A Comparison Between Japan and the U.S. in Correspondence Bias : A Study of a Psychological Process Producing Misunderstanding of Different Cultures

2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 15402043
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Social psychology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: TAKANO Yohtaro The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (20197122)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): OKA Takashi The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Associate Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 助教授 (80203959)
• Project Period (FY): 2003 – 2004
• Keywords: correspondence bias / fundamental attribution error / Japan-US cultural difference / attitude attribution / comparative culture

Research Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the magnitude of correspondence bias was different between Japan and the U.S. to test an assertion that correspondence bias is weaker in Japan than in the U.S. We conducted a questionnaire experiment in both Japan and the U.S. to assess the magnitude of correspondence bias.
The questionnaire first presented a description of a situation in which a political statement was made followed by the statement, and then asked respondents to infer a true opinion of a person who made the statement. Based on a preliminary study with other 1488 respondents, we prepared eight kinds of the questionnaire, which differed in the situation, its strength of enforcement, and the magnitude of correspondence bias. A total of 1157 American undergraduates and 712 Japanese undergraduates answered the questionnaires.
The above assertion contrasted "European culture" and "Japanese culture." Among the American respondents, accordingly, only those with European backgrou nd could provide appropriate data. Our American respondents were undergraduates of San Francisco State University, in which the majority had non-European background as those who had Asian background. Among our 1157 American respondents, those with European background were only 291. It was impossible to reach a clear conclusion with statistical tests because the number of respondents was only around 18 per each condition. It is necessary to continue the study to obtain more respondents with European background.
The tentative results were as follows : In one of the employed two stories (i.e., a religious conflict between Hindu and Islam), American respondents showed consistently stronger correspondence bias. In the other story (i.e., an ethnic conflict in Kosovo), however, no such tendency was observed. The contents of the statements that were supposed to be made by the person identified in the questionnaire were identical between these two stories except that proper names were changed (e.g., from "Muslims" to "Serbs"). As a tentative conclusion, therefore, it is inferred that the magnitude of correspondence bias may be affected more strongly by situational difference than cultural difference.