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As with other cognitively determined emotional experiences, regret is shaped by and expressed in a particular cultural milieu. However, past research on regret has primarily been conducted in Western cultures, especially the United States, and cross‐cultural research has been limited. In three studies, we employed various methods (survey, social media data, and experiment) to examine how regret is experienced differently in South Korea (a collectivistic culture) and in the United States (an individualistic culture). We discovered that regret experiences were dependent on the life domain in the collectivistic culture—individuals in this culture were more likely to be prevention‐oriented and regretful about actions (what they have done) in social domains but more promotion‐oriented and regretful about inactions (what they have failed to do) in personal domains. In comparison, those in the individualistic culture were more likely to regret inactions regardless of life domains, a tendency associated with a promotion focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present studies examined whether and how individuals from the East and West would express themselves differently in their drawings of personal success and failure. Across two studies, Euro‐Canadian and Chinese participants drew a picture depicting their personal success versus failure in the past (Study 1) or future (Study 2). Compared to the Chinese, Euro‐Canadians were more likely to express high‐arousal positive and negative affect in their drawings of personal success and failure, respectively. Replicating previous research, Euro‐Canadians also depicted a bigger "self" and were more likely to draw a face on their "self" in their drawings. Together, these findings not only demonstrated cultural differences in Euro‐Canadian and Chinese representations of their self and affective responses to personal success and failure but also suggested that pictorial representations of emotionally rich personal events can be an indirect, informative, and engaging tool for assessing cultural influences on one's self and feelings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ingroup/outgroup categorisation is a repeatedly found phenomenon. Given the long‐standing caste system, the Indian societal structure provides a unique perspective on such social categorisation. The Indian caste system contains hereditarily inherited identity roles defining profession and status‐based hierarchies. In this preregistered experiment, we investigate the influence of caste‐based identity on cooperation using a (hypothetical) Prisoner's Dilemma. Specifically, Indian participants (N = 685) were paired with a (hypothetical) other in a Prisoner's Dilemma, whose last name reflected either a general caste (i.e., a "high" caste) or a backward ("lower") caste including the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, and other backward classes. Because participants indicated belonging to a general or a backward caste themselves, they thus played the (hypothetical) Prisoner's Dilemma with either a member of the same or a different caste group. We did not find that the partner's caste group membership in terms of stemming from an ingroup (same caste) or outgroup (different caste) influenced participants' cooperation. Further, we found participants from the general caste to be more cooperative when paired with (hypothetical) backward caste others (outgroup), compared to backward caste participants when paired with (hypothetical) general caste participants (outgroup); however, this difference disappeared once controlling for other demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on achievement motivation has mostly focused on the importance of the proximal context. As a result, the roles of more distal sociocultural and ecological factors have been neglected. However, motivation does not occur within a social vacuum; it is embedded within pervasive environments, including the broader culture (values, beliefs, and norms) and social ecology (economic and political systems, interpersonal environments, and physical environment). This article argues for the critical need to include sociocultural and ecological perspectives in motivation research. More specifically, the aims are to (a) justify why cultural and ecological perspectives are needed, (b) present a tentative conceptual framework that could account for the critical roles of sociocultural and ecological factors that underpin motivation and learning, and (c) proffer recommendations on how to study culture and ecology within the field of achievement motivation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self‐compassion has been associated with a host of psychological benefits, including subjective happiness. It appears that gender may affect the association between self‐compassion and subjective happiness, although this relationship is not well understood. This study aimed to culturally adapt versions in Sinhala of the Self‐Compassion Scale and Subjective Happiness Scale, to create validated instruments for measuring these constructs in Sri Lankan undergraduates, and to explore the moderating role of gender on the relationship between self‐compassion and subjective happiness. As part of a larger study, the scales were administered to 1,331 undergraduates at a state university in Sri Lanka. The results indicated that self‐compassion is high among the study participants, for which the potential psycho‐socio‐cultural reasons are discussed. The results also indicated the importance of self‐compassion in subjective happiness, and that gender plays a significant and nuanced role—where the association between a lack of self‐compassion and subjective happiness was greater for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does power increase a person's tendency to punish or forgive norm violators? Given that existing studies report mixed findings, we examined whether power contributes to both, as a function of person and situation. In four studies employing various designs, we tested the prediction that power facilitates the circumstantially dominant response, either punishment or forgiveness, determined by the person's dispositional trait or a contextual cue (e.g., apology). In Study 1, high chronic power predicted stronger punitive attitudes toward a criminal perpetrator, especially if one is unforgiving by nature, while it also predicted forgiveness when people envisioned the perpetrator being repentant. Study 2 further confirmed the pattern with a simulated workplace scenario where we manipulated people's experience of power and the absence/presence of an apology. In Studies 3 and 4, we tested the prediction using different indicators of aggressive behaviour. People primed with high power exhibited greater aggression toward an unapologetic target and lesser aggression toward an apologetic target, and this effect was especially salient among people who held a strong belief about justice. Reconciling mixed findings of existing literature, the results highlight how an interplay of power and other factors systematically determines people's decisions and actions in cases of conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether and how young adults disclose their political views to a parent who supports a candidate from an opposing party during election season. Using politeness theory, the study identified predictors of young adults' political disclosure decisions and the amount of face‐saving efforts they will make during the disclosure to influence the voting of their parent. How their face‐saving efforts predict strategic attitude disclosure and postdisclosure outcomes was also examined. An online survey was administered to 176 South Korean young adults 10 days before the 2017 presidential election. Results showed that frequent political talks in a parent–child dyad predicted more disclosure attempts. Consistent with politeness theory, an increased perception of power difference in the parent–child relationship predicted more face‐saving efforts made by young adults for their parent. Contrary to politeness theory, a greater political difference in the parent–child relationship was associated with fewer face‐saving efforts. Parental solicitation of disclosure moderated the effect of power difference in an unexpected way; young adults made more face‐saving efforts for their parent who was perceived to have more power over them and have solicited a political disclosure. Young adults presented an attitude toward the parent's preferred candidate more favourable than the actual attitude. Despite the compromised truthfulness, more face‐saving efforts were associated with a perceived narrowing of the political difference and an increased willingness to engage in political talk with the parent in the future. The findings are discussed from psychological and societal perspectives, with implications for cross‐cutting political conversations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigated how residential moves with versus without the companionship of significant others would affect people's motivation to make new friends. Studies 1a and 1b showed that the companionship of significant others predicted fewer new friends among university students who moved within the same country (Study 1a) and to a different country (Study 1b), suggesting that the companionship of significant others was associated with a lower level of motivation to make new friends. In Study 2, the results of an experiment demonstrated that the companionship of a significant other reduced movers' motivation to make new friends, and this was explained by positive affect but not negative affect. Specifically, the companionship of a significant other, compared with the companionship of an acquaintance or no companionship, led to stronger positive affect, which, in turn, reduced motivation to make new friends. Taken together, these findings call for more nuanced theory on the influence of residential mobility on well‐being and social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic similarity often generates positive interactions between host‐country nationals (HCNs) and co‐ethnic expatriates in multinational corporations (MNCs), but the potential causes of conflict between these groups are under‐studied. In two studies, we tested whether Chinese HCNs' attitudes towards expatriates are associated with the implicit theories of ethnicity held by HCNs—essentialism (i.e., believing ethnicity has an immutable essence) versus constructivism (i.e., believing ethnicity to be malleable/socially constructed)—as well as expatriates' ethnicity, which we operationalised as Chinese (co‐ethnic) versus Scottish (other‐ethnic), and expatriates' cultural upbringing, operationalised as Chinese (local) versus American (foreign). In Study 1, HCNs who endorsed an essentialist perspective of ethnicity expected co‐ethnic (vs. other‐ethnic) expatriates to demonstrate greater ingroup identification and favouritism towards them irrespective of the expatriates' cultural upbringing. In Study 2, HCNs primed with the essentialist view expected co‐ethnic (vs. other‐ethnic) expatriates to demonstrate greater ingroup identification and favouritism towards them irrespective of the expatriates' upbringing, whereas those primed with the constructivist view expected expatriates with local (vs. foreign) upbringing to demonstrate greater ingroup identification and favouritism towards them irrespective of their ethnicity. These findings advance international management literature by providing a nuanced understanding of the interactions between HCNs and co‐ethnic expatriates that are influenced by essentialist beliefs about ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although bribery has unethical connotations, it can be considered as an instrumental behavioural strategy to achieve goals. Because individuals with high residential mobility often focus more on self‐interest to adapt to the changing environment, we hypothesise that residential mobility will increase intention to bribe to achieve one's goals. We measured actual residential mobility in a self‐reported survey (pilot study) and manipulated it using experiments (Experiments 1–3). We measured intention to bribe using hypothetical scenarios (pilot study, Experiments 1 & 2) and captured actual bribe‐giving using a behavioural game (Experiment 3). We consistently found that residential mobility was positively associated with bribe‐giving intention and actual bribery. This effect was mediated by concern for self‐interest when bribe‐giving was perceived as means to influence the outcome. Implications for research on bribery, residential mobility, and moral behaviours are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has examined the multiple meanings of hijab among Muslim women, but a quantitative scale to examine such meanings has yet to be developed. The present study was designed to develop and validate a new scale, Meanings Of The Hijab (MOTH), for measuring multiple meanings associated with wearing a headscarf for Muslim women living in countries where the majority of the population is non‐Muslim. The initial 64‐item scale was employed to 442 Canadian Muslim women, along with the Social Axiom Survey and the Cultural Identity Scale. An exploratory factor analysis led to the development of the MOTH scale with 35 items and five factors. The factors reflect meanings of the hijab in terms of: Expression of Faith Without Hijab, Expression of Modesty and Religiosity, Expression of Personal Identity, Challenges of Wearing Hijab, and Negative Symbolism of the Hijab in the West. The MOTH scale was found to have high internal validity and discriminant validity. In addition, convergent and discriminant validity of MOTH subscales were established by examining their relations with social axioms, ethnic identity, and national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new scale to measure core social motives was developed based on the BUC(K)ET framework (Belong, Understand, Control, Esteem, and Trust). The scale was completed by 1,516 university students from seven countries: Australia, the United States, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia, China (Macao), and Austria. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis supported the scale's full scalar invariance between Australia and the United States and between Australia and Austria. Partial scalar invariance was established for all countries after omitting the Understand motive, suggesting that the remaining four subscales can be used to compare levels of social motives across diverse cultural groups with caution. We further established the scale's construct validity by examining its correlations in the nomological networks involving several individual difference variables. The profile of social motives was remarkably similar across countries and gender groups, although three Asian groups showed higher motives to belong than non‐Asian groups, and women showed generally stronger core social motives than men, especially the Belong motive. Implications and possible directions of research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we report a cross‐cultural study on how different types of social transgressions are moralised by Chinese, Americans, and Lithuanians. We hypothesised that given the continuing influences of Confucian worldview on contemporary Chinese societies, the Chinese will not make a distinction between moral (daode 道德) and conventional cultural norms (wenming 文明). Following Turiel's moral/conventional task, we characterised moral transgressions in terms of two dimensions: Their wrongness is perceived to be independent of any authorities' opinion and general in scope. The results indicate that Chinese participants were slightly more "moralising" than Americans and Lithuanians in the typical (Haidtean) moral domains. More importantly, unlike Americans and Lithuanians, the Chinese strongly moralised uncultured (wenming 文明) behaviour. Results also indicate that explicit considerations about purity were quite important across all three cultural groups. These mixed results are discussed in the light of recent debates about the scope of morality and the moral/conventional distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs about psychology of economic inequality and social class. Topics include Empirical research has gathered growing evidence that economic inequality and social class divisions shape key psychological processes and behaviors; and using qualitative and quantitative approaches, they found that individuals perceived economic inequality among their friends through daily indicators.

The current special issue reports seven empirical articles on diverse areas of inequality, ranging from the perception of economic inequality (who are concerned, what cues people use to perceive inequality in everyday life), the educational origin of income inequality, to the role of inequality in luxury consumption, prosocial behaviour, life satisfaction, and beliefs in upward and downward economic mobility. We first comment on these articles, then briefly review the current state of the psychology of inequality and point to future directions. Finally, we point out that a cultural psychological perspective is missing from the extant literature on the psychology of inequality. Namely, it is important to document how current systems of inequality are maintained and transmitted across generations in specific sociocultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine educational equity status in China through exploring the relationships between students' language performance and family socioeconomic status (SES) at the individual, school, and district levels. Furthermore, the current study mainly investigated how the interaction among SES at three levels influenced students' language performance. The sample included 26,997 pupils from 994 schools situated in 79 districts. The three‐level multilevel analysis found that language performance was positively associated with SES at all three levels, and that there were three kinds of significant interactive effects. Specifically, the relationship between individual‐level SES and language performance became stronger in schools with higher SES. Moreover, in districts with higher SES, the interactive effect of school‐level SES and individual‐level SES on language performance grew weaker. In addition, the relationship between school‐level SES and average language performance became weaker in districts with higher levels of SES. These findings uncovered the full picture of the intra‐school and intra‐district educational equity and revealed that high school‐level SES worsened the intra‐school individual equity while high district‐level SES enhanced the intra‐school and intra‐district equity. Implications for educational equity and quality in China are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prospect of socioeconomic mobility has long been a prominent concept in American life; however, research has shown that economic inequality can weaken Americans' beliefs in the prospect of upward mobility for poorer individuals in their country. In one correlational study, two experimental studies, and an internal meta‐analysis, we extend this work by demonstrating that Americans' perceptions of inequality can also influence their beliefs about another form of mobility that is necessary in a truly mobile society: downward mobility for richer individuals. Specifically, we found that the more that Americans' perceptions of inequality in their country shifted toward extreme levels—toward the view that a small minority of the population holds a much greater proportion of the state's wealth than all other groups combined—the more likely they were to believe that both upward and downward mobility were unlikely. That is, they believed that social class groups in their country were largely ossified and impermeable, and thus that Americans were unlikely to move out of the groups they were born into. We discuss the potential implications of these findings for important motivational and behavioural outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of perceived economic differences in everyday life is relevant to deepening knowledge of how inequality shapes psychological processes. In the current research, Spanish undergraduates (N = 547) were asked what their friends with the most and least money could do with their resources. Using a qualitative and quantitative approach, we performed a content analysis of the 1,085 open‐ended responses given, ran latent class analyses with the coded material to identify groups of participants, and explored whether class membership was associated with their awareness of inequality and support for redistribution. Participants perceived inequality among their friends through daily indicators such as consumption, opportunities, leisure, and mental health; some participants used compensatory strategies to mitigate perceived inequality. Latent class analyses suggested that participants differed mostly in the attention paid to consumption and in the use of compensatory strategies. Exploratory analyses suggested that perceiving inequality in everyday life in terms of consumption, negative attributes towards the wealthy, or positive attributes towards low socioeconomic groups was related to acknowledging economic differences among individuals and support for redistribution. The study of perceived economic inequality in everyday life continues a new line of research with the potential to obtain results more consistent with people's experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In everyday life, we often face a "volunteer's dilemma (VoD)"—a group situation in which one member has to incur the cost of providing a public good. In the VoD, members of a group may wait for each other to volunteer, and thus, the group may fail to achieve the public good. Previous research has examined the probability of this failure and found that it was lower than theoretically expected. This discrepancy may have been because only material (e.g., money) and not social rewards (e.g., favourable evaluations) were considered in the theoretical expectations. To investigate whether and how people gain social rewards or are evaluated favourably by others in the VoD in everyday life (specifically in workplace contexts), we conducted a scenario‐based experiment (N = 582). The results showed that people were evaluated as more moral and competent when they volunteered than when they did not. Furthermore, this was the case especially when all the other group members shirked and when the evaluator was also willing to volunteer. These findings contribute to our current understanding of the way people perceive volunteers and shirkers in the VoD. They also have an implication on people's motivation to incur a cost for their group in such a situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) has been incredibly increasing, especially in Asian countries. Prior studies have argued that negative emotion is linked to PMPU. Based on the cognitive‐behavioural model of pathological Internet use and the buffering model of social support, our purpose is to identify the nuanced mediators of the rumination subtypes (i.e., reflection and brooding) and examine the moderator of social support in the relation between negative emotion and PMPU. A sample of 1,014 college students was recruited to complete the scales of PMPU, depression, anxiety, rumination (i.e., reflection and brooding), and social support. Results showed that (a) reflection did not mediate a link between negative emotion and PMPU whereas brooding partially mediated the link, and (b) both the direct association between negative emotion and PMPU and the mediated effect of brooding were moderated by social support, and they were stronger when social support was low rather than high. The study distinguishes the mediated effect of rumination subtypes and incorporates social factor in the relationship between negative emotion and PMPU, which deepens our understanding of how and when negative emotion relates to PMPU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three articles in this special section of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology illuminate several aspects of the psychology of Islamist Indonesian terrorists. This analysis partitions these into the contents (the what) of the terrorists' belief system, the motivational underpinnings (the why) of these beliefs, and the social process (the how), whereby motivational concerns are translated into ideological beliefs that, under conditions of utter commitment to ideological dictates, foster violent action. This discussion addresses the universal process of radicalization exemplified in the Indonesian case, and the unique ways in which it is manifested in this particular context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Islamist forms of terrorism have received a great deal of attention from scholars, insider accounts by indigenous scholars are still under-represented. This Special Issue of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology brings together three articles on religious terrorism and sacred violence in Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic state. They bring together qualitative methods, including interviews with terrorist members of KOMPAK and Jemaah Islamiyah (including the Bali Bombers), with quantitative methods using structural equation modelling to explain a national representative sample's attitudes towards sacred violence. The articles converge towards an indigenous theory of Islamist terrorism for Indonesia involving three steps: (i) existential threat (triggered by violence inflicted on Muslims, nationally or internationally, and perceptions of the impurity of the secular Indonesian government), (ii) self-categorization of the world into infidels and believers (thus arguing that the current situation is a state of war where violence against non-combatants is justified), and (iii) jihadi ideology as the trigger for turning existential threat into religious violence. It is the interpretation of scripture offered by trusted leaders, often reinforced by oaths of obedience, rather than scripture itself that fuels the indigenous psychology of violent (lesser) jihad presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on interethnic relations in Malaysia and examines survey data collected among Malay ( n = 405), Chinese ( n = 90), and Indian ( n = 53) participants. In agreement with the Common In-group Identity Model, inclusive nationhood was related to more positive out-group attitudes. Relative in-group indispensability was related to higher bias as predicted by the In-group Projection Model. Furthermore, the dominant group of Malay had higher in-group indispensability, more strongly endorsed an inclusive national representation, had stronger ethnic and national identification, and a stronger association between both identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed at investigating the effects of work-related norm violations (i.e., violations of interpersonal and work regulation norms) and individuals' general beliefs about the world (i.e., social axioms: reward for application, social cynicism) on feelings of shame and guilt in Turkey and in the Netherlands. An experimental study involving 103 Turkish and 111 Dutch participants showed that work norm violations elicited feelings of guilt and shame differently in Turkey and the Netherlands. Specifically, interpersonal norm violation in Turkey elicited feelings of shame and guilt more strongly than did violation of a work regulation norm, whereas no differential effects were found in the Netherlands. As expected, violation of a work regulation norm elicited feelings of shame and guilt more strongly in the Netherlands than in Turkey, whereas violation of an interpersonal norm elicited feelings of shame and guilt more strongly in Turkey than in the Netherlands. The findings provide further evidence for the moderating effects of social axioms: in both countries, participants high in social cynicism felt less ashamed when they violated a work regulation norm than did those low in social cynicism. Our findings are relevant for understanding the underlying mechanisms of norm violations at work, thereby offering a new avenue for investigating cultural differences in the workplace. The latter may be of particular relevance in times of globalization and diversity in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major evolutionary advance of humans is a mind that is capable of constructing, perpetuating, adapting to, and exploiting culture. The birth of cultural neuroscience reflects the growing realization that a full account of the human mind requires understanding of the multiple and reciprocal influences between the biological and the sociocultural. In the present paper, we illustrate how attention to the brain, as exemplified in functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging (fMRI) studies of sociocultural processes, contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the human mind. We end by discussing a set of challenges facing researchers using fMRI and the possible means for dealing with these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Comments on the achievements of the 'Asian Journal of Social Psychology.' Influence of the journal in the field of social psychology; Selection of the members of the editorial board; Reiteration of the editorial policy.

