Effects of culture and processing goals on the activation and binding of trait concepts

Two studies compared spontaneous trait use by Latinos and Anglo-Americans, with trait-implying behaviors equated over cultures on their intentional tr ait implications. In Study 1, only Anglos showed activation of trait concep ts on a lexical decision task. In Study 2, with the more complex stimuli se t, Anglos showed greater binding (linkage) of trait concepts and/or behavio rs to the actors performing the behaviors. Results were consistent with the more frequent use of trait terms by Euro-Americans than by those from coll ectivist cultures, especially in open-ended self-descriptions and causal ex planations, and illustrate the value of investigating activation and bindin g as two separable stages of spontaneous trait inference. The results also show that spontaneous inferences can reveal cultural differences that inten tional inferences do not.