Vivian Miu-Chi Lun

Citizen-making: The role of national goals for socializing children

The ecological, political, religious and economic constraints and opportunities characterizing a nation crystallize to set the agenda for socializing children, its future citizens. Parented accordingly, members of those nations would come to adopt the values, beliefs, skills and attitudes that constitute the requisite human capital to sustain that nation. This study reports on the profiling of 55 nations by two dimensions of the socialization goals for children extracted from the World Values Survey, viz., Self-directedness versus Other-directedness, and Civility versus Practicality. An affluent, less corrupt and more gender-equal society is associated with greater focus on Self-directedness and Civility. Both dimensions show convergent and discriminant validities in their correlation with nation-level psychosocial variables such as citizen subjective well-being, values, beliefs, pace of life and trust of out-groups. These dimensions are also shown to connect a nations ecological construct to the outcomes of its citizens, adding a psychological-developmental perspective to examine nation-building and cultural transmission.

Be Careful Where You Smile: Culture Shapes Judgments of Intelligence and Honesty of Smiling Individuals

Smiling individuals are usually perceived more favorably than non-smiling ones—they are judged as happier, more attractive, competent, and friendly. These seemingly clear and obvious consequences of smiling are assumed to be culturally universal, however most of the psychological research is carried out in WEIRD societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and the influence of culture on social perception of nonverbal behavior is still understudied. Here we show that a smiling individual may be judged as less intelligent than the same non-smiling individual in cultures low on the GLOBE’s uncertainty avoidance dimension. Furthermore, we show that corruption at the societal level may undermine the prosocial perception of smiling—in societies with high corruption indicators, trust toward smiling individuals is reduced. This research fosters understanding of the cultural framework surrounding nonverbal communication processes and reveals that in some cultures smiling may lead to negative attributions.

Engaging in Creative Work: The Influences of Personal Value, Autonomy at Work, and National Socialization for Self-Directedness in 50 Nations:

This study aims to examine why and how individuals’ self-reported engagement in creative work is separately and jointly influenced by dispositional, situational, and national-cultural factors worldwide. Using data abstracted from the World Value Survey, we proposed a multi-level model testing how the relationship between individuals’ creative value orientation and their self-reported creative work engagement is contingent on perceived job autonomy and how such interaction is further moderated by the dimension of national socialization for Self-Directedness in developing its human capital. Data provided by a total of 35,120 employees from 50 nations were included in our hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses. As hypothesized, the relationship between an employee’s creative value orientation and creative job engagement is moderated by job autonomy, such that the relationship is stronger when the job held is more autonomous rather than less. However, the relationship of this Person × Situation interaction to creative work engagement was not as extensive as expected—It is stronger in nations emphasizing Self-Directedness in socializing its children. Our findings thus offer conceptual guidelines and practical insights to national and firm leaders aspiring to effect actions for creativity using both personal and situational factors in a given national-cultural context.

Catching up with wonderful women: The women-are-wonderful effect is smaller in more gender egalitarian societies: CATCHING UP WITH WONDERFUL WOMEN

Inequalities between men and women are common and well-documented. Objective indexes show that men are better positioned than women in societal hierarchies-there is no single country in the world without a gender gap. In contrast, researchers have found that the women-are-wonderful effect-that women are evaluated more positively than men overall-is also common. Cross-cultural studies on gender equality reveal that the more gender egalitarian the society is, the less prevalent explicit gender stereotypes are. Yet, because self-reported gender stereotypes may differ from implicit attitudes towards each gender, we reanalysed data collected across 44 cultures, and (a) confirmed that societal gender egalitarianism reduces the women-are-wonderful effect when it is measured more implicitly (i.e. rating the personality of men and women presented in images) and (b) documented that the social perception of men benefits more from gender egalitarianism than that of women.

Emotional Labor and Occupational Well-being: Latent Profile Transition Analysis Approach

This study used the latent profile transition analysis (LPTA) to analyze whether emotional labor profiles change across time and how these profiles relate to occupational well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, quality of work life, psychological distress, and work–family conflict). A total of 155 full-time Chinese employees completed the questionnaire survey at two time points. Three latent profiles were identified at Time 1 and the same profiles were replicated at Time 2. We determined that the majority of the participants retained the original profiles. Lastly, occupational well-being differed significantly across the identified profiles. The limitations and implications of this study were also provided.

