TY - JOUR
T1 - Attention allocation is a possible mediator of cultural variations in spontaneous trait and situation inferences
T2 - Eye-tracking evidence
AU - Shimizu, Yuki
AU - Uleman, James S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Two studies sought to replicate previous work on cultural differences in the co-occurrence of spontaneous trait (STI) and situation (SSI) inferences, and to examine possible mediators at the individual level. Both studies replicated previous findings of cultural differences. European Americans made more STIs relative to SSIs than did Asian American or Japanese participants. However Experiment 1 found no evidence from the Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS) that self-reported cognitive style mediates this effect, although expected cultural differences on the AHS did occur. Experiment 2 found strong evidence that a bias in overt visual attention to actors relative to situations at encoding, measured with an eye-tracker, does predict a bias in STIs relative to SSIs. It also showed expected cultural differences in overt visual attention bias to actors relative to situations. These divergent results should sharpen conceptions of the role of holistic versus analytic cognition in the cross-cultural literature. They also provide the first evidence of possible mediators of STI and SSI within the false recognition paradigm. The role of visual attention in the production of perceptual and cognitive inferences is discussed.
AB - Two studies sought to replicate previous work on cultural differences in the co-occurrence of spontaneous trait (STI) and situation (SSI) inferences, and to examine possible mediators at the individual level. Both studies replicated previous findings of cultural differences. European Americans made more STIs relative to SSIs than did Asian American or Japanese participants. However Experiment 1 found no evidence from the Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS) that self-reported cognitive style mediates this effect, although expected cultural differences on the AHS did occur. Experiment 2 found strong evidence that a bias in overt visual attention to actors relative to situations at encoding, measured with an eye-tracker, does predict a bias in STIs relative to SSIs. It also showed expected cultural differences in overt visual attention bias to actors relative to situations. These divergent results should sharpen conceptions of the role of holistic versus analytic cognition in the cross-cultural literature. They also provide the first evidence of possible mediators of STI and SSI within the false recognition paradigm. The role of visual attention in the production of perceptual and cognitive inferences is discussed.
KW - Cultural differences
KW - Eye tracking
KW - Holistic versus analytic styles
KW - Japanese and Americans
KW - Overt visual attention
KW - Spontaneous trait and situation inferences
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104115
DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104115
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85101100640
VL - 94
JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
SN - 0022-1031
M1 - 104115
ER -