other sociocultural benefits of consuming food beyond just fulfilling their sustenance needs. As existing works have yet to understand the link between well-being and consumption of novel foods, the current research set out to fill this gap by examining the relationship between people's psychological well-being and their willingness to consume cultivated meat via different reasons (mediators) for consuming cultivated meat. We recruited a representative sample of 948 adults in Singapore to complete an online survey. The study offered the first evidence that there is a positive relationship between people's psychological well-being and their willingness to consume cultivated meat. Further, results revealed that their higher willingness can be motivated by the perception that cultivated meat is as healthy and nutritious, as safe as, and has the same sensory quality as real meat, and is beneficial to the society. This investigation adds to the growing literature on consumer acceptance of cultivated meat by showing the novel finding that well-being and receptivity to cultivated meat is positively linked, and such a positive link can be explained by people's better recognition of the prospective benefits offered by this alternative food.
In this forum, six leading social psychologists (Dolores Albarracin, Michael Bond, Jolanda Jetten, Yoshihisa Kashima, James Liu, and Sander van der Linden) guide us in taking a step back and ...reflecting on how social psychology scholarship is being and will be influenced by the pandemic, and what social psychologists can and should do to serve humanity during this crisis. They consider how human systems are being transformed by the pandemic and anticipate what these systems will look like in the post-pandemic world, and thereby share their views on the new normal of social psychological research, teaching, and practice. They also offer some advice as to how social psychologists can contribute their expertise and establish real-world impacts; their advice is particularly useful for students and early-career social psychologists.
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