Culture moderates the association between social expectations regarding helping and positive affect

Abstract

Previous research suggests that individuals from interdependent cultures have more congruent views of agency and social obligations. This study aimed to confirm these findings by investigating the moderating effects of culture on the association between perceived social expectations regarding helping and affect. Japanese (n=164) and American (n=177) adults recalled a recent situation in which they helped someone and responded to a questionnaire regarding need satisfaction and affect. As expected, the Japanese subjects showed a stronger positive association between the perceived social expectation that they should help and positive affect than the Americans. For Japanese, the perceived social expectation that they should help increased satisfaction of the need for competence, leading to a more positive affect, while for Americans, the perceived social expectation that they should help reduced satisfaction of the need for autonomy, which in turn, reduced positive affect.

Effect of obligation to help on positive affect: Comparing Japan, Romania, and the United States

“…Interestingly, obligation did not affect satisfaction of the need for competence; responding to a request for help may have made participants feel as competent as when initiating prosocial behavior autonomously, because the result of their action (the benefit received by the target) was the same no matter their motivation. As the moderating effect of country was nonsignificant, our study could not replicate previous research suggesting that obligation to help affects need satisfaction differently depending on participants' cultural background (Gherghel, Hashimoto, et al, 2020). Because we focused specifically on obligated help that was unwillingly offered, the procedure may have biased participants toward recalling unsatisfying helping experiences.…”

“…The instructions for the obligated help condition specifically asked participants to recall a situation in which they helped unwillingly . Considering that interdependent participants internalize social expectations, wanting to do what is expected of them (Buchtel et al, 2018; Gherghel, Hashimoto, et al, 2020; Janoff‐Bulman & Leggatt, 2002), the instructions in our study might not have captured the congruence between social expectations to help and participants' desire to respond to them. Instead, the instructions might have forced Japanese to think of a situation in which others' wishes were, for whatever reason, perceived as not meeting (or perhaps, exceeding) internalized social expectations.…”

“…Furthermore, previous research has only focused on the comparison of a limited number of countries. Most research has compared Asian countries with Western‐European heritage countries (Buchtel et al, 2018; Gherghel, Hashimoto, et al, 2020; Miller et al, 2011), while research on non‐Asian interdependent countries is limited (but see Bontempo & Lobel, 1990; Gherghel, Nastas, et al, 2020; Janoff‐Bulman & Leggatt, 2002). Extending research beyond the East‐West dichotomy is one way to explore the cultural factors determining the experience of obligation.…”

“…First, it aims to replicate previous cross‐cultural studies (Buchtel et al, 2018) showing that obligation to help is not detrimental to benefactors' positive affect in countries where social expectations are internalized. Second, it compares the strength of the association between social obligation and need satisfaction among participants from Japan, Romania, and the U.S., further (Gherghel, Hashimoto, et al, 2020), focusing on a more objective expression of social obligation: existence of request for help.…”

“…Some cross‐cultural research draws attention to the fact that obligation may be experienced differently depending on individuals' cultural background. Compared with Euro‐Americans, a sense of obligation to help was associated with more desire to help and more satisfaction in Latino Americans (Janoff‐Bulman & Leggatt, 2002), Indians (Miller et al, 2011), Japanese (Gherghel, Hashimoto, et al, 2020), as well as participants from Confucian‐heritage cultures (Buchtel et al, 2018). Accordingly, in some cultural contexts, obligation to help may neither hinder psychological need satisfaction, nor reduce benefactors' positive affect.…”