Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration.
Two studies were conducted to investigate cultural differences in opportunity cost consideration between Chinese and Euro-Canadians. Opportunity cost is defined as the cost of a benefit that must be forgone in order to pursue a better alternative (Becker et al., 1974). In both studies, participants read about hypothetical purchase scenarios, and then decided whether they would buy a certain product. Opportunity cost consideration was measured in two ways: (1) participants' thoughts pertaining to other (nonfocal) products while making decisions; (2) participants' decisions not to buy a focal product (Study 1) or a more expensive product (Study 2). Across both indexes, we found that after controlling for individual difference variables and amount of pocket money, Chinese participants in China considered financial opportunity cost more than Euro-Canadians in Study 1. Similar results were observed in Study 2 when comparing Chinese in Canada with Euro-Canadians However, the cultural effect on opportunity cost consideration was confounded by family income in Study 2. Implications for resource management, limitations of the current research and directions for future research are discussed.
Department of Psychology, Central University of Finance and EconomicsBeijing, China; Culture and Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, Queen's UniversityKingston, ON, Canada.
Ning
N
Zhang
Culture and Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, Queen's University Kingston, ON, Canada.
Li-Jun
LJ
Ji
Department of Psychology, Central China Normal University Wuhan, China.
Ye
Y
Li
cultural differences; judgment and decision-making; opportunity cost consideration