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Cultural differences in perceived coherence of the self and ingroup: A J apan– A ustralia comparison
Author(s) -
Tsukamoto Saori,
Holland Elise,
Haslam Nick,
Karasawa Minoru,
Kashima Yoshihisa
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
asian journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-839X
pISSN - 1367-2223
DOI - 10.1111/ajsp.12090
Subject(s) - ingroups and outgroups , consistency (knowledge bases) , essentialism , psychology , social psychology , perception , contradiction , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , epistemology , sociology , gender studies , philosophy , physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
Past studies have found that E ast A sians ascribe less consistency to individual selves than W esterners, but ascribe more consistency to social groups than W esterners. Using the concepts of naive dialecticism (i.e. the tendency to tolerate contradiction) and psychological essentialism (i.e. the tendency to attribute a fixed essence to something) as different aspects of consistency perception, we examined patterns of perceived consistency of the self and national ingroup among J apanese and A ustralians. Compared to A ustralians, J apanese showed more naive dialecticism and less psychological essentialism for the self; however, this cultural difference was not found for their national ingroups. These findings suggest that lay theories are applied in a domain‐specific manner, and the domains to which they are applied depend on culture.