SEEKING HELP FROM CLOSE, SAME-SEX FRIENDS 2 Seeking Help From Close, Same-Sex Friends: Relational Costs for Japanese and Personal Costs for European Canadians

People often seek help from close friends. Such social support is generally beneficial for help seekers, but also entails costs. Past cross-cultural research on social support suggested that East Asians tend to perceive relational costs (e.g., causing trouble for close friends), whereas North Americans tend to perceive personal costs (e.g., admitting incompetence). In Study 1, we collected European Canadian and Japanese people’s everyday experiences of help-seeking behaviors. In Studies 2 and 3, we investigated whether culturally specific perceptions of costs predicted relationship expectations. Using the intersubjective approach to culture (Chiu et al., 2010), we also examined whether social norms regarding seeking help mediate these relationships (Study 2 for Japanese, Study 3 for European Canadians). The results indicated that culturally specific costs of seeking help influenced people’s expectations of closeness in friendships through their perceived norms of seeking help. Implications for social cognitive research and clinical research are discussed.