The outsider's perspective: Young adults' judgments of social practices ofother cultures

In this study, judgments of social practices of other cultures were examine d. Forty-eight college students judged social practices entailing potential ly immoral features to be unacceptable when not culturally grounded but acc eptable when they are part of long-standing cultural traditions. Their tole rant judgments were underlain by a construal of the practices in the other cultures as beneficial and consensual. Subsequently, the same practice was presented in four hypothetical cultural concerts generated by manipulating the type of belief underlying the practice (moral or informational) and the consensual status of the belief within the culture (agreement or disagreem ent). Participants were tolerant of the practice and of the people engaged in the practice in some contexts but not in others, and judged some types o f diversity likely and some unlikely. Their tolerant and intolerant judgmen ts reflected the ways in which specific cultural parameters are understood to transform the meanings and moderate the effects of cultural practices.