Social Psychology Commons^™

The Role Of Cosmopolitan Orientation In Covid-19-Related Attitudes: Perceived Threats And Opportunities, Vaccination Willingness, And Support For Collective Containment Efforts, Angela K. Y. Leung, Brandon Koh, Verity Yu Qing Lua, James H. Liu, Sarah Y. Choi, I-Ching Lee, Michelle Lee, Mei-Hua Lin, Darrin Hodgetts, Sylvia X. Chen

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Cosmopolitan individuals identify themselves as "citizens of the world." In the present research, we tested the idea that endorsing a cosmopolitan orientation (CO) is adaptive in the COVID-19 crisis. Cosmopolitan individuals more readily transcend national parochialism, show greater concern for all humanity, and prioritize collective interests. In a two-wave multi-region investigation with six samples from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and the U.S., we first established longitudinal and cross-cultural measurement invariance of the CO scale. Next, we found that people with a higher CO tended to perceive over time a greater threat posed by COVID-19, take more safety measures, …

Continuities And Discontinuities In The Cultural Evolution Of Global Consciousness, R. J. Zhang, J. H. Liu, M. Lee, M. H. Lin, T. Xie, S Chen, Angela K. Y. Leung, I-Ching Lee, D. Hodgetts, E. Valdes, S. Choi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Global consciousness (GC), encompassing cosmopolitan orientation, global orientations (i.e. openness to multicultural experiences) and identification with all humanity, is a relatively stable individual difference that is strongly associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, less ingroup favouritism and prejudice, and greater pandemic prevention safety behaviours. Little is known about how it is socialized in everyday life. Using stratified samples from six societies, socializing institution factors correlating positively with GC were education, white collar work (and its higher income) and religiosity. However, GC also decreased with increasing age, contradicting a 'wisdom of elders' transmission of social learning, and not replicating typical findings …

Discrimination And Cognitive Failures In Singapore And The Us: An Investigation Of Between- And Within-Persons Associations Through Multilevel Modelling, Nadyanna Binte Mohamed Majeed, Kasturiratna Tennakoon Appuhamillage Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Verity Yu Qing Lua, Mingyao Li, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Experiencing everyday discrimination can have a significant negative impact on an individual’s wellbeing. While much attention has been paid to the physical and mental health consequences of discrimination, less is known about how discrimination can affect cognitive health, and most existing work has been conducted in laboratory settings where participants recall discrimination retrospectively. Given the artificial environment and susceptibility to recall bias in such procedures, the current study utilised two daily diary studies, consisting of young adults in Singapore (Study 1; N = 484) and midlife adults from the US (Study 2; N = 3577), to examine the association between …

Monoracials’ Perceptions Of Biracials In Singapore, Sheila Xi Rui Wee, Chi-Ying Cheng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objectives: Drawing on social identity theory, present research examined the effects of overlapping racial membership on monoracials’ categorization of biracials as in-/out-group members, as well as its impact on monoracials’ social perceptions of biracials in Singapore. Within Singapore, it is hypothesized that biracials who share racial membership with monoracials would be rated more as monoracials’ racial in-group and be evaluated more positively. Furthermore, monoracials’ positive perceptions of biracials with (vs. without) shared racial membership would be less influenced by biracials’ confrontation of racial prejudice. Method: Studies 1 (N = 242) and 2 (N = 153) sampled Chinese Singaporeans to assess …

Bilingual Interactional Contexts Predict Executive Functions In Older Adults, Hwajin Yang, Yue Qi Germaine Tng, Gilaine Rui Ng, Wee Qin Ng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Drawing on the adaptive control hypothesis, we examined whether older adults' bilingual interactional contexts of conversational exchanges would predict important indices of executive functions (EF). We assessed participants' engagement in each bilingual interactional context - single-language, dual-language, and dense code-switching - and their performance on a series of nonverbal EF measures. Sixty-nine healthy older adults (M-age = 70.39 years; ages 60-93) were recruited from local community centers. We found that the dense code-switching context was associated with enhanced overall EF, but not individual facets of EF (inhibitory control, shifting, and updating). These findings held true when we controlled for a …

