Yoshihisa Kashima

Culture, Gender, and Self: A Perspective From Individualism-Collectivism Research

Individualism and collectivism are often equated with independent vs. interdependent, agentic vs. communal, and separate vs. relational self-construals. Although these same concepts have been used to characterize both cultural and gender differences, a perspective of cultural evolution suggests it is unlikely. A division of labor within society may produce gender differences, but this cannot explain cultural differences. A study of self-construal involving 5 cultures (Australia, the United States, Hawaii, Japan, and Korea) shows that differences between these cultures are captured mostly by the extent to which people see themselves as acting as independent agents, whereas gender differences are best summarized by the extent to which people regard themselves as emotionally related to others.

Maintaining Cultural Stereotypes in the Serial Reproduction of Narratives

Recent social cognition research showed that the individual often recalls stereotype-inconsistent (SI) information better than stereotype-consistent (SC) information. By contrast, classical studies in social psychology suggest that SC information is retained well in the collective remembering where a number of individuals are involved in the reproduction of stories. In the present experiment, individual and collective remembering were examined. A story about a man and a woman who exhibited gender-stereotype-relevant behaviors was transmitted through five-person communication chains. Although participants in earlier positions of the chains reproduced SI information more than SC information under some circumstances, SC information was retained better than SI information toward the end of the chains regardless. The stability of cultural stereotypes was discussed in terms of the tendency for collective information processing to favor the retention of information shared among individuals.

How are stereotypes maintained through communication? The influence of stereotype sharedness.

Recent research has suggested that interpersonal communication may be an important source of stereotype maintenance. When communicated through a chain of people, stereotype-relevant information tends to become more stereotypical, thus confirming the stereotypes held by recipients of communication. However, the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon have yet to be fully determined. This article examines how the socially shared nature of stereotypes interacts with communication processes to maintain stereotypes in communication chains. In 3 experiments, participants communicated a stereotype-relevant story through 4-person chains using the method of serial reproduction. Manipulations included the extent to which communicators believed their audience and other community members shared and endorsed their stereotypes, and also the extent to which they actually shared the stereotypes. The shared nature of stereotypes was found to be a strong contributor to rendering the story more stereotypical in communication. This is discussed in relation to the maintenance of stereotypes through communication.

Acculturation Indices as a Means of Confirming Cultural Differences

Abstract : When subjects from culture A are becoming acculturated to culture B they may move toward culture B (accommodation), not only move toward B but even go beyond Bs position (overshooting), or might move away from the position commonly found in culture B (ethnic affirmation). Three kinds of data were examined to determine which of these patterns of adjustment to another culture take place. For role perceptions and behavioral intentions accommodation and overshooting were by far the most common; for stereotypes there were numerous cases of ethnic affirmation. When ethnic affirmation is the exception rather than the rule, we can use acculturation indices as means of confirming cultural differences. The more acculturated the culture A subject, the less is the difference between that subjects position and the mean of culture B.

Psychological Essentialism, Implicit Theories, and Intergroup Relations

Research on implicit person theories shows that beliefs about the malleability of human attributes have important implications for social cognition, interpersonal behavior, and intergroup relations. We argue that these implications can be understood within the framework of psychological essentialism, which extends work on implicit theories in promising directions. We review evidence that immutability beliefs covary with a broader set of essentialist beliefs, and that these essentialist beliefs are associated with stereotyping and prejudice. We then present recent studies indicating that associations between implicit person theories and stereotyping may be explained in terms of essentialist beliefs, implying a significant role for these beliefs in the psychology of group perception. Finally, we propose ways in which research and theory on essentialist beliefs might clarify and advance research on implicit person theories.

Attributing and denying humanness to others

We review a programme of research on the attribution of humanness to people, and the ways in which lesser humanness is attributed to some compared to others. We first present evidence that humanness has two distinct senses, one representing properties that are unique to our species, and the other—human nature—those properties that are essential or fundamental to the human category. An integrative model of dehumanisation is then laid out, in which distinct forms of dehumanisation correspond to the denial of the two senses of humanness, and the likening of people to particular kinds of nonhuman entities (animals and machines). Studies demonstrating that human nature attributes are ascribed more to the self than to others are reviewed, along with evidence of the phenomenons cognitive and motivational basis. Research also indicates that both kinds of humanness are commonly denied to social groups, both explicitly and implicitly, and that they may cast a new light on the study of stereotype content. Our approach to the study of dehumanisation complements the tradition of research on infrahumanisation, and indicates new directions for exploring the importance of humanness as a dimension of social perception.

Conceptions of Culture and Person for Psychology

This article argues that the current popularity of culture in psychology is likely to continue in the future if the conception of the person that psychologists adopt includes culture as an integral part of human nature. This thesis is illustrated in a brief historical account. Although the current discourse in psychology is marked by a metatheoretical tension between natural and cultural science approaches to mind, a consensus is emerging that assumes a materialist (or physicalist) ontology, a Darwinian evolutionism, and cultural-historical embeddedness of psychological processes and their development in social context. In this emerging consensus, culture is conceptualized as a species-specific property of Homo sapiens, which transmits information not only genetically across generations, but also symbolically between and within generations. Culture is thus integral to the ongoing process of tool use and symbol manipulation. Contemporary issues in the culture-mind relation are discussed against this common background.

Pathways to Persuasion: Cognitive and Experiential Responses to Health-Promoting Mass Media Messages

The experience of transportation—being absorbed in a narrative—and its relationship to persuasion were considered in two studies exploring responses to health-promoting mass media messages. Following Epstein’s (1994) cognitive-experiential self-theory, two pathways to persuasion were considered: cognitive and experiential. In Study 1 ( n = 121), smokers who experienced increased transportation in response to antismoking messages reported that they would make a greater effort to quit smoking, and this effect was mediated by both experiential (emotional and self-referencing) and cognitive responses to the messages. In Study 2 (n = 110), experiential responses to magazine messages promoting skin protection were related to intentions to protect oneself, and this effect was mediated by feelings of risk.The implications of these results are discussed in terms of principles for effective health communication campaigns as well as theoretical advances in narrative persuasion in the context of health communication.

Stereotypes help people connect with others in the community: A situated functional analysis of the stereotype consistency bias in communication

Communicators tend to share more stereotype-consistent than stereotype-inconsistent information. The authors propose and test a situated functional model of this stereotype consistency bias: stereotype-consistent and inconsistent information differentially serve 2 central functions of communication--sharing information and regulating relationships; depending on the communication context, information seen to serve these different functions better is more likely communicated. Results showed that stereotype-consistent information is perceived as more socially connective but less informative than inconsistent information, and when the stereotype is perceived to be highly shared in the community, more stereotype-consistent than inconsistent information is communicated due to its greater social connectivity function. These results highlight the need to examine communication as a dynamic and situated social activity.

Culture and Self: Are There Within-Culture Differences in Self Between Metropolitan Areas and Regional Cities?

Although differences in self-conception across cultures have been well researched, regional differences within a culture have escaped attention. The present study examined individual, relational, and collective selves, which capture people’s conceptions of themselves in relation to their goals, significant others, and in groups, comparing Australians and Japanese participants living in regional cities and metropolitan areas. Culture, gender, and urbanism were found to be related to individual, relational, and collective selves, respectively. Australians emphasized individual self more than Japanese, women stressed relational self more than men, and residents in regional cities regarded collective self as more important than their counterparts in metropolitan areas. These findings provide support for the tripartite division of the self and suggest a need to construct a culture theory that links self and societal processes.