Suchergebnisse

From a cross-cultural perspective, we studied the psychological meaning of a generalized response style that combines acquiescent, extreme, and midpoint response styles. Individual- and country-level indexes of the three specific response styles were constructed from eight multicountry surveys for correlation and multilevel analyses. At both levels, we confirmed a general response style factor with a positive loading of extreme response style, a negative loading of midpoint response style, and acquiescent response style in between. This general response style refers to a communication filter that moderates or amplifies expressions and it is associated with both individual and cultural factors. At the country level, the general response style was negatively related to the socioeconomic development and the percentage of atheists and positively related to aggregated values and personality traits pertinent to "fitting in" and avoidance of ambiguity. At the individual level, the general response style was positively associated with age and negatively associated with education. We conclude that integrating specific response styles to a general response style can help to create consistency in findings across styles and studies. Implications for cross-cultural management research and practices are discussed.

Smiling individuals are usually perceived more favorably than non-smiling ones—they are judged as happier, more attractive, competent, and friendly. These seemingly clear and obvious consequences of smiling are assumed to be culturally universal, however most of the psychological research is carried out in WEIRD societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and the influence of culture on social perception of nonverbal behavior is still understudied. Here we show that a smiling individual may be judged as less intelligent than the same non-smiling individual in cultures low on the GLOBE's uncertainty avoidance dimension. Furthermore, we show that corruption at the societal level may undermine the prosocial perception of smiling—in societies with high corruption indicators, trust toward smiling individuals is reduced. This research fosters understanding of the cultural framework surrounding nonverbal communication processes and reveals that in some cultures smiling may lead to negative attributions. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion