In the last two decades, much has been published on the topic of culture an
d cross-cultural psychology and much on the topic of judgment and decision
making (J/DM). However, only a few researchers have examined the intersecti
on of the two areas. In this article, we review this body of research. Our
focus is on four particular J/DM topics that have been studied cross-cultur
ally: probability judgment, risk perception, risk preference, and modes of
decision making. Our review reveals an encouraging trend in cross-cultural
J/DM research-a shift from merely describing national differences in overt
behaviour to exploring underlying processes that explain these differences
by recourse to cultural perceptions or values. To reinforce this trend, we
recommend that future cross-cultural J/DM research be more model-based (i.e
. testing for the causal effect of independent variables shown to differ be
tween cultures rather than simply describing group differences) and adopt a
mosaic-building approach in its data collection (i.e. using multiple metho
dologies and seeking converging evidence to support or reject any model).