Motivated Cultural Cognition The Impact of Implicit Cultural Theories on Dispositional Attribution Varies as a Function of Need for Closure

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology Vol. 78; no. 2; pp. 247 - 259
• Main Authors: Chiu, Chi-yue, Morris, Michael W, Menon, Tanya, Hong, Ying-yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-02-2000
• Subjects: Acculturation; Adult; Americans; Attribution; Biological and medical sciences; California; Chinese; Cognition; Cognitive Style; Cross Cultural Differences; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Cultural Characteristics; Culture; Decision Making; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Group membership; Hong Kong; Human; Humans; Individual Differences; Individuality; Male; Middle Aged; Motivation; Needs; Problem Solving; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Self-government; Social attribution, perception and cognition; Social cognition; Social Identification; Social life & customs; Social Perception; Social psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Asia; United States; North America; China; America; Hong Kong; California; Social environment; Human; Crosscultural study; Implicit theory; Cultural environment; Attribution; Social cognition; Judgment
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.247

The authors propose that need for closure (NFC) leads attributors to respond to an ambiguous social event by increasing reliance on implicit theories received from acculturation. Hence, the influence of NFC should be shaped by chronically accessible knowledge structures in a culture, and, likewise, the influence of culture should be moderated by epistemic motives such as NFC. The specific hypotheses drew on past findings that North American and Chinese attributors possess differing implicit social theories, North Americans conceiving of individuals as autonomous agents and Chinese conceiving of groups as autonomous. The present studies found the predicted pattern that among North American participants, NFC increased attributions to personal but not group dispositions. Among Chinese participants, NFC increased attributions to group but not personal dispositions. The findings are discussed in light of an emerging dynamic account of culture and cognition.