Saying no in Chinese and English: Cultural similarities and differences in strategies of refusal

Abstract

This study examines cultural similarities and differences in strategies of refusal by presenting realistic request scenarios which manipulate levels of imposition of the request, the amount of obligation to the requestee as well as the relational closeness. Differences in self‐reported refusal strategies between Chinese in Taiwan and Americans were assessed across four conditions. It was hypothesized that obligation and relational closeness would determine whether or not Chinese in Taiwan would refuse and that they would be likely to select less assertive refusal strategies while US subjects would generally find it easier to refuse using more assertive strategies regardless of obligation or relational closeness. Subjects were asked to judge what was the most important value for them in each of four situations. These outcomes were compared with scores on Markus and Kitayama's (1991) interdependence/independence scale to test hypotheses about how Taiwan and US subjects would be likely to behave. Several unexpected findings based on culture and gender were observed in the study. This study suggests that refusal is a much more complex behaviour than we expected for both US culture and that of Taiwan.