Nationality constitutes a salient part of social categorization. However, little research has examined how people form nationality concepts and how it may be shaped by culture and experience. The current study aims to investigate essentialist beliefs about nationality in participants from two cultural origins: the United States and China. In both samples, we compared college students studying domestically and internationally (N = 290) by using direct and indirect measures of essentialism. Ratings from direct measures of essentialism revealed that American participants were more likely than Chinese participants to perceive national groups as natural, whereas Chinese participants were more likely than American participants to perceive national groups as cohesive. Interestingly, the observed differences between domestic and international students on the indirect measure showed opposite directions among participants of different cultures of origin. As hypothesized, American international students showed lower essentialist thinking than American domestic students. Surprisingly, Chinese international students showed stronger essentialist thinking than Chinese domestic students. Further analyses revealed a positive relationship between the length of arrival time and essentialist thinking by Chinese international students. The current research demonstrates the cognitive malleability of social essentialism, addressing the importance of examining the effect of intergroup processes under diverse and dynamic cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sequential exploratory mixed‐methods design, this research examined the role of national values on perceived organizational and employee resilience in times of disaster. First, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 13 Filipino employees and leaders involved in disaster response in six organizations. Thematic analysis revealed bayanihan, malasakit, pananagutan, and volunteerism as values relevant to the disaster response and management efforts of organizations. The Manifestations of Filipino National Values for Disaster in Organizational Management scale was then constructed reflecting these four national values in order to examine the relationship of these values with perceived organizational and employee resilience. In total, 221 employees from various industries participated in the survey. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships. Results showed a full mediation model wherein except for pananagutan, the national values of bayanihan, malasakit, and volunteerism significantly predicted employee resilience through perceived organizational resilience. These findings indicate that employee resilience can be enhanced not only through personal resources, but also by drawing on organizational and sociocultural resources accessible to employees in times of disaster. Implications for resilience and disaster literature and resilience‐building efforts of organizations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of regulatory focus in the relation between filial piety beliefs and life outcomes, including life satisfaction and psychological distress. A total of 1,431 Taiwanese youths, aged 15 through 24 years, were recruited in the study. Results of structural equation modelling indicated that reciprocal filial piety can be associated with stronger promotion regulatory focus, which in turn contributes to greater life satisfaction and less psychological distress. In addition, reciprocal filial piety and authoritarian filial piety can relate to stronger prevention regulatory focus, which subsequently links to lower life satisfaction and more psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine German participants' assessment of the time of National Socialism. Especially for younger generations, shifts in the culture of remembrance may change their assessments of historical events. We argue that factors such as increased formal education about the topic and decreased personal contact with contemporary witnesses can weaken attributional biases (e.g., ingroup favouritism) in the assessment of the role of the German population during the time of National Socialism. We use data from a German representative sample (N = 1,000) and focus on the links between participants' age and the estimated involvement of the German population under National Socialism as perpetrators, victims, helpers, and "bystanders," as well as the agreement with explanations why the general population did not act against National Socialist crimes. Younger participants estimated the proportions of perpetrators and bystanders within the German population as higher and were less likely to agree that Germans did not know about the systematic killings. Older participants were more likely to agree with situational explanations for the population's inaction (i.e., that Germans did not know or did not have an opportunity to act against the crimes). We find a positive relation between a more critical perspective on the involvement of the population in the past and participants' feelings of responsibility in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Singapore is a young and affluent global city‐state located in a region that is historically known for its ethnic diversity and racial politics. A recent study identified three dominant narratives embraced by Singaporeans: Nation Building—events that highlight milestones and achievements, National Resilience—events that exemplify national unity and resolve in addressing a national crisis, and Conflict—events that demonstrate social divisions. These narratives predicted present and future satisfaction to different degrees and patterns. Further analyses, however, point to generational divides not only in how history is organised but also how it is associated with satisfaction and life experiences. Citizens from all ages converged on the type of events that constitute the Nation Building and National Resilience narratives but hold different views on the constituents of the Conflict narrative. In all, future satisfaction among each cohort of Singaporeans is shaped by a different set of historical narratives—Nation Building for the seniors, National Resilience for the middle‐aged, and Conflict for the young. These results suggest that collective remembering is shaped by a cohort's generational character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many Koreans' attitudes towards Japan are marked by hostility and distrust due to the memories of Japanese colonization, others have different views on the past and different preferences for dealing with Japan. The current study examines the links between different