Conversational Game Across Cultures

2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21730488
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Social psychology
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: YEUNG WaiLanVictoria Hokkaido University, 社会科学実験研究センター, 博士研究員 (90507146)
• Project Period (FY): 2009 – 2010
• Keywords: cross-cultural psychology / indirectness / communicative strategy

Research Abstract

The goal of this research is twofold. First, to empirically demonstrate a cultural difference in linguistic expressions between people with East-Asian cultural background and Western cultural background ; second, to examine the mechanism that underlies such cultural difference. Past research and theoretical arguments tend to suggest that East-Asians are more likely to express in an indirect manner, while Westerners are more likely to express in a more direct manner. We conducted three cross-cultural studies comparing how people from a western culture, Americans, and an East-Asian culture, Japanese, might express themselves in a different manner in terms of directness, and we explored the reasons behind such cultural differences. Our empirical data from the three studies are contradictory to the popular observations and that of the past psycholinguistic theories. Basically, our data showed that Japanese were more likely to use direct expressions than Americans, and Americans were more likely to use indirect expressions than Japanese. Our results also showed that such cultural difference was due to that Americans had a strong motivation to extend their social network.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Culture and Stereotype Communication : Are people from Eastern cultures more stereotypical in communication? (2011)
  • Author(s): Yeung, W.L.V., Kashima, Y.
  • Journal Title: Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology in press.
• [Journal Article] Americans find it easier to speak directly andJapanese find it easier to speak indirectly? (2010)
  • Author(s): Yeung, W.L.V., Yuki, M., Chao,M.
  • Journal Title: Center for Experimental Research in Socia 1 Sciences, Working paper series
• [Journal Article] Universal biases in self-perception : Better and more human than average. (2010)
  • Author(s): Loughnan, S., Leidner, B., Doron, G., Haslam, N., Kashima, Y., Tong, J., Yeung W.L.V.
  • Journal Title: British Journal of Social Psychology 49 Pages: 627-636
  • Peer Reviewed