Cross-cultural differences in children's use of decision rules: A comparison between Japan and Australia.

Tested the hypothesis that children in collectivist and individualist cultures would differ in the decision rules used for the distribution of rewards between a majority and minority in the group. A decision game was developed for classroom administration in primary schools. 149 12-yr-olds in Osaka, Japan, and 162 12-yr-olds in Adelaide, Australia, were assigned randomly to a large group (majority) or to a small group (minority) in the classroom. They were told that only 1 group—large group or small group—could obtain chocolate rewards on each trial. Ss were asked to indicate how many chances (out of 6 trials) each group should have to obtain the rewards in a hypothetical game and in a real-life game. Ss then completed a social attitudes questionnaire assessing attitudes toward group loyalty and personal interests, acceptance of various decision rules for resolving competing interests in a group, and beliefs about people's willingness to be helpful and altruistic. Results show that in the real-life game, in both the majority and minority conditions, Japanese Ss were more likely to adopt an "equal-say" rule, while Australian Ss tended to use decision rules that followed self-interest and favored their own group. Findings support the hypothesis. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)