title: The effects of culture and self-construal on responses to threatening health information.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current studies examined if cultural and self-construal differences in self-enhancement extended to defensive responses to health threats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Responses to fictitious medical diagnoses were compared between Asian-Americans and European-North Americans in experiment 1 and between Canadians primed with an interdependent versus an independent self-construal in experiment 3. In experiment 2, the responses of Chinese and Canadians who were either heavy or light soft drink consumers were assessed after reading an article linking soft drink consumption to insulin resistance.
  
  
  METHODS
  The primary-dependent measure reflected participants' defensiveness about threatening versus nonthreatening health information.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In experiment 1, all participants responded more defensively to an unfavourable than a favourable diagnosis; however, Asian-Americans responded less defensively than did European-North Americans. In experiment 2, all high soft drink consumers were less convinced by the threatening information than were low soft drink consumers; however, among high consumers, Chinese changed their self-reported consumption levels less than did European-Canadians. In experiment 3, interdependence-primed participants responded less defensively to an unfavourable diagnosis than did independence-primed participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Defensive reactions to threatening health information were found consistently; however, self-enhancement was more pronounced in individuals with Western cultural backgrounds or independent self-construals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University, 62 Arch Street, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada. jill.jacobson@queensu.ca
authors.forename: Jill A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jacobson
authors.forename: Li-Jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Peter H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Ditto
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Dara H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Sorkin
authors.forename: Sarah K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Legnini
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ebel-Lam
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roper-Coleman
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D002140:California; D003469:Culture; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009864:Ontario; D010467:Perceptual Defense; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires