title: Cultural variation in correspondence bias: the critical role of attitude diagnosticity of socially constrained behavior.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109, USA. ymiyamot@umich.edu
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitayama
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D011287:Prejudice; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires