How self-construal affects dispositionalism in attributions.

Kühnen U, Hannover B, Pöhlmann C & Roeder U

Abstract

Many studies have found that cultures differ in the extent to which people prefer dispositional over situational attributions for social behavior. One explanation of this difference relates attribution to variations in self-construal. Since the assumption that independent vs. interdependent self-construals have a causal impact on attributions cannot directly be tested in cross-national comparisons we examined it using experimental priming techniques. Study 1 shows that previously described cultural differences in dispositionalism in attributions are mirrored by the priming of independent vs. interdependent self-contents. Studies 2 and 3 show that the same pattern of differences in attributions can be produced by having participants think about themselves in a context-independent or context-dependent manner. Together the findings support the view of culture as situated cognition: attributions are impacted by both accessible self-contents and the degree of context-dependency of self-related thoughts.