construals of historical victimization (i.e., collective victim beliefs) and distinct intergroup strategies: collective action demanding apology and reparation from Japan, reconciliation, and retribution. A survey among 249 South Koreans identified four collective victim beliefs: preserving memories and supporting survivors, ingroup fragmentation about how to address the past, grievances concerning historical suffering and perpetrators' denial, and perceived prevalence of ingroup resistance. Grievances concerning historical suffering and present‐day denial predicted increased willingness to participate in collective action, desire for retribution, and decreased willingness for reconciliation. Perceived importance of preserving memories and supporting survivors predicted greater willingness to participate in collective action and more desire for retribution. Unexpectedly, perceived ingroup fragmentation and resistance also predicted willingness for reconciliation. Most of the effects of collective victim beliefs on intergroup strategies were mediated by resentment towards the Japanese. Overall, this study expands the literature on collective victimhood in the understudied context of Koreans' collective memories of colonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research aimed to examine whether perceiving anomie within current society affects people's representations of the national past and their support for collective actions through the reconstructed past. In two studies, we showed that perceived anomie affects people's evaluation of some features of a past national figure (Study 1: Charles de Gaulle, former French president who had an important role during World War II) and an event (Study 2: May 68, an important French social movement that took place in May 1968). In Study 1, participants in the anomie conditions reconstructed de Gaulle as more positive (e.g., more moral, associated with more positive emotions) than did those in the neutral condition. In Study 2, the effects were different according to the anomie dimension made salient and were moderated by political orientation: Compared to participants in the neutral condition, salience of social fabric disintegration led to less positive representations of May 68 for rightist participants whereas salience of leadership disregulation led leftist participants to consider May 68 as more central in the French identity. Moreover, the reconstructed past induced by perceived anomie in turn influenced participant's support for normative collective actions (Studies 1 & 2) and actions against outgroups (Study 2), but not their support for violent actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the literature on the "crisis" in social psychology. Although the symptoms of the crisis are various, the basic problem can be identified as the inappropriate emulation of the natural sciences model. Within this approach, psychologists attempted to discover objective, abstract, universal laws of human behavior, but have largely failed to do so. The second part of this paper analyzes misconceptions that many psychologists have about objectivity and scientific methods and outlines an alternative perspective. In the third part of the paper, a comparative analysis of physical, biological, and human sciences are provided. In the final section, an alternative scientific paradigm - the transactional model, is presented. In this approach, human consciousness, agency, and creativity, both at the individual and collective level, are considered as key constructs in explaining psychological functioning. Subjective elements such as human consciousness and agency and the influences of context and meaning are explicitly integrated in the research model in search of dynamic and emergent properties of human functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reinterprets the findings of previous empirical research on moral reasoning and moral judgment conducted in Taiwan using Kohlberg's research paradigm. It consists of three major parts. The first part explores Kohlberg's theory of moral development and its limitations. Gibb's (1979) two-phase model is used to emphasize the necessity of studying cultural heritage in understanding the prevalent moral reasoning of existential phase adults in a given society. The second part presents an analysis of Confucian ethics (Hwang, 1995), and proposes a conceptual scheme for discerning the significant features of Confucian ethics by referring to distinctions between positive/negative and imperfect/perfect duties. The discretionary features of Confucian ethics are further analyzed in terms of Shweder et al .'s (1990) scheme for discerning a rationally defensible moral code. In addition, the Confucian moral dilemma and its modern fate in the New-Culture Movement of the May Fourth period on mainland China, and the 1960s Gong De Movement in Taiwan are discussed. The third part of this paper reinterprets the findings of several empirical studies on moral reasoning in Taiwanese society. Special attention is paid to Cheng's (1991) data from interviews with a group of college students using Kohlberg's moral dilemma. The implication of her findings is discussed on the basis of the new conceptual scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I present an argument that culture of collectivism which characterizes Japanese society is to be conceived in terms of an equilibrium between socio-relational and cognitive traits in which people have acquired expectations for generalized reciprocity within, not across, group boundaries. Maintenance of harmony among group members and voluntary cooperation toward group goals - the characteristics of collectivist culture - are often considered to be fundamentally psychological in nature. It is usually considered that members of a collectivist culture like to maintain harmony and cooperate toward group goals, or that "culture" sneaks into the minds of people and drives them to behave in such a manner. According to this view, culture is a fundamentally psychological or subjective matter. This is the view that I want to challenge in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last one hundred plus years, China, under the impact of modernization, has undergone the most significant change in the past 5,000 years. Modernization is a continuous process of protest and change. At each stage of modernization, outcomes may be regarded as the result of complex strategies and responses to those demands. This paper will address the strategies and responses that Chinese have adopted in their attempt to deal with the pressure and challenge of modernization. As a background to understanding these strategies and responses, the following four perspectives will be delineated. First, my perspective is mainly at the micro level, but I will occasionally shift to the macro level when needed. Second, my analyses will largely rely on results from empirical research. They will be supplemented by daily-life observations and appropriate conceptual or theoretical analyses. Third, Chinese intellectuals have been playing a guiding role of enlightenment, criticism, and promotion and their responses have been influential in formulating, directing, or channeling the views of the general