Cultural variation in correspondence bias: The critical role of attitude diagnosticity of socially constrained behavior.
Abstract
Upon observing another's socially constrained behavior, people often ascribe to the person an attitude that corresponds to the behavior (called the correspondence bias [CB]). The authors found that when a socially constrained behavior is still diagnostic of the actor's attitude, both Americans and Japanese show an equally strong CB. A major cultural difference occurred when the behavior was minimally diagnostic. Demonstrating their persistent bias toward dispositional attribution, Americans showed a strong CB. But Japanese did not show any CB (Study 1). Furthermore, a mediational analysis revealed that this cross-cultural difference was due in part to the nature of explicit inferences generated online during attitudinal judgment (Study 2). Implications for the cultural grounding of social perception are discussed.
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Indian and East Asian participants are more likely to attribute circumstances to the situation rather than the person.
“Participants from the United States tend to be more willing to focus on internal explanations for all sorts of behaviours, including misfortune (Gilbert & Malone, 1995;Ross, 1977), whereas Indian and East Asian participants are more likely to attribute circumstances to the situation rather than the person (e.g.Choi & Nisbett, 1998;Miller, 1984;Miyamoto & Kitayama, 2002;Morris & Peng, 1994;Norenz”
From Victim blaming and belief in karma (2024) · cites this paper as Miyamoto & Kitayama, 2002
Cites
The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60214-2 · Cited by 8,822 · see citing works
Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. (1995) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.1.21 · Cited by 1,897 · see citing works
Jones, E. E., & Harris, V. A. (1967) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/0022-1031(67)90034-0 · Cited by 1,783 · cited 9× · see citing works
“In an original demonstration of CB, Jones and Harris (1967) had American college students infer the true attitude of a hypothetical person who allegedly wrote an essay that either supported or denounced Fidel Castro in Cuba.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialPerceiving an Object and Its Context in Different Cultures
Kitayama, S., Duffy, S., Kawamura, T., & Larsen, J. T. (2003) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.02432 · Cited by 800 · see citing works
Self-citationSituational Salience and Cultural Differences in the Correspondence Bias and Actor-Observer Bias
Choi, I., & Nisbett, R. E. (1998) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167298249003 · Cited by 392 · see citing works
Perceiver-induced constraint: Interpretations of self-generated reality.
Gilbert, D. T., & Jones, E. E. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.269 · Cited by 335 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Following earlier studies by A. G. Miller, Gilbert, and their colleagues (e.g., A. G. Miller, 1976; Gilbert & Jones, 1986 ), Masuda and Kitayama (2002) had participants observe a protagonist who was reading an essay that had been written by someone else.”
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The weirdest people in the world?
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x0999152x · Cited by 12,641 · see citing works
Many Labs 2: Investigating variation in replicability across samples and settings
Klein, R. A., Vianello, M., Hasselman, F., Adams, B. G., Adams, R. B., Alper, S., Aveyard, M., Axt, J. R., Babalola, M. T., Bahník, Š., et al. (2018) · Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2515245918810225 · Cited by 944 · see citing works
Perceiving an Object and Its Context in Different Cultures
Kitayama, S., Duffy, S., Kawamura, T., & Larsen, J. T. (2003) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.02432 · Cited by 800 · see citing works
Self-citationGawronski, B. (2004) · European Review of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/10463280440000026 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Gendron, M., Mesquita, B., & Barrett, L. F. (2020) · Culture, Mind, and Brain · doi:10.1017/9781108695374.010 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Victim blaming and belief in karma
White, C. J. M., & Willard, A. K. (2024) · Asian Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/ajsp.12654 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Miyamoto, Y., & Kitayama, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Kyoto University (JP)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2002-11
- Volume
- 83
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1239-1248
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2125114297
- Cited by
- 208
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 4.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Keywords
- correspondence bias, cross-cultural comparison, dispositional attribution, social perception
- MeSH terms
- Attitude, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Culture, Female, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Judgment, Male, Prejudice, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Behavior
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