This study used a social domain theory framework to investigate Chinese and U.S. individuals’ evaluations of intrasocietal conflicts (defined as situations where some individuals’ rights clash with collective interests), and how those evaluations might be influenced by concepts of high versus low power. Undergraduate students in both the United States (n = 92) and China (n = 98) received either a high-power or a low-power prime and then evaluated (a) the acceptability of actions taken by different parties in hypothetical scenarios about intrasocietal conflicts, (b) moral and societal justifications for these actions, and (c) the appropriateness of actions by outside, third parties aimed at affirming individual rights. Results showed that moral justifications for individual actions were positively associated with pro-individual-rights judgments in both societies, regardless of power condition. In addition, U.S. individuals primed with high power and Chinese participants primed with low power showed lower support for third-party actions, based on societal concerns from the collective perspective. Chinese participants primed with high power also accepted collective actions based on moral and societal concerns. These results extend social domain theory by demonstrating how different power concepts affect the relative importance of moral versus societal concerns in individuals’ judgments, especially when evaluating third-party actions.
BoydR.GintisH.BowlesS.RichersonP. J. (2003). The evolution of altruistic punishment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(6), 3531–3535. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0630443100
2.
BrewerM. B.ChenY.-R. (2007). Where (who) are collectives in collectivism? Toward conceptual clarification of individualism and collectivism. Psychological Review, 114(1), 133–151. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.1.133
3.
ChenS.Lee-ChaiA. Y.BarghJ. A. (2001). Relationship orientation as a moderator of the effects of social power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(2), 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.80.2.173
4.
DavisM. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 44(1), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113
5.
EpleyN.CarusoE. M.BazermanM. H. (2006). When perspective taking increases taking: Reactive egoism in social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 872–889. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.872
6.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.LangA.-G.BuchnerA. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146
FukuyamaF. (2011). The origins of political order: From prehuman times to the French Revolution. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
10.
GalinskyA. D.GruenfeldD. H.MageeJ. C. (2003). From power to action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 453–466. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.453
11.
GalinskyA. D.KuG.WangC. S. (2005). Perspective-taking and self-other overlap: Fostering social bonds and facilitating social coordination. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 8(2), 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430205051060
GruenfeldD. H.InesiM. E.MageeJ. C.GalinskyA. D. (2008). Power and the objectification of social targets. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1), 111–127. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.111
14.
HamamuraT.HeineS. J.PaulhusD. L. (2008). Cultural differences in response styles: The role of dialectical thinking. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(4), 932–942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.034
15.
HelwigC. C. (1995). Adolescents’ and young adults’ conceptions of civil liberties: Freedom of speech and religion. Child Development, 66(1), 152–166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1995.tb00862.x
HelwigC. C.ArnoldM. L.TanD.BoydD. (2007). Mainland Chinese and Canadian adolescents’ judgments and reasoning about the fairness of democratic and other forms of government. Cognitive Development, 22(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2006.07.002
18.
HelwigC. C.JasiobedzkaU. (2001). The relation between law and morality: Children’s reasoning about socially beneficial and unjust laws. Child Development, 72(5), 1382–1393. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00354
19.
HelwigC. C.TurielE. (2010). Children’s social and moral reasoning. In SmithP. K.HartC. H. (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood social development (pp. 567–583). Wiley-Blackwell.
HofstedeG.BondM. H. (1988). The Confucius connection: From cultural roots to economic growth. Organizational Dynamics, 16(4), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(88)90009-5
KillenM.RutlandA.AbramsD.MulveyK. L.HittiA. (2013). Development of intra- and intergroup judgments in the context of moral and social-conventional norms. Child Development, 84(3), 1063–1080. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12011
25.
KimH.MarkusH. R. (1999). Deviance or uniqueness, harmony or conformity? A cultural analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(4), 785–800. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.4.785
26.
KitayamaS.ConwayL. G.IIIPietromonacoP. R.ParkH.PlautV. C. (2010). Ethos of independence across regions in the United States: The production-adoption model of cultural change. American Psychologist, 65(6), 559–574. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020277
27.
LahatA.HelwigC. C.YangS.TanD.LiuC. (2009). Mainland Chinese adolescents’ judgments and reasoning about self-determination and nurturance rights. Social Development, 18(3), 690–710. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00507.x
28.