Fundamental Social Motives Measured Across Forty-Two Cultures In Two Waves, C. M. Pick, ..., Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy of ancestrally recurring threats and opportunities. These motives—self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care—are high in fitness relevance and everyday salience, yet understudied cross-culturally. Here, we gathered data on these motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) in two cross-sectional waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered in both waves. Wave 1 was collected from mid-2016 through late 2019 (32 countries, N …

Reconsidering The “Acculturation Gap”: Mother-Adolescent Cultural Adaptation Mis/Matches And Positive Psychosocial Outcomes Among Mexican-Origin Families, Jinjin Yan, Lester Sim, Jiaxiu Song, Shanting Chen, Su Yeong Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Previous studies have linked parent-child cultural adaptation mismatches with adolescents’ maladjustment without addressing how intergenerational mis/matches are related to positive aspects of adolescent development and parental outcomes. Using data from 604 Mexican-origin families (adolescent sample:54%female, Mage = 12.41, range = 11 to 15), response surface analysis was conducted to investigate how mother-child mis/matches in cultural adaptation (acculturation, enculturation, English and Spanish proficiency) are associated with adolescents’ and mothers’ resilience and life meaning. Adolescents and mothers reported greater resilience and meaning when they matched at higher, versus lower, levels of acculturation, enculturation and English proficiency; adolescents reported more resilience when they …

Perceptions Of Emotional Functionality: Similarities And Differences Among Dignity, Face, And Honor Cultures, Maitner A.T., Decoster J., Andersson P.A., Eriksson K., Sherbaji S., Giner-Sorolla R., Mackie D.M., Aveyard M., Claypool H.M., Crisp R.J., Gritskov V., Habjan K., Andree Hartanto, Kiyonari T., Kuzminska A.O., Manesi Z., Molho C., Munasinghe A., Peperkoorn L.S., Shiramizu V.

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Emotions are linked to wide sets of action tendencies, and it can be difficult to predict which specific action tendency will be motivated or indulged in response to individual experiences of emotion. Building on a functional perspective of emotion, we investigate whether anger and shame connect to different behavioral intentions in dignity, face, and honor cultures. Using simple animations that showed perpetrators taking resources from victims, we conducted two studies across eleven countries investigating the extent to which participants expected victims to feel anger and shame, how they thought victims should respond to such violations, and how expectations of emotions …

Situational Factors Shape Moral Judgments In The Trolley Dilemma In Eastern, Southern, And Western Countries In A Culturally Diverse Sample, Bence Bago, Andree Hartanto, Lucas E. Tiong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The study of moral judgements often centres on moral dilemmas in which options consistent with deontological perspectives (that is, emphasizing rules, individual rights and duties) are in conflict with options consistent with utilitarian judgements (that is, following the greater good based on consequences). Greene et al. (2009) showed that psychological and situational factors (for example, the intent of the agent or the presence of physical contact between the agent and the victim) can play an important role in moral dilemma judgements (for example, the trolley problem). Our knowledge is limited concerning both the universality of these effects outside the United …

Perceptions Of The Appropriate Response To Norm Violation In 57 Societies, Kimmo Erikkson, Pontus Strimling, Et Al., Andree Hartanto, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Norm enforcement may be important for resolving conflicts and promoting cooperation. However, little is known about how preferred responses to norm violations vary across cultures and across domains. In a preregistered study of 57 countries (using convenience samples of 22,863 students and non-students), we measured perceptions of the appropriateness of various responses to a violation of a cooperative norm and to atypical social behaviors. Our findings highlight both cultural universals and cultural variation. We find a universal negative relation between appropriateness ratings of norm violations and appropriateness ratings of responses in the form of confrontation, social ostracism and gossip. Moreover, …

Longitudinal Profiles Of Acculturation And Developmental Outcomes Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents From Immigrant Families, Jinjin Yan, Lester Sim, Seth J. Schwartz, Yishan Shen, Deborah Parra-Medina, Su Yeong Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Prior studies investigating the association between acculturation and adolescent adjustment have often focused on specific acculturation domains rather than examining these domains collectively in a profile typology. Here, we investigate stability and change patterns in Mexican American adolescent acculturation profiles over time, using a two-wave longitudinal dataset spanning 5 years. Using latent profile analysis, three adolescent acculturation profiles were identified at Waves 1 and 2: integrated; moderately integrated; and moderately assimilated. Using latent transition analysis, four acculturation transition profiles were identified across time: stable integrated; stable moderately integrated; progressive; and regressive. Over half of all adolescents were identified as belonging …

