{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.030044140680620817, 'fraction_numerical': 0.011248754093692154, 'mean_word_length': 5.67680608365019, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Perception Culturally Contingent Situated Cognition : Influencing Others Fosters Analytic Perception in the U . S . but Not in Japan

Interpersonal influence and adjustment play a crucial role in structuring social interactions across cultures. However, not much is known about whether their consequences are culturally contingent. We hypothesized that in order to effectively influence others, one needs to employ a perceptual style that serves one’s cultural imperative. Specifically, we predicted that whereas in the U.S., interpersonal influence fosters an analytic, context-independent perceptual style, which helps one to focus on the target of one’s goal, this pattern may be either absent or reversed in Japan where the cultural imperative is to attend to others and fit into social contexts. In two studies, we tested this hypothesis by measuring (Study 1) or manipulating (Study 2) interpersonal interactions. Overall, the findings support a culturally contingent situated cognition approach, which highlights not only interpersonal underpinnings of perceptual styles, but also the role which culture plays in prescribing meaning to interpersonal interactions. (147 words) Culture, Influence, and Perception 3 Culturally Contingent Situated Cognition: Influencing Others Fosters Analytic Perception in the U.S. but Not in Japan Interpersonal influence plays a crucial role in shaping and structuring social interactions (Cartwright, 1959). People often either influence others or adjust to others in their everyday lives. Exerting influence and adjusting to others have been shown to have various consequences (S. T. Fiske, 1993; Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003). For example, when they have control over others, people tend to perceive others as a means to an end (Gruenfeld, Inesi, Magee, & Galinsky, 2008). Despite the importance of interpersonal influence and adjustment across cultures (A. P. Fiske, 1992), not much is known about whether the consequences of these behaviors are culturally contingent. Different socio-cultural environments prescribe different imperatives for individuals (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1995). In interdependent social environments (e.g., East Asia), the primary imperative is to fulfill socially prescribed roles and fit into social contexts. On the other hand, in independent social worlds (e.g., North America), the imperative is to pursue self-defined goals independently from social contexts. Studies have shown that people in interdependent social environments report adjusting to their surroundings more frequently, whereas people in independent social worlds report influencing their surroundings more frequently (Morling, Kitayama & Miyamoto, 2002; Weisz, Rothbaum, & Blackburn, 1984). At the same time, people in both cultures report engaging in both types of behavior. However, the consequences of these behaviors may depend on cultural contexts. The present study examined the possibility that interpersonal influence requires a perceptual style that serves one’s cultural imperative. Previous studies have distinguished between two divergent styles of perceptual processing (Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005; Nisbett, Culture, Influence, and Perception 4 Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001): a holistic perceptual style is characterized by attention to relationships and to the context, whereas an analytic perceptual style is characterized by attention to salient objects and one’s goal with respect to them. These divergent perceptual styles have different social functions. Compared to analytic perceptual processing, holistic perceptual processing has been shown to be associated with social concerns (Kim & Markman, 2006) and to facilitate behavioral alignment with others (van Baaren, Horgan, Chartrand, & Dijkmans, 2004). These findings imply that holistic perceptual processing helps one to attend to others’ needs and to fit into social contexts, whereas analytic perceptual processing helps one to pursue one’s goals without being overly influenced by social contexts. We thus reasoned that effectively exerting interpersonal influence in independent social environments may facilitate analytic perceptual patterns, allowing one to focus on one’s goal, whereas effectively influencing others in interdependent environments may foster holistic perceptual patterns, allowing one to attend to others and fit into social contexts. In contrast, effectively adjusting to others may require attention to others and fitting into social contexts in both cultures, thus fostering holistic perceptual patterns, though the strength of the effect may potentially differ across cultures. This suggests that, in American cultural contexts, interpersonal influence should cause more analytic patterns of perception than interpersonal adjustment does. In Japanese cultural contexts, on the other hand, there are two possibilities: if interpersonal influence and adjustment are equally likely to lead to holistic perceptual patterns in Japan, the difference between influence and adjustment will be absent, or if interpersonal influence is more likely than interpersonal adjustment to foster holistic perceptual patterns in Japan, the difference between influence and adjustment should be reversed. Culture, Influence, and Perception 5 Cross-cultural evidence on leadership styles provides supporting evidence: Effective American leaders tend to focus on personal goals and on the task at hand, whereas effective Asian leaders generally attend to relationships and the demands of other people surrounding them (Jung & Avolio, 1999; Misumi & Peterson, 1985). Furthermore, there is evidence that in Western cultural contexts, interpersonal influence is linked to analytic ways of thinking. Americans who have a higher sense of personal control tend to provide more analytic explanations that focus on dispositions of individuals (rather than on contextual factors) in social events (Kraus, Piff, & Keltner, 2009). In addition, Guinote (2007) showed that in England, people who recalled an event in which they exerted power over other people could better ignore contextual information than people who recalled an event in which someone else exerted power over them. These findings suggest that personal control or influence fosters not only how people reason, but also how people attend to the environment. In summary, we conducted two studies in both the U.S. and Japan to test the hypothesis that, in American cultural contexts, interpersonal influence will foster more analytic patterns of perception than will interpersonal adjustment, whereas in Japanese cultural contexts, interpersonal influence should foster as holistic patterns of perception as (or more holistic patterns of perception than) interpersonal adjustment does. In Study 1, we measured self-reported influence and adjustment and examined their relationship with perceptual styles. In Study 2, we experimentally manipulated influence and adjustment to test the causal direction of the relationship. Study 1