title: Cultural variation in the focus on goals versus processes of actions.
abstract: Everyday actions (e.g., riding a bike) can be described in ways that emphasize either the goals of the action by adapting a higher level identification (e.g., getting exercise) or the processes of the action by adapting a lower level identification (e.g., pedaling). In Studies 1 and 2, we demonstrate cultural differences in focusing on the process or goal of actions at the individual level: Americans are more likely than Japanese to focus on the goal (rather than the process) of actions. Study 3 recruited Chinese participants in addition to American and Japanese participants and found that cultural differences in action identification are partly explained by cultural differences in self-consistency. Study 4 further showed cultural differences at the collective level: American media presents more goal-oriented information and less process-oriented information than does Japanese media. These findings highlight the role of culture in shaping how people attend to different aspects of actions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. ymiyamoto@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Knoepfler
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.forename: Li-Jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Ji
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: action identification; culture; individual and collective levels; process versus goal; self-consistency