The Role Of Bilingual Interactional Contexts In Predicting Interindividual Variability In Executive Functions: A Latent Variable Analysis, Andree Hartanto, Hwajin Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite a growing number of studies on bilingual advantages in executive functions (EF), their findings have been inconsistent. To shed light on this issue, we aimed to address both the conceptual and methodological limitations that have prevailed in the literature: failure to consider diverse bilingual experiences when assessing bilingual advantages or to address the task impurity problems that can arise with EF tasks. Drawing on the adaptive control hypothesis and control process model of code-switching, we adopted theory-driven and latent variable approaches to examine the relations between bilingual interactional contexts and EF. By administering 9 EF tasks to 175 bilingual …

Parenting And Centrality: The Role Of Life Meaning As A Mediator For And Language Broker Role Identity, Lester Sim, Su Yeong Kim, Minyu Zhang, Yishan Shen

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Language brokering is a prevalent phenomenon in ethnic minority immigrant populations. Although accruing evidence points to the beneficial impacts of healthy role identity development, research investigating the formation of a language broker role identity in language brokering adolescents is lacking in the literature. In a sample of 604 Latinx adolescents (54.3% female; Mage at Time 1 = 12.41, SD = .97), structured equation modeling was conducted with maternal warmth and hostility examined as antecedents and adolescents’ life meaning as a mediator for language broker role identities. Results revealed that life meaning mediated the positive association from maternal warmth to language …

Cultural Disposition Influences In Workgroups: A Motivational Systems Theory Of Group Involvement Perspective, Verlin B. Hinsz, Ernest Park, Angela K. Y. Leung, Jared Ladbury

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Modern organizations often involve workgroup members who have different cultural heritage. This article provides an examination of how different cultural dimensions (e.g., uncertainty avoidance, individualism–collectivism) influence the ways that workgroups and their members respond to situations that involve threats and rewards. The threats and rewards activate distinct response patterns that are associated with a motivational systems theory of group involvement. Based on this theoretical foundation, a cultural dispositions approach is applied to reveal how culture could impact the ways group members respond (cognitively, affectively, motivationally) to situations that involve varying degrees of threats or rewards. This focus on cultural dispositions …

Adjusting Bilingual Ratings By Retest Reliability Improves Estimation Of Translation Quality, Dustin Wood, Lin Qiu, Jiahui Lu, Han Lin, William Tov

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The quality of cross-language scale translations is often explored by having bilingual participants complete the scale in both languages and then correlating their scores. However, low cross-language correlations can be observed due to score unreliability rather than due to poor scale translation. McCrae, Yik, Trapnell, Bond, and Paulhus suggested that a better indicator of translation quality can be formed by dividing the raw cross-language correlation by the same-language retest correlations over a similar measurement interval. Here, we illustrate how this method can be extended to evaluate the translation quality of individual items. We translated the English version of the Inventory …

The Perception Of Spontaneous And Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies, Gregory A. Bryan, Daniel M. Fessler, Riccardo Fusaroli, Edward Clint, Dorsa Amir, Brenda Chavez, Kaleda K. Denton, Cinthya Diaz, Lealaiailoto T. Duran, Jana Fancovicova, Michal Fux, Erni F. Ginting, Youssef Hasan, Anning Hu, Shanmukh V. Kamble, Tatsuya Kameda, Kiri Kuroda, Norman P. Li, Et Al

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human socialinteraction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language andculture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter—laugh types likely generated by differentvocal-production systems. Using a set of 36 recorded laughs produced by female English speakers in tests involving 884participants from 21 societies across six regions of the world, we asked listeners to determine whether each laugh wasreal or fake, and listeners differentiated between the two laugh types with an accuracy of 56% to 69%. Acoustic analysisrevealed that …

The Cultural Boundaries Of Perspective-Taking: When And Why Perspective-Taking Reduces Stereotyping, Cynthia S. Wang, Margaret Lee, Gillian Ku, Leung, Angela K. Y.

