Abstract
This research compared Japanese and American individuals’ reactions to experiencing inconsistency or conflict between two roles (i.e., identities, relationships, self-aspects). Past research has established that trait-level well-being and role inconsistency are negatively related in the U.S. but unrelated in Japan. We extended on past work by (1) experimentally manipulating an experience of inconsistency in both countries to establish causality, and (2) identifying if the previously-observed cultural differences in role inconsistency are distinct from cultural differences in role conflict. Participants from universities in Japan and the U.S. were randomly assigned to write about how their behavior differs in two roles or