Do you always choose what you like? Subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among Japanese but not among Americans

Previous research has suggested that stability of self-concept differs across cultures: in North American cultural contexts, people’s self-concept is stable across social contexts, whereas in Japan, different self-concepts are activated within specific social contexts. We examined the implications o...

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Main Authors: Uchida, Yukiko, Savani, Krishna, Hitokoto, Hidefumi, Kaino, Koichi
Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80672
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42192
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-806722023-05-19T06:44:42Z Do you always choose what you like? Subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among Japanese but not among Americans Uchida, Yukiko Savani, Krishna Hitokoto, Hidefumi Kaino, Koichi Nanyang Business School choice-preference consistency culture Previous research has suggested that stability of self-concept differs across cultures: in North American cultural contexts, people’s self-concept is stable across social contexts, whereas in Japan, different self-concepts are activated within specific social contexts. We examined the implications of this cultural difference for preference-choice consistency, which is people’s tendency to make choices that are consistent with their preferences. We found that Japanese were less likely than Americans to choose items that they liked the most, showing preference-choice inconsistency. We also investigated the conditions in which Japanese might exhibit greater preference-choice consistency. Consistent with research showing that in Japanese culture, the self is primarily conceptualized and activated by social contexts, we found that subtle social cues (e.g., schematic representations of human faces) increased preference-choice consistency among Japanese, but not among Americans. These findings highlight that choices do not reveal preferences to the same extent in all cultures, and that the extent to which choices reveal preferences depends on the social context. MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) Published version 2017-03-24T06:53:41Z 2019-12-06T13:54:26Z 2017-03-24T06:53:41Z 2019-12-06T13:54:26Z 2017 2017 Journal Article Uchida, Y., Savani, K., Hitokoto, H., & Kaino, K. (2017). Do You Always Choose What You Like? Subtle Social Cues Increase Preference-Choice Consistency among Japanese But Not among Americans. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 169-. 1664-1078 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80672 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42192 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00169 196386 en Frontiers in Psychology © 2017 Uchida, Savani, Hitokoto and Kaino. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. 7 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic choice-preference consistency
culture
spellingShingle choice-preference consistency
culture
Uchida, Yukiko
Savani, Krishna
Hitokoto, Hidefumi
Kaino, Koichi
Do you always choose what you like? Subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among Japanese but not among Americans
description Previous research has suggested that stability of self-concept differs across cultures: in North American cultural contexts, people’s self-concept is stable across social contexts, whereas in Japan, different self-concepts are activated within specific social contexts. We examined the implications of this cultural difference for preference-choice consistency, which is people’s tendency to make choices that are consistent with their preferences. We found that Japanese were less likely than Americans to choose items that they liked the most, showing preference-choice inconsistency. We also investigated the conditions in which Japanese might exhibit greater preference-choice consistency. Consistent with research showing that in Japanese culture, the self is primarily conceptualized and activated by social contexts, we found that subtle social cues (e.g., schematic representations of human faces) increased preference-choice consistency among Japanese, but not among Americans. These findings highlight that choices do not reveal preferences to the same extent in all cultures, and that the extent to which choices reveal preferences depends on the social context.
author2 Nanyang Business School
author_facet Nanyang Business School
Uchida, Yukiko
Savani, Krishna
Hitokoto, Hidefumi
Kaino, Koichi
format Article
author Uchida, Yukiko
Savani, Krishna
Hitokoto, Hidefumi
Kaino, Koichi
author_sort Uchida, Yukiko
title Do you always choose what you like? Subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among Japanese but not among Americans
title_short Do you always choose what you like? Subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among Japanese but not among Americans
title_full Do you always choose what you like? Subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among Japanese but not among Americans
title_fullStr Do you always choose what you like? Subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among Japanese but not among Americans
title_full_unstemmed Do you always choose what you like? Subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among Japanese but not among Americans
title_sort do you always choose what you like? subtle social cues increase preference-choice consistency among japanese but not among americans
publishDate 2017
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80672
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/42192
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