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research conducted in Western cultures indicates that perspective-taking is an effective social strategy for reducing stereotyping. The current article explores whether and why the effects of perspective-taking on stereotyping differ across cultures. Studies 1 and 2 established that perspective-taking reduces stereotyping in Western but not in East Asian cultures. Using a socioecological framework, Studies 2 and 3 found that relational mobility, that is, the extent to which individuals’ social environments provide them opportunities to choose new relationships and terminate old ones, explained our effect: Perspective-taking was negatively associated with stereotyping in relationally mobile (Western) but not in relationally stable (East …

The Savanna Theory Of Happiness, Satoshi Kanazawa, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This chapter describes the savanna theory of happiness, which posits that it may not be only the consequences of a given situation in the current environment that affect individuals’ happiness but also what its consequences would have been in the ancestral environment. The theory further suggests that the effect of such ancestral consequences on happiness is stronger among less intelligent individuals than among more intelligent individuals. Consistent with the theory, being an ethnic minority, living in urban areas, and socializing with friends less frequently all reduce happiness, but the effects of these conditions are significantly stronger among less intelligent individuals …

Intercultural Experience And Creativity, Chi-Ying Cheng, Yi Wen Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Creativity, commonly defined as a production of novel and useful ideas, has long been considered as a type of individual difference that is highly associated with personality traits and intellectual intelligence, which cannot be changed easily. Recently, it has been demonstrated that creativity can occur as a result of cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes that are driven by intercultural experiences, which can be acquired. In line with the creative cognition approach, individuals with direct intercultural experiences exhibit higher individual creativity. Specifically, those who adopt biculturalism as their acculturation strategy and develop a high level of integration between their bicultural identities …

Attention To Context During Evaluative Learning And Context-Dependent Automatic Evaluation: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Yang Ye, Yuk-Yue Tong, Chi-Yue Chiu, Bertram Gawronski

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Previous research has shown that changes in automatic evaluations can be limited to the context in which counterattitudinal information was acquired. This effect has been attributed to enhanced attention to context cues during the encoding of expectancy-violating counterattitudinal information. Drawing on previous evidence for cultural differences in attention to context and tolerance for inconsistency, the present research examined cultural differences in responses to conflicting evaluative information and the resulting context-effects on automatic evaluation. Study 1 revealed that both Canadian and Singaporean participants showed enhanced attention to context during exposure to counterattitudinal information. In a reanalysis of studies with Singaporean participants, …

Enhancing Creativity Through Multiculturalism, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Professor Angela Leung finds that multicultural experience is a useful lens through which to analyse creative performance.

See her papers:

• Multicultural experience, idea receptiveness, and creativity
• Embodied metaphors and creative "acts"
• Being environmentally responsible: Cosmopolitan orientation predicts pro-environmental behaviors

Detecting Affiliation In Colaughter Across 24 Societies, G. A. Bryant, D. M.T. Fessler, R. Fusaroli, E. Clint, L. Aaroe, C. L. Apicella, M. B. Petersen, S. T. Bickham, A. Bolyanatz, B. Chavez, D. De Smet, C. Diaz, J. Fancovicova, M. Fux, P. Giraldo-Perez, Anning Hu, S. V. Kamble, T. Kameda, Norman P. Li, Jose C. Yong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Laughter is a nonverbal vocal expression that often communicates positive affect and cooperative intent in humans. Temporally coincident laughter occurring within groups is a potentially rich cue of affiliation to overhearers. We examined listeners' judgments of affiliation based on brief, decontextualized instances of colaughter between either established friends or recently acquainted strangers. In a sample of 966 participants from 24 societies, people reliably distinguished friends from strangers with an accuracy of 53-67%. Acoustic analyses of the individual laughter segments revealed that, across cultures, listeners' judgments were consistently predicted by voicing dynamics, suggesting perceptual sensitivity to emotionally triggered spontaneous production. Colaughter …

Unpacking East-West Differences In The Extent Of Self-Enhancement From The Perspective Of Face Versus Dignity Cultures, Hae In Lee, Angela K. Y. Leung, Young-Hoon Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The question of whether or not the need for self-enhancement is culturally universal has been a controversial issue in cultural psychology. Though there have been numerous studies arguing that East Asians also have the need for self-enhancement, the controversy remained. We contend that the field is ready to see a cohesive theory that integrates and explains when and why East Asians do and do not manifest their need for self-enhancement. In this paper, we provide the theoretical logics of and rationales behind face and dignity cultures as the new theoretical proxies that integrate and explain East Asians' self-enhancing behaviors, supplementing …

