Interaction Effect of Cultural Knowledge and Executive Resources on Social Judgments

• Main Authors: ZHOU, Xi, CHENG, Chi-Ying
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: cultural difference; ego depletion; social judgment; Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1411
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Cross-cultural differences in social judgment have been a critical topic in the management literature. This article explores how culture and executive resources interact to influence individuals’ social judgments. Drawing on a resource dependent view of the self-regulatory system, we investigate how cultural knowledge can facilitate self-regulation efficiency. In four studies with samples from the United Kingdom and Singapore, we found that when people were deprived of executive resources, they were more likely to display culturally typical judgments (Studies 1-3), regardless of their personal beliefs and perceived cultural norms (Study 3). Conversely, whereas constraining people by requiring that they reason in a culturally atypical style depleted their executive resources for performing a subsequent task, constraining people by requiring that they reason in a culturally typical style did not lead to any depletion (Study 4). The implications of understanding how deeply culture shapes individuals’ habitual responses and the interplay between cultural influence and self-regulation processes are discussed.