LammersJ.StapelD. A. (2009). How power influences moral thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(2), 279–289. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015437
LammersJ.StokerJ. I.RinkF.GalinskyA. D. (2016). To have control over or to be free from others? The desire for power reflects a need for autonomy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42(4), 498–512. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216634064
31.
LeBaronM.PillayV. (2004). Conflict across cultures. Intercultural Press.
32.
MageeJ. C.GalinskyA. D. (2008). Social hierarchy: The self-reinforcing nature of power and status. Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 351–398. https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520802211628
MarkusH. R.KitayamaS. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224
35.
NeffK. D.HelwigC. C. (2002). A constructivist approach to understanding the development of reasoning about rights and authority within cultural contexts. Cognitive Development, 17(3–4), 1429–1450. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(02)00126-0
36.
NosekB. A.BanajiM. R. (2001). The go/no-go association task. Social Cognition, 19(6), 625–666.
37.
RecchiaH. E.RossH. S.VickarM. (2010). Power and conflict resolution in sibling, parent–child, and spousal negotiations. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(5), 605–615. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020871
SmetanaJ. G. (1989). Adolescents’ and parents’ reasoning about actual family conflict. Child Development, 60, 1052–1067. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130779
41.
SmetanaJ. G. (2002). Culture, autonomy, and personal jurisdiction in adolescent-parent relationships. Advances in Child Development & Behavior, 29, 51–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2407(02)80051-9
42.
SmetanaJ. G. (2013). Moral development: The social domain theory view. In ZelazoP. (Ed.), Oxford handbook of developmental psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 832–866). Oxford University Press.
43.
SmetanaJ. G.JambonM.BallC. (2014). The social domain approach to children’s social and moral judgments. In KillenM.SmetanaJ. (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (pp. 23–45). Psychology Press.
44.
TalhelmT.ZhangX.OishiS.ShiminC.DuanD.LanX.KitayamaS. (2014). Large-scale psychological differences within China explained by rice versus wheat agriculture. Science, 344(6184), 603–608. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246850
45.
TorelliC. J.ShavittS. (2010). Culture and concepts of power. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 99(4), 703–723. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019973
46.
TriandisH. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Westview Press.
47.
TriandisH. C.ChenX. P.ChanD. K. S. (1998). Scenarios for the measurement of collectivism and individualism. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29(29), 275–289. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022198292001
48.
TurielE. (1983). The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention. Cambridge University Press.
49.
TurielE. (2002). The culture of morality: Social development, context, and conflict. Cambridge University Press.
50.
TurielE. (2006). The development of morality. In DamonW.LernerR. M.EisenbergN. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., pp. 789–857). John Wiley.
TurielE.HildebrandtC.WainrybC.SaltzsteinH. D. (1991). Judging social issues: Difficulties, inconsistencies, and consistencies. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 56(2), 1–103. https://doi.org/10.2307/1166056
53.
TurielE.WainrybC. (1998). Concepts of freedoms and rights in a traditional, hierarchically organized society. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 16(3), 375–395. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1998.tb00759.x
54.
TylerT. R. (1994). Psychological models of the justice motive: Antecedents of distributive and procedural justice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(5), 850–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.5.850
55.
VandelloJ. A.CohenD. (1999). Patterns of individualism and collectivism across the United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(2), 279–292. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.2.279
56.
VandelloJ. A.MichniewiczK. S.GoldschmiedN. (2011). Moral judgments of the powerless and powerful in violent intergroup conflicts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(6), 1173–1178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.04.009
57.
Van de VliertE.YangH.WangY.RenX. (2013). Climato-economic imprints on Chinese collectivism. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(4), 589–605. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022112463605
58.
Van LeeuwenF.KoenigB. L.GrahamJ.ParkJ. H. (2014). Moral concerns across the United States: Associations with life-history variables, pathogen prevalence, urbanization, cognitive ability, and social class. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35(6), 464–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.06.005
59.
WainrybC.RecchiaH. (2014). Moral lives across cultures: Heterogeneity and conflict. In KillenM.SmetanaJ. (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (2nd ed., pp. 259–278). Lawrence Erlbaum.
WangF.SunX. (2016). Absolute power leads to absolute corruption? Impact of power on corruption depending on the concepts of power one holds. European Journal of Social Psychology, 46(1), 77–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2134
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
