1. 1 Psychology 307: Cultural Psychology Lecture 14

2. 2 Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal Attraction, and Love 1.How does culture influence: (c) cooperative behaviour? 2.What characteristics are perceived to be attractive across cultures? 3.Are attitudes regarding romantic love similar across cultures?

3. 3 By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 1. describe “cultural frame” switching among bicultural people. 2. discuss the relationship between IC and cooperative behaviour. 3. define the term “propinquity” and describe its influence on attraction across cultures.

4. 4 4. identify the physical characteristics that are perceived to be attractive across cultures. 5. define the term “heterozygosity.” 6. discuss cultural differences in the experience of romantic love and marriage.

5. 5 How does culture influence cooperative behaviour? ● Theorists have come to believe that individualism promotes competitiveness among individuals, whereas collectivism promotes cooperation among individuals. ● Among the studies that have provided support for this theory are those that have compared how bicultural people who have been “culturally primed” respond when given the choice to compete or cooperate.

6. 6 ● Example: Wong and Hong (2005)  Recruited bicultural participants from Hong Kong.  Randomly assigned participants to one of 3 conditions: ● Cultural priming is a method used to activate “cultural frames” among bicultural people.

7. 7 Chinese priming condition: Exposed to slides of Chinese cultural icons. American priming condition: Exposed to slides of American cultural icons. Neutral priming (control) condition: Exposed to slides of geometric figures.

8. 8  Had participants take part in a prisoner’s dilemma game in which their partners were 5 friends.  Among the options that were given to participants were: (b) to cooperate: participant and each partner receives 3 points. (a) to compete: participant receives 4 points and each partner receives 0 points.

9. 9 Priming Condition

10. 10  When researchers conducted a similar study in which they paired participants with strangers, the percentage of cooperative choices made by participants in the Chinese priming condition dropped to the same level as the percentage of cooperative choices made by participants in the American priming condition.

11. 11 What characteristics are perceived to be attractive across cultures? ● Research suggests that there are many similarities across cultures with respect to the factors that influence interpersonal attraction.

12. 12 ● Among these factors are the following: (a) Propinquity  Researchers have found that, across cultures, propinquity is positively correlated with attraction.  Propinquity allows for more frequent contact between individuals.

13. 13  Frequent contact results in the “mere exposure effect.”  The mere exposure effect has been found to occur with both animate stimuli and inanimate stimuli.

14. 14  Example: Moreland and Beach (1992).  Had 3 female confederates pretend to be students in a university classroom. One attended the class 5 times, another 10 times, and the third15 times  At the end of the term, the students were asked to rate the attractiveness of the confederates and a fourth female who had never attended the class.

15. 15 Number of Times in Classroom

16. 16  Researchers have found that, across cultures, people are attracted to similar physical characteristics:  Example: Cunningham, Roberts, and Wu (1995) (b) Physical characteristics  Recruited Asian American, Hispanic American, and European American participants.  Found an average correlation of.93 between the facial attractiveness ratings provided by the 3 groups.

17. 17 Faces Rated as Being Highly Attractive

18. 18  Among the characteristics that have been found to be attractive across cultures are the following:  A complexion that is free of blemishes and sores.  Facial features that are relatively average in size and shape.  Bilateral symmetry of the face and body.

19. 19 Bilateral Facial Symmetry (Braun et al., 2001) Original FaceSymmetrically Optimized Face

20. 20 Facial “Smoothness” (Braun et al., 2001) Original FaceSmoothed Face

21. 21 Average-Sized Facial Features (Braun et al., 2001) += Original Face 1Original Face 2Morphed Face

22. 22

23. 23  In addition, research has shown that the faces that are perceived to be most attractive are those that result from morphing people from different ethnic groups:  Example: Rhodes et al. (2005)  Recruited European-Australian and Japanese participants.  Had participants provide attractiveness ratings and health ratings for several composite images created by morphing multiple faces:

26. 26  Found that: (a) for both males and females, the Eurasian face was perceived to be most attractive. (b) for both males and females, the Eurasian face was perceived to be most healthy.

