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Fairness‐related behaviour modulation by friendship is moderated by A merican primes in C hinese participants
Author(s) -
Wu Yan,
Zhang Mengyuan,
Zhang Chi,
Tian Xuehong
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.12111
Subject(s) - ultimatum game , psychology , social psychology , friendship , priming (agriculture) , norm (philosophy) , chinese americans , cultural diversity , ethnic group , sociology , botany , germination , political science , anthropology , law , biology
Empirical studies from the fields of psychology and behavioural economics indicate that people do not like being treated unfairly and may punish those who violate the norm, even at a cost to themselves. Recent research has emphasized the relationship effect on fairness‐related behaviour but has shown conflicting results and has not focused much on the characteristics of culture. This study used the cultural priming paradigm and the U ltimatum G ame ( UG ) to explore whether cultural primes could moderate the relationship effect on fairness‐related decision making. We primed C hinese participants with either C hinese cultural symbols or A merican cultural symbols and asked them to play as responders with friends or strangers in the two‐party UG (experiment 1) or in the three‐party UG (experiment 2). Results from the two experiments confirm that C hinese participants accepted unfair offers more often when the offers were made by friends than when the offers were made by strangers. However, the relationship effect was diminished after A merican cultural priming. These results suggest that A merican primes can moderate the relationship effect on fairness‐related behaviour in C hinese people. This finding may shed new light on the likelihood of exiting from the heavy reliance on social relationships in C hinese society.