"I" value freedom, but "we" value relationships: Self-construal priming mirrors cultural differences in judgment

The distinction between relatively independent versus interdependent self-c onstruals has been strongly associated with several important cultural diff erences in social behavior The current studies examined the causal role of self-construal by investigating whether priming independent or interdepende nt self-construals within a culture could result in differences in psycholo gical worldview that mirror those traditionally found between cultures. In Experiment I, European-American participants primed with interdependence di splayed shifts toward more collectivist social values and judgments that we re mediated by corresponding shifts in self-construal. In Experiment 2, thi s effect was extended by priming students from the United States and Hong K ong with primes that were consistent and inconsistent with their predominan t cultural worldview. Students who received the inconsistent primes were mo re strongly affected than those who received the consistent primes, and thu s shifted self-construal, and corresponding values, to a greater degree.