SignificanceBiologists and social scientists have long tried to understand why some societies have more fluid and open interpersonal relationships—differences in relational mobility—and how those differences influence individual behaviors. We measure relational mobility in 39 societies and find that relationships are more stable and hard to form in east Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East, while they are more fluid in the West and Latin America. Results show that relationally mobile cultures tend to have higher interpersonal trust and intimacy. Exploring potential causes, we find greater environmental threats (like disease and warfare) and sedentary farming are associated with lower relational mobility. Our society-level index of relational mobility for 39 societies is a resource for future studies.
The current research proposes a novel explanation for previously demonstrated findings that East Asians disclose less personal information to others than do Westerners. We propose that both between- and within-culture differences in self-disclosure toward close friends may be explained by the construct of "relational mobility" - the general degree to which individuals in the society have the opportunities to form new and terminate old relationships. In Study 1, we found that cross-cultural differences (Japan vs. U.S.) in self-disclosure toward a close friend were mediated by individuals' perceptions of relational mobility. In Study 2, two separate measures of relational mobility predicted self-disclosure within a single culture (Japan), and this relationship was mediated by the motivation to strengthen interpersonal relationships. We conclude that societies and social contexts high in relational mobility (where relationships can be formed and dissolved relatively easily) produce stronger incentives for self-disclosure as a social commitment device
In this article, we present a new framework for interpreting cultural differences in behavior -- what we call the institutional approach. In this framework, individuals' behaviors are conceptualized as strategies adapted to various incentive structures. Cultural differences in behavior are thus viewed as differences in the default adaptive strategies that individuals come to rely on in unclear situations. Through two studies, we demonstrate that the East Asian "preference" for conformity is actually a default strategy to avoid accrual of negative reputation. When the possibility for negative evaluations in a given situation was clearly defined, cultural differences in the tendency for uniqueness disappeared. This approach carries important implications to psychologists who interpret cultural differences in behavior in terms of preferences, and can serve as a common framework branching out toward other disciplines in the social sciences.
Chapter prepared for O. Gillath, G.E. Adams, & A.D. Kunkel (Eds.). New directions in close relationships: Integrating across disciplines and theoretical approaches. Washington D.C.:
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