Cultural influences on social feedback processing of character traits

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Christoph Korn
  • Yan Fan
  • Kai Zhang
  • Chenbo Wang
  • Shihui Han
  • Hauke Heekeren
Cultural differences are generally explained by how people see themselves in relation to social interaction partners. While Western culture emphasizes independence, East Asian culture emphasizes interdependence. Despite this focus on social interactions, it remains elusive how people from different cultures process feedback on their own (and on others') character traits. Here, participants of either German or Chinese origin engaged in a face-to-face interaction. Consequently, they updated their self- and other-ratings of 80 character traits (e.g., polite, pedantic) after receiving feedback from their interaction partners. To exclude potential confounds, we obtained data from German and Chinese participants in Berlin [functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)] and in Beijing (behavior). We tested cultural influences on social conformity, positivity biases, and self-related neural activity. First, Chinese conformed more to social feedback than Germans (i.e., Chinese updated their trait ratings more). Second, regardless of culture, participants processed self- and other-related feedback in a positively biased way (i.e., they updated more toward desirable than toward undesirable feedback). Third, changes in self-related medial prefrontal cortex activity were greater in Germans than in Chinese during feedback processing. By investigating conformity, positivity biases, and self-related activity in relation to feedback obtained in a real-life interaction, we provide an essential step toward a unifying framework for understanding the diversity of human culture.
Original languageEnglish
Article number192
JournalFrontiers in Human Neuroscience
Volume8
Issue number1 APR
Number of pages18
ISSN1662-5161
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 04.04.2014
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Psychology - Interdependence, independence, social conformity, positivity biases, medial preforntal cortex

DOI

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Joachim Wagner

Publications

  1. An archetype analysis of sustainability innovations in Biosphere Reserves: Insights for assessing transformative potential
  2. Introduction
  3. Bird community responses to the edge between suburbs and reserves
  4. Parameters, concepts and the terminology of outer space law: a review of the essential facilities served by outer space activities and the rules of interpretation for treaty law and soft law guidelines.
  5. Handbook of Philosophy of Management
  6. Taking stock–Three years of addressing societal challenges on community level through action research
  7. A comparative survey of chemistry-driven in silico methods to identify hazardous substances under REACH
  8. Experimental and numerical analysis of material flow in porthole die extrusion
  9. A milp for installation scheduling of offshore wind farms
  10. Effectiveness and Efficiency of Assertive Outreach for Schizophrenia in Germany
  11. Working with Research Integrity—Guidance for Research Performing Organisations
  12. The edge of virtual communities ?
  13. A suite of multiplexed microsatellite loci for the ground beetle Abax parallelepipedus (Piller and Mitterpacher, 1783) (Coleoptera, Carabidae)
  14. Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystem Functions
  15. Dematerialization
  16. On the way to greener ionic liquids
  17. Creativity in the ‘spaces of hope’
  18. Ownership Patterns and Enterprise Groups in German Structural Business Statistics
  19. The Social Case as a Business Case
  20. Children's interpretation of ambiguous pronouns based on prior discourse
  21. Article 72 CISG
  22. Gender perspectives in resilience, vulnerability and adaptation to global environmental change
  23. In situ synchrotron diffraction of the solidification of Mg-RE alloys
  24. Manipulating Belief in Free Will and Its Downstream Consequences
  25. Credit constraints and margins of import
  26. The necessity and proportionality of anti-terrorist self-defence
  27. Illegal Migration in Postfordism
  28. Technikvergessenheit?
  29. MindMatters