public. A comprehensive analysis of relevant ideologies and strategies endorsed by Chinese intellectuals will be provided. Finally, the analysis of Chinese responses to modernization will be based upon the relevant literature from all the three major Chinese societies (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China). In addition, this paper will clarify the basic modes and specific mechanisms of adaptation to drastic environmental changes. They will be applied as conceptual tools for the analysis of Chinese intellectuals' ideological responses to modernization and psychological processes involved in accommodating cognitive and behavioral changes in their daily lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2018, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment (MoE) has worked on the "Recycling Demonstration Project for the Soil Generated from Decontamination Activities" (the Project), which aims to offer empirical evidence for the final disposal of radiation‐contaminated substances. To offer practical suggestions for the Project, this study aimed to explore determinants of its support. More specifically, building on previous studies on trust, this study proposed a hypothetical model in which support for the Project was determined by trust in the MoE, which in turn was determined by salient value similarity, ability, and motivation. Additionally, it was hypothesised that the relationships between trust and its different determinants differed: Salient value similarity showed a stronger relationship with trust in those who lived near the place where the Project is taking place whereas ability and motivation showed stronger relationships with trust in those who did not. Questionnaire‐based research was conducted in both Iitate village (n = 106), Fukushima, where the Project had been taking place, and Tokyo (n = 163), located approximately 220 km from Fukushima. Multilevel structural equation modelling supported the hypothesis. These results suggest that emphasising the similarity of values between the MoE and the public would help obtain the public's support for the Project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal education is theorised to be an essential vehicle to promote and trigger pro‐environmental attitudes and behavioural changes among citizens via the increase of public awareness and concern. However, robust estimations of its causal effect on individuals' concern for the environment are scarce. This study aimed to estimate the effect of educational attainment on environmental concern in China, addressing the problem of endogeneity. China is the largest emitter of CO2 and faces severe environmental problems due to its rapid process of industrialisation and urbanisation. The findings show that educational attainment has a robust positive causal effect on environmental concern in China. After addressing potential endogeneity issues using an instrumental variable approach, the effect is stronger than a conventional ordinal least squares estimation. Thus, education is a crucial path of action to promote environmental concern and subsequent pro‐environmental behaviour in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the global scale of climate change, research comparing people's behavioural expression of their concern for the problem across societies is lacking. The present investigation adopts a person‐context interaction approach to provide such a comparison and demonstrates the influences of societal‐level factors. We propose that some sociocultural contexts tend to be more agentic, allowing people to express their internal attributes, including climate change concern, whereas some contexts tend to be more restrictive, hindering people from doing so. With two international datasets, we observed that the association between climate change concern and mitigation behaviour was stronger among societies with higher levels of self‐expression affordance (indicated by lower levels of disease threat and higher levels of governance quality, economic development, and individualism). These results indicate the importance of considering not only individual‐level determinants but also societal‐level factors in the study of people's behavioural response to climate change. They also offer insights into how environmental practitioners and decision makers can promote mitigation behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strong scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is happening and that its impacts can put both ecological and human systems in jeopardy. Social psychology, the scientific study of human behaviours in their social and cultural settings, is an important tool for understanding how humans interpret and respond to climate change. In this article, we offered a systematic review of the social psychological literature of climate change. We sampled 130 studies on climate change or global warming from 80 articles published in journals indexed under the "Psychology, social" category of Journal Citation Reports. Based on this sample, we observe that social psychologists have produced an impressive canon of research on this pressing topic, the strengths of which include diversity of research designs, outcome variables, and theoretical angles. However, there are some gaps in this literature, including weak presence of authors and data from non‐Western, developing, and nondemocratic societies, lack of cross‐cultural comparisons, reliance on young and Amazon MTurk samples, lack of attention to some crucial outcome variables, and overemphasis on intrapersonal and intrapsychic processes. We recommend that future social psychological research on climate change needs to broaden geographical and demographic representation, examine study outcomes other than mitigation behaviour, and adopt more "social" theoretical perspectives. We also offer suggestions as to how these needs can be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low carbon readiness (LCR) is an aspect of environmental identity, an individual citizen's willingness to reduce carbon emissions and transition to low carbon lifestyle as a personalstriving. Nevertheless, individuals' personal strivings are strongly influenced by the social context in which they are situated. We propose the social context of environmental identity model, which postulates that social contexts for LCR have a nested structure. The micro‐level Home is linked with other households through social networks at the meso‐level Community, which are further embedded in a macro‐level Society. These contexts are likely to influence LCR through different mechanisms. Home can exert direct influences by monitoring and reminding each other of the need to engage in low carbon behaviours. Community affects individuals' readiness by providing social capital. The macro‐level Society exerts social influence through societal norms not only its current descriptive norm but also through its dynamic norms about the changing trends into the future. We have tested and found support for these propositions in three national cross‐sectional data sets from Australia. Our discussions will centre around a need to investigate social and cultural processes involved in climate change mitigation, and to link these insights