Is there any "free" choice? Self and dissonance in two cultures.
Four experiments provided support for the hypothesis that upon making a choice, individuals justify their choice in order to eliminate doubts about culturally sanctioned aspects of the self, namely, competence and efficacy in North America and positive appraisal by other people in Japan. Japanese participants justified their choice (by increasing liking for chosen items and decreasing liking for rejected items) in the standard free-choice dissonance paradigm only when self-relevant others were primed, either by questionnaires (Studies 1-3) or by incidental exposure to schematic faces (Study 4). In the absence of these social cues, Japanese participants showed no dissonance effect. In contrast, European Americans justified their choices regardless of the social-cue manipulations. Implications for cognitive dissonance theory are discussed.
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, MI 48109-1109, USA. kitayama@umich.edu
Shinobu
S
Kitayama
Alana Conner
AC
Snibbe
Hazel Rose
HR
Markus
Tomoko
T
Suzuki
D002755:Choice Behavior; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D012928:Social Desirability; D014481:United States; D044465:White People