The dynamics of Japanese and American interpersonal events: Behavioral settings versus personality traits

Abstract

Psychologists and sociologists have had a long and keen interest in whether situations or personality traist are the predominant determinants of behavior. This affect control study and two earlier ones (Smith et al., 1994, 2001) are consistent with recent psychological research indicating that East Asians are more influenced by situational influences and less by internal dispositions than Americans. This implies that Japanese are less likely than Americans to invoke correspondence biases like the fundamental attribution error. The results argue for a gendered Generalized Other in Japan. Still, the Japanese setting equations share fundamental commonalities with their American cousins such as relatively large stability and behavioral morality effects.