to public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of overcoming the persistent delay in climate action, almost no research has investigated the psychological underpinnings of climate change denial in Asian countries. Addressing this research gap, our study compares results obtained in Hong Kong with those of samples from New Zealand and Sweden regarding correlations of climate change denial with acceptance of dominance between social groups (Social Dominance Orientation), acceptance of two additional forms of group‐based dominance (humans over nature, and humans over animals), and empathic concern. Results showed that only acceptance of human dominance over nature and animals predicted climate change denial in Hong Kong. In New Zealand and Sweden, however, the results resembled those found in previous research: The strongest predictor was Social Dominance Orientation, followed by acceptance of human dominance over nature. Low empathic concern predicted climate change denial only in Sweden. Results in Hong Kong differ from previous findings and indicate that climate change denial in this East Asian society is motivated more by hierarchical attitudes related to nature than social groups. We discuss possible reasons for these distinct findings and conclude that there is a need for cross‐cultural research to further investigate the psychological and culture‐specific motivations to dismiss climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We theorised that competitive victimhood—the tendency to see one's ingroup as having suffered more than the outgroup as a result of a prolonged conflict—may function strategically as a psychological mechanism to justify violent actions against the outgroup under high (vs. low) realistic threat. Focusing on the Jewish Israeli perspective in the Israeli‒Palestinian conflict, the present study supports this argument by demonstrating the positive relationship between competitive victimhood and justifying both direct and structural violence against Palestinians following high (vs. low) realistic threat. Theoretical and applied implications for conflict resolution are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the April 1, 2005 issue of the "Asian Journal of Social Psychology."

In this article, I reflect upon my own career to distil some general recommendations for doing high‐impact social psychological research in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. My suggestions include (a) testing and deriving theories that can help explain real‐world human judgment and behaviour (answering questions that people care about), (b) preaching beyond the choir (communicating your research to audiences outside of social psychology), and (c) birds of a feather are stronger together (maximizing impact through strategic collaborations). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research explored the selfishness of power and status as well as the mechanism in Chinese work situations. By using experimental and survey methods, two studies were designed to investigate the relationships among power, status, and self‐interested behaviour (SIB) as well as the mediating effect of perspective‐taking (PT). Results of the two studies consistently indicated that power increases whereas status reduces SIB. These opposing behavioural effects are partially attributed to the fact that power reduces whereas status increases PT. In addition, our results showed an interaction between power and status on SIB in Study 1 (interaction as a mental function), and a positive correlation between perceived power and status in Study 2 (correlation as a mental perception). Through the discussion from the perspective of the self/other‐orientation trait, as well as the stable effects of power and status on SIB in the two studies, we conclude that power is selfish and status is unselfish in Chinese work situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research investigated the relationship between relational mobility (RM) and subjective well‐being and revealed its psychological mechanism among the Chinese. Study 1 demonstrated that RM positively predicted subjective well‐being. In Study 2, imagined ecology with high RM led to higher expected subjective well‐being relative to that observed in low RM. In Study 3, a correlational study, interpersonal relationship mastery mediated the relationship between RM and subjective well‐being. This result was replicated by an experiment in Study 4. These findings highlight a socioecological perspective in understanding people's subjective well‐being and shed light on understanding the relationship between different types of mobility and subjective well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epistemic curiosity (EC) is the motive and need to seek knowledge. The present work entails validation of the English EC Scale translated into the Hindi language. Study 1 comprised confirmatory factor analysis of the Hindi scale using a sample of 223 bilingual Indians (143 females). The 10‐item two‐factor structure with Interest and Deprivation subscales was validated for the Hindi EC Scale. Convergent and discriminant validity was established, and model fits were assessed separately for males and females, along with measurement invariance testing. In Study 2, linguistic invariance testing and cross‐cultural comparisons were undertaken for a sample of 151 Indians (93 females) and 219 Americans (179 females) for the EC scales, to assess similarities in the underlying factor structure. Indians did not differ from Americans in their responses to the English EC Scale, but slight differences were observed for the Hindi EC Scale, suggesting an interplay of language and culture. Further, independent t tests compared the two samples on measures of curiosity, gossip, personality, and affect. Americans had a higher tendency toward interpersonal curiosity and agreeableness whereas Indians scored higher on intellect. Cross‐cultural and linguistic differences as well as future work are presented. In sum, the Hindi EC Scale is a valid and reliable instrument that can facilitate further translations into other Indian languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the research targeted middle‐aged wives who had been reported to be most dissatisfied with their marriage lives in the entire sex/generation groups in Japan and South Korea. As an exploratory study, the relationships between self‐construals (subjective, objective, and autonomous selves) and marital conflict resolution strategies (avoiding, dominating, yielding, and integrating) and those between the strategies and marital satisfaction were investigated. The model across the variables (taking the obliging and dominating strategies only) was constructed as well. Several important findings were revealed. First, subjective self and autonomous self were strongly and positively correlated and stronger in South Korea. Second, the Japanese had out‐of‐speculation relationships between self‐construals and marital resolution strategies. Third, the positive associations of integrating/obliging and marital satisfaction and the negative association of avoiding and marital satisfaction were validated in Japan and South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]