27.  In individualistic cultures, physically attractive people experience more positive outcomes. This is know as the “Tyranny of the Beautiful”:

28. Among candidates for the Canadian federal election, physically attractive candidates received three times as many votes as unattractive ones. Among individuals with an MBA, each “unit” of attractiveness was associated with an additional $2150/yr for females and $2600/yr salary for males. Among individuals charged with misdemeanor offenses, attractive defendants were assigned less than half of the bail amounts as unattractive defendants.

29. 29  Research suggests that the Tyranny of the Beautiful may be more prevalent in individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures:  Investigated the relationship between physical attractiveness and life outcomes in the US and in Ghana.  Example: Anderson, Adams, and Plaut (2008)

30. 30 Correlations with Attractiveness

31.   In contrast to collectivistic cultures, in individualistic cultures people have greater freedom of choice with respect to selecting relationship partners.  In such “open relationship markets,” physical attractiveness serves as a cue, attracting others to relationships and, thus, facilitating positive outcomes.

32. 32  Researchers have found that, across cultures, people are attracted to similar personality characteristics: (c) Personality characteristics  Example: Buss et al. (1990)  Recruited participants from 33 countries (e.g., Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, India, Japan, Iran, Nigeria, Poland, U.S., Zambia).

33. 33 (b) an average male-female correlation of.87, suggesting sexual similarity with respect to preferred personality characteristics.  Had participants rate personality characteristics for how desirable they would be in choosing a mate.  Found: (a) an average cross-cultural correlation of.78, suggesting cultural similarity with respect to preferred personality characteristics.

34. 34 Are attitudes regarding romantic love similar across cultures? ● Theorists have come to believe that individualism promotes an emphasis on the married couple; romantic love is viewed as the force that binds the couple. ● In contrast, collectivism promotes an emphasis on the extended family and the married couple’s position within the family; familial support is viewed as the force that binds the couple.

35. 35 ● Among the studies that have provided support for this theory are those that have compared: (a) the beliefs that people from different cultures have about love and (b) the importance of love as a basis of marriage in different cultures.

36. 36 ● Although romantic love has been documented in virtually all cultures, research suggests that there is cultural variation in the extent to which romantic love is believed to be associated with positive affect. (a) Beliefs about romantic love: ● Example: Rothbaum and Tsang (1998)  Examined the lyrics of 38 American and 42 Chinese love songs.

37. 37 (b) significantly more Chinese love songs than American love songs indicated that there were negative outcomes associated with the relationship. (c) significantly more Chinese love songs than American songs expressed suffering as a consequence of the love relationship.  Found that: (a) significantly more Chinese love songs than American love songs depicted love as embedded within a broader social context.

38. 38  Consistent with these findings, Wu (1992) found that Chinese students agreed more strongly than did American students with the statement “love without pain is not true love.”

39. 39 ● Research suggests that romantic love is more likely to be viewed as a necessary precondition for marriage in individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures. (b) The importance of romantic love as a basis of marriage ● Example: Levine et al. (1995)  Recruited participants from 11 countries (e.g., Australia, Brazil, England, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Thailand, U.S.).

40. 40  Asked participants to respond to the following question: If a man (woman) had all the other qualities you desired, would you marry this person if you were not in love with him (her)?  Found that participants from collectivistic cultures were more likely to respond “yes” than participants from individualistic cultures.

41. 41  E.g., Percentage of participants who responded “yes”: Australia4.8% India49.0% England7.3%Pakistan50.4% U.S. 3.5% Thailand18.8%  Consistent with these findings, people from collectivistic cultures often report that they “love the person they marry,” not “marry the person they love.”

42. 42

43. 43 Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal Attraction, and Love 1.How does culture influence: (c) cooperative behaviour? 2.What characteristics are perceived to be attractive across cultures? 3.Are attitudes regarding romantic love similar across cultures?