Cultural Conditioning: Understanding Interpersonal Accommodation in India and the United States in Terms of the Modal Characteristics of Interpersonal Influence Situations

We argue that differences between the landscapes of influence situations in Indian and American societies induce Indians to accommodate to others more often than Americans. To investigate cultural differences in situation-scapes, we sampled interpersonal influence situations occurring in India and t...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of personality and social psychology Vol. 100; no. 1; pp. 84 - 102
Main Authors:	SAVANI, Krishna, MORRIS, Michael W, KUMAR, Satishchandra, NAIDU, N. V. R, BERLIA, Neha V
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC American Psychological Association 2011
Subjects:	Accommodation Acculturation Adjustment Behavioural psychology Bias Biological and medical sciences Conditioning Cross Cultural Differences Cross-Cultural Comparison Crosscultural Differences Cultural adaptation Cultural differences Cultural identity Culture Decision making Decisions Expectations Female Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Human Humans India Influence International comparisons Interpersonal Influences Interpersonal Relations Landscapes Litigation Male Models, Psychological Motivation Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Psychology. Psychophysiology Social Adjustment Social influence Social interactions. Communication. Group processes Social Perception Social psychology Sociocultural Factors Studies Trials U.S.A United States United States of America Young Adult Asia United States North America America India United States > US Social environment Human Social influence Attitude influence Crosscultural relation Social interaction Cultural environment conditioning culture accommodation adjustment Interpersonal relation
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	We argue that differences between the landscapes of influence situations in Indian and American societies induce Indians to accommodate to others more often than Americans. To investigate cultural differences in situation-scapes, we sampled interpersonal influence situations occurring in India and the United States from both the influencee's (Study 1) and the influencer's (Study 2) perspectives. We found that Indian influence situations were dramatically more likely than U.S. situations to feature other-serving motives and to result in positive consequences for the relationship. Yet Study 3 found that targets of influence felt no less free to decide whether to accommodate in India than the United States, but felt more concerned about the influencer. To investigate the effects of situation-scapes on people's expectations and decisions, we exposed Indian and American participants to descriptions of situations from both societies (with their origins obscured). Study 4 found that both groups of participants expected more positive consequences from accommodation in Indian situations than in American situations. Finally, Study 5 found that both groups decided to accommodate more often in Indian situations than in American situations. At the same time, Indian participants were more likely than Americans to accommodate across all situations, but both groups converged over 100 trials as they were exposed to more and more situations drawn from each other's cultures. We interpret these effects in terms of the default decisions or biases conditioned by people's recently encountered situations.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:	0022-3514 1939-1315
DOI:	10.1037/a0021083