Kimel, S. Y., Mischkowski, D., Miyagawa, Y. (宮川裕基), & Niiya, Y. (新谷優）(2021).
Left out but "in control"? Culture variations in perceived control when excluded by a close other.
Social Psychological and Personality Science.
doi:10.1177/1948550620987436
Research and theorizing suggest two competing—yet untested—hypotheses for how European Americans’ and Asians’ feeling of being “in control” might differ when excluded by a close other (e.g., a good friend). Drawing on different national contexts (i.e., United States, Japan), cultural groups (i.e., Japanese, Asian/Asian Americans, European Americans), and exclusion paradigms (i.e., relived, in vivo), four separate experiments (N = 2,662) examined feelings of control when excluded by a close- or distant-other. A meta-analysis across these experiments indicated that Asians and Asian Americans felt more in control than European Americans when the excluder was a close other. In contrast, no consistent pattern emerged when the excluder was a distant other. This research has implications for cultural variations in aggressiveness as well as health and well-being following exclusion’s threat to perceived control.