THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL INDIVIDUALISM-COLLECTIVISM, SELF CONSTRUALS, AND INDIVIDUAL-VALUES ON COMMUNICATION STYLES ACROSS CULTURES

Individualism-collectivism has a direct effect on communication styles and an indirect effect that is mediated through self construals and v alues. It was hypothesized that cultural individualism-collectivism, s elf construals, and values would have separate effects on individuals' use of low- and high-context communication styles. As predicted, the results of this study suggest that independent self construals and ind ividualistic values mediate the influence of cultural individualism-co llectivism on the use of low-context communication, and interdependent self construals and collectivistic values mediate the influence of cu ltural individualism-collectivism on the use of high-context communica tion. The patterns for cultural individualism-collectivism were not as clear-cut. The findings suggest that individual level factors (i.e., self construals and values) are better predictors of low- and high-con text communication styles across cultures than cultural individualism- collectivism.