title: Mirrors in the head: cultural variation in objective self-awareness.
abstract: In a society where there are pronounced concerns for "face," people come to be especially focused on how they are being evaluated by others. We reasoned that Japanese should conceive of themselves in terms of how they think they are considered by others. This hypothesis was tested by contrasting Japanese and North American participants who were in front of a mirror with those who were not. In two studies, replicating past research, North Americans who were in front of a mirror were more self-critical and were less likely to cheat than were those who were not in front of a mirror. In contrast, Japanese participants were unaffected by the presence of the mirror.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. heine@psych.ubc.ca
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Heine
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takemoto
authors.forename: Sophia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moskalenko
authors.forename: Jannine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lasaleta
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Henrich
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness; D001828:Body Image; D001955:British Columbia; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007564:Japan; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012928:Social Desirability; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States