Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Culture And Friendship On Rewarding Honesty And Punishing Deception, Cynthia S. Wang, Angela K.-Y. Leung, M. See, X. Gu

Ka Yee Angela LEUNG

The present research explores whether the type of relationship one holds with deceptive or honest actors influences cross-cultural differences in reward and punishment. Research suggests that Americans reward honest actors more than they punish deceptive perpetrators, whereas East Asians reward and punish equally (Wang & Leung, 2010). Our research suggests that the type of relationship with the actor matters for East Asians, but not for Americans. East Asians exhibit favoritism toward their friends by rewarding more than punishing them, but reward and punish equally when the actors are strangers (Experiment 1 and 2); Americans reward more than they punish regardless …