Priming Bush (Vs. Obama) Increases Liking Of American Brands: The Role Of Intersubjectively Important Values, Letty Y. Y. Kwan, Chi-Yue Chiu, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Past research has shown that exposure to cultural symbols can influence personal preferences. The present research extends this finding by showing that cultural symbols acquire their cultural significance in part through their associations with intersubjectively important values—values that are perceived to be prevalent in the culture. In addition, cultural symbols can influence personal preferences through the activation of perceived normative preferences. In Study 1, perceived liking of Bush among Americans was linked to the perceived popularity of intersubjectively important values in the USA. In Study 2, both priming Bush and personal endorsement of intersubjectively important values increased Americans' liking of …

Revisiting The Multicultural Experience-Creativity Link: The Effects Of Cultural Distance And Comparison Mindset, Chi-Ying Cheng, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A growing literature provides evidence for the multicultural experience-creativity link such that exposure to the juxtaposition of two cultures facilitates individual creativity. The underlying mechanisms for this relationship, however, are still far from being well explored. Drawing upon the novel perspective of motivated cognition, we hypothesize that two factors interact to affect creative outcomes: (a) perceived cultural distance between the two juxtaposed cultures, and (b) comparison mind-sets. Specifically, we argue that individuals’ creative performance will be increased only when a difference mind-set is employed to process the cultural stimuli that are sufficiently different from each other. In two studies, individuals …

Cultural Differences And Switching Of In-Group Sharing Behavior Between An American (Facebook) And A Chinese (Renren) Social Networking Site, Lin Qiu, Han Lin, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Prior research has documented cultural dimensions that broadly characterize between-culture variations in Western and East Asian societies and that bicultural individuals can flexibly change their behaviors in response to different cultural contexts. In this article, we studied cultural differences and behavioral switching in the context of the fast emerging, naturally occurring online social networking, using both self-report measures and content analyses of online activities on two highly popular platforms, Facebook and Renren (the “Facebook of China”). Results showed that while Renren and Facebook are two technically similar platforms, the Renren culture is perceived as more collectivistic than the Facebook culture. …

Subjective Well-Being, William Tov, Ed Diener

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The cross-cultural importance of happiness and contentment can be inferred from their emergence in philosophical discussions across many cultural traditions. We begin by focusing on similarities, noting what has been found to correlate with the components of SWB across most cultures. Subjective well being (SWB) involves the various ways that people evaluate and experience their lives. In many ways, the term is synonymous with the everyday notion of happiness – positive feelings are an important aspect of well being. Cross-cultural similarities are important because they highlight our common humanity and hint at which factors may be fundamental to wellbeing. Next, …

Cultural Similarities And Differences In The Conceptualization Of Emotion, Christie N. Scollon, William Tov

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research on emotional experiences across cultures is reviewed from a cultural psychological perspective. Psychometric approaches to evaluating the structure of emotions has consistently replicated two broad dimensions (positive and negative affect) in several countries. Nevertheless, there are cultural differences in other aspects of emotional experience such as the relation between positive and negative affect, the nature of specific emotions (e.g., pride and affection), and the types of emotions that are valued. Recent research on the cognitive organization of emotional experiences may provide additional insights and these methods await broader application in crosscultural research.

Going Beyond The Multicultural Experience-Creativity Link: The Mediating Role Of Emotions, Chi-Ying Cheng, Angela K. Y. Leung, Tsung-Yu Wu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This research examines the mediating role of emotions implicated in the multicultural experience—creativity link. We propose that when individuals are dealing with apparent cultural contradictions upon encountering two cultures simultaneously, mentally juxtaposing dissonant cultural stimuli could lower positive affect or increase negative affect, which could in turn induce a deeper level of cognitive processing of cultural discrepancies and inspire creativity. Two studies compared dual cultural exposure versus single cultural exposure among bicultural Singaporeans (Study 1) and compared self-relevant (jointly presenting local and foreign cultures) versus self-irrelevant (jointly presenting foreign cultures only) dual cultural exposure among monocultural Taiwanese (Study 2). As …

The Effects Of Culture And Friendship On Rewarding Honesty And Punishing Deception, Cynthia S. Wang, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Michelle Ya Hui See, Xiang Yu Gao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

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 …