Examining religion and well-being across cultures : the cognitive science of religion as sextant

The cognitive science of religion examines the naturalness of religious phenomena by identifying universals in the human cognitive apparatus and process, then exploring the nomological nets surrounding them. There is variation both within and across populations in these constructs and in their linkages, thereby enabling cultural examination of these religious phenomena that have so far been operationalized. We hypothesize that religious phenomena so approached occur within a social-psychological context characterized by affordances that channel their realization and enactments. A fuller understanding of any religious outcome-of-interest will be better understood by considering the characteristics of these contexts that may impinge upon the religious phenomena experienced by a given person. In this essay, we consider the available evidence supporting this hypothesis in multi-national data sets addressing religious beliefs and practices, particularly with regard to their implications for a person’s subjective well-being. The available results support the notion that religion differentially matters to the life of an individual in different cultures. However, the data sets are few, their measures atheoretically conceived, piecemeal, and survey-derived. To encourage more thoughtful, culturally embedded research on the naturalness of religious phenomena, we conclude by exhorting colleagues to address these shortfalls and broaden their conceptual range and empirical reach in the scientific study of religion.

Catching up with wonderful women

Inequalities between men and women are common and well-documented. Objective indexes show that men are better positioned than women in societal hierarchies-there is no single country in the world without a gender gap. In contrast, researchers have found that the women-are-wonderful effect-that women are evaluated more positively than men overall-is also common. Cross-cultural studies on gender equality reveal that the more gender egalitarian the society is, the less prevalent explicit gender stereotypes are. Yet, because self-reported gender stereotypes may differ from implicit attitudes towards each gender, we reanalysed data collected across 44 cultures, and (a) confirmed that societal gender egalitarianism reduces the women-are-wonderful effect when it is measured more implicitly (i.e. rating the personality of men and women presented in images) and (b) documented that the social perception of men benefits more from gender egalitarianism than that of women.

Catching up with wonderful women : the women-are-wonderful effect is smaller in more gender egalitarian societies

Inequalities between men and women are common and well-documented. Objective indexes show that men are better positioned than women in societal hierarchies-there is no single country in the world without a gender gap. In contrast, researchers have found that the women-are-wonderful effect-that women are evaluated more positively than men overall-is also common. Cross-cultural studies on gender equality reveal that the more gender egalitarian the society is, the less prevalent explicit gender stereotypes are. Yet, because self-reported gender stereotypes may differ from implicit attitudes towards each gender, we reanalysed data collected across 44 cultures, and (a) confirmed that societal gender egalitarianism reduces the women-are-wonderful effect when it is measured more implicitly (i.e. rating the personality of men and women presented in images) and (b) documented that the social perception of men benefits more from gender egalitarianism than that of women.

When my object becomes me

Past research on the mere ownership effect has shown that when people own an object, they perceive the owned objects more favorably than the comparable non-owned objects. The present research extends this idea, showing that when people own an object functional to the self, they perceive an increase in their self-efficacy. Three studies were conducted to demonstrate this new form of the mere ownership effect. In Study 1, participants reported an increase in their knowledge level by the mere ownership of reading materials (a reading package in Study 1a, and lecture notes in Study 1b). In Study 2, participants reported an increase in their resilience to sleepiness by merely owning a piece of chocolate that purportedly had a sleepiness-combating function. In Study 3, participants who merely owned a flower essence that is claimed to boost creativity reported having higher creativity efficacy. The findings provided insights on how associations with objects alter ones self-perception.

When my object becomes me : the mere ownership of an object elevates domain-specific self-efficacy

Past research on the mere ownership effect has shown that when people own an object, they perceive the owned objects more favorably than the comparable non-owned objects. The present research extends this idea, showing that when people own an object functional to the self, they perceive an increase in their self-efficacy. Three studies were conducted to demonstrate this new form of the mere ownership effect. In Study 1, participants reported an increase in their knowledge level by the mere ownership of reading materials (a reading package in Study 1a, and lecture notes in Study 1b). In Study 2, participants reported an increase in their resilience to sleepiness by merely owning a piece of chocolate that purportedly had a sleepiness-combating function. In Study 3, participants who merely owned a flower essence that is claimed to boost creativity reported having higher creativity efficacy. The findings provided insights on how associations with objects alter ones self-perception.