Which Romans do “ as Romans do ” ? Individual

Which Romans do "as Romans do"? Individual differences in conformity to cultural conflict resolution scripts Abstract The current research investigates the proposal that cross-cultural differences in conflict resolution choices are driven by culturally conferred cognitive scripts—expectancies about appropriate actions in a setting and outcomes they will evoke. Cognitive styles such as Need for Cognitive Closure affect the extent to which individuals rely on their own cultural scripts and hence display culturally typical conflict resolution behaviors. We tested this prediction in two conflict resolution domains where robust differences between American and Chinese had been identified. Study 1 found that differences in conflict management styles emerge primarily in high NFC individuals. Study 2 found that differences in preference of types of the third party mediator are qualified by the same interaction with individual differences in NFC. Further evidence was provided by the statistical mediation of expectancies of harmony maintenance or restoration on the moderated cultural difference in choosing the third party. We discuss in light of how cognitive scripts compare with other proposed individual-level mechanisms underlying cultural differences. Cultural differences in ways of resolving conflicts have been widely studied because cultural misunderstanding in conflicts can be so disastrously consequential. Differences between American and Chinese tendencies in negotiation and dispute resolution, in particular, have attracted a considerable amount of research (Smith & Bond, 1999). Although robust patterns of cultural differences have been identified, there is no consensus on the psychological mechanisms through which differences between American and Chinese individuals arise. Initial accounts in terms of differences in general values are increasingly regarded as incomplete (Bond, 200x, Gelfand & Dyer, 200x). In this paper, we propose that an important proximal mechanism is individual's following of cultural scripts when choosing among conflict resolution options. Scripts are structured representations of appropriate paths of action in a domain and expectations about the likely responses of other actors to one's actions (Goffman, 196x; Schank & Abelson, 1977). In studies of two different conflict resolution settings, we find support for distinctive predictions of this script-based account. Let us illustrate the features of scripts as an explanatory mechanism through analogy to another domain of social behavior-eating in restaurants. Americans typically have meals with their own dishes separately, whereas Chinese tend to share several collective dishes in the center of the table. This cultural difference can be explained in terms of general values, of course, such as by positing that Chinese …