Insult, aggression, and the southern culture of honor: An "experimental ethnography."

Three experiments examined how norms characteristic of a "culture of honor" manifest themselves in the cognitions, emotions, behaviors, and physiological reactions of southern White males. Participants were University of Michigan students who grew up in the North or South. In 3 experiments, they were insulted by a confederate who bumped into the participant and called him an "asshole." Compared with northerners (who were relatively unaffected by the insult) southerners were more likely to think their masculine reputation was threatened, more upset (as shown by a rise in cortisol levels), more physiologically primed for aggression (as shown by a rise in testosterone levels), more cognitively primed for aggression, and more likely to engage in aggressive and dominant behavior. Findings highlight the insult–aggression cycle in cultures of honor, in which insults diminish a man's reputation and he tries to restore his status by aggressive or violent behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural styles, relationship schemas, and prejudice against out-groups.

Two studies provide evidence that Latins (i.e., Mexicans and Mexican Americans) are guided by a concern with socioemotional aspects of workplace relations to a far greater degree than are Anglo-Americans. The focus on socioemotional considerations results in Latins having a relatively greater preference for workgroups having a strong interpersonal orientation. Preferred relational style had a far greater impact on preferences for workgroups and judgments about their likely success than did the ethnic composition of the workgroups for both Latins and Anglo-Americans. Evidence that the two groups differ markedly in relational schemas comes from examination of suggestions about how group performance could be improved, judgments about whether a focus on socioemotional concerns necessarily entails a reduction in task focus, and recall for socioemotional aspects of workgroup interactions. Implications for the dynamics of intercultural contact are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Violence and U.S. regional culture.

The US South, and western regions of the US initially settled by Southerners, are more violent than the rest of the country. Homicide rates for White Southern males are substantially higher than those for White Northern males, especially in rural areas. But only for argument-related homicides are Southern rates higher. Southerners do not endorse violence more than do Northerners when survey questions are expressed in general terms, but they are more inclined to endorse violence for protection and in response to insults. Southern Ss responded with more apparent anger to insults than did Northerners and were more likely to propose violent solutions to conflicts presented in scenarios after being insulted. The social matrix that produced this pattern may be the culture of honor characteristic of particular economic circumstances, including the herding society of the early South. Consistent with this possibility, the herding regions of the South are still the most violent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heredity, environment, and race differences in IQ: A commentary on Rushton and Jensen (2005).

J. P. Rushton and A. R. Jensen (see record 2005-03637-001) ignore or misinterpret most of the evidence of greatest relevance to the question of heritability of the Black-White IQ gap. A dispassionate reading of the evidence on the association of IQ with degree of European ancestry for members of Black populations, convergence of Black and White IQ in recent years, alterability of Black IQ by intervention programs, and adoption studies lend no support to a hereditarian interpretation of the Black-White IQ gap. On the contrary, the evidence most relevant to the question indicates that the genetic contribution to the Black-White IQ gap is nil. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction.

Chinese ways of dealing with seeming contradictions result in a dialectical or compromise approach—retaining basic elements of opposing perspectives by seeking a "middle way." On the other hand, European–American ways, deriving from a lay version of Aristotelian logic, result in a differentiation model that polarized contradictory perspectives in an effort to determine which factor is position is correct. Five empirical studies showed that dialectical thinking is a form of folk wisdom in Chinese culture: Chinese participants preferred dialectical proverbs containing seeming contradictions more than did American participants. Chinese participants also preferred dialectical resolutions to social conflicts and preferred dialectical arguments over classical Western logical arguments. Furthermore, when 2 apparently contradictory propositions were presented, American participants polarized their views, and Chinese participants were moderately accepting of of both propositions. Origins of these cultural differences and their implications for human reasoning in general are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attribution across cultures: Variation and universality.

Growing cross cultural evidence suggests that East Asians are less likely to show the correspondence bias, or a preference for explanations of behavior in terms of traits, dispositions, or other internal attributes of the target. The scope of this evidence spans several research paradigms and diverse methodologies. The cultural difference, however, appears not to be caused by an absence of dispositional thinking in East Asian cultures. Indeed, extensive ethnographic and psychological data indicate that "dispositionism" is a cross-culturally widespread mode of thinking, although East Asians believe dispositions to be more malleable and have a more holistic conception of the person as being situated in a broad social context. The East–West split in attribution thus originates primarily from a stronger "situationism" or belief in the importance of the context of behavior in East Asia. Consequently, East Asians are more likely than Westerners to avoid the correspondence bias as long as situational constraints are salient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conversing across cultures: East-West communication styles in work and nonwork contexts.

Four experiments provided evidence that East-West differences in attention to indirect meaning are more pronounced in work settings compared with nonwork settings as suggested by prior research on Protestant relational ideology. Study 1 compared errors in interpreting indirect messages in work and nonwork contexts across three cultures. Studies 2 and 3 examined differences in self-reported indirectness with coworkers versus nonwork acquaintances across three cultures controlling for variation in individualism- collectivism. Study 4 examined self-reported indirectness in bicultural managers, and experimentally manipulated the salience of Western versus Eastern culture. The results showed that Americans, but not East Asians, were less attentive to indirect cues in work than nonwork settings and that East-West differences in indirectness were greater in work than nonwork settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dialectical responses to questions about dialectical thinking.

Responds to comments by S. F. Chan (see record 2000-05933-017), D. Y. F. Ho (see record 2000-05933-018), and Y.-T. Lee (see record 2000-05933-019) on the article by K. Peng and R. E. Nisbett (see record 1999-11125-001) that made a number of assertions that reveal problems in logic and argumentation. In their studies, Peng and Nisbett found that Chinese tended to like dialectical proverbs and social resolution better than did Americans, and Chinese tended to prefer dialectical arguments over classic Western logical arguments. In the current article, Peng and Nisbett defend their work against criticisms made by the aforementioned authors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A guide for reviewers: Editorial hardball in the '70s.

Presents a tongue-in-cheek guide for reviewers of psychology articles submitted for publication. The process by which the number of articles is pared down until only the "most superior" articles remain for publication is described. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anti-Black prejudice as a function of exposure to the negative behavior of a single Black person.

The authors examined whether the negative behavior of 1 Black male would influence White participants' perceptions of Black Americans and behavior toward another Black person. In Study 1, it was found that participants in the Black-negative condition tended to stereotype Blacks more than participants in the Black-control condition did. It was also found that participants who had observed a negative behavior, whether it was performed by a Black or a White confederate, avoided a subsequently encountered Black person more often than did participants in either the positive condition or the control condition. In a 2nd study, interpersonal interactions with a Black person were minimized only after participants observed the negative behavior of a Black confederate. Study 3 extended the findings of Study 1 by showing that group level stereotypes and the expression of ingroup favoritism resulted from simply overhearing a conversation in which a Black person was alleged to have committed a crime. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)