Culture as common sense: perceived consensus versus personal beliefs as mechanisms of cultural influence.
The authors propose that culture affects people through their perceptions of what is consensually believed. Whereas past research has examined whether cultural differences in social judgment are mediated by differences in individuals' personal values and beliefs, this article investigates whether they are mediated by differences in individuals' perceptions of the views of people around them. The authors propose that individuals who perceive that traditional views are culturally consensual (e.g., Chinese participants who believe that most of their fellows hold collectivistic values) will themselves behave and think in culturally typical ways. Four studies of previously well-established cultural differences found that cultural differences were mediated by participants' perceived consensus as much as by participants' personal views. This held true for cultural differences in the bases of compliance (Study 1), attributional foci (Study 2), and counterfactual thinking styles (Study 3). To tease apart the effect of consensus perception from other possibly associated individual differences, in Study 4, the authors experimentally manipulated which of 2 cultures was salient to bicultural participants and found that judgments were guided by participants' perception of the consensual view of the salient culture.
Organizational Behavior Group, London Business School.
Xi
X
Zou
Department of Psychology, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Kim-Pong
0000-0003-1485-1343
KP
Tam
Department of Management, Columbia University.
Michael W
MW
Morris
Department of Psychology, Nanyang Technological University.
Sau-Lai
SL
Lee
Department of Psychology, Singapore Management University.
Ivy Yee-Man
0000-0003-0036-2477
IY
Lau
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Chi-Yue
CY
Chiu
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002680:Chin; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003463:Cues; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D012938:Social Perception; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States