TY - JOUR

T1 - Cosmopolitan cities

T2 - The frontier in the twenty-first century?

AU - Sevincer, A. Timur

AU - Kitayama, Shinobu

AU - Varnum, Michael E.W.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2015 Sevincer, Kitayama and Varnum.

PY - 2015/10/14

Y1 - 2015/10/14

N2 - People with independent (vs. interdependent) social orientation place greater priority on personal success, autonomy, and novel experiences over maintaining ties to their communities of origin. Accordingly, an independent orientation should be linked to a motivational proclivity to move to places that offer economic opportunities, freedom, and diversity. Such places are cities that can be called "cosmopolitan." In support of this hypothesis, Study 1 found that independently oriented young adults showed a preference to move to cosmopolitan rather than noncosmopolitan cities. Study 2 used a priming manipulation and demonstrated a causal impact of independence on residential preferences for cosmopolitan cities. Study 3 established ecological validity by showing that students who actually moved to a cosmopolitan city were more independent than those who either moved to a noncosmopolitan city or never moved. Taken together, the findings illuminate the role of cosmopolitan settlement in the contemporary cultural change toward independence and have implications for urban development and economic growth.

AB - People with independent (vs. interdependent) social orientation place greater priority on personal success, autonomy, and novel experiences over maintaining ties to their communities of origin. Accordingly, an independent orientation should be linked to a motivational proclivity to move to places that offer economic opportunities, freedom, and diversity. Such places are cities that can be called "cosmopolitan." In support of this hypothesis, Study 1 found that independently oriented young adults showed a preference to move to cosmopolitan rather than noncosmopolitan cities. Study 2 used a priming manipulation and demonstrated a causal impact of independence on residential preferences for cosmopolitan cities. Study 3 established ecological validity by showing that students who actually moved to a cosmopolitan city were more independent than those who either moved to a noncosmopolitan city or never moved. Taken together, the findings illuminate the role of cosmopolitan settlement in the contemporary cultural change toward independence and have implications for urban development and economic growth.

KW - Cosmopolitanism

KW - Cultural change

KW - Goal pursuit

KW - Independence

KW - Priming

KW - Voluntary settlement

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84947225275&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01459

DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01459

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84947225275

VL - 6

JO - Frontiers in Psychology

JF - Frontiers in Psychology

SN - 1664-1078

IS - OCT

M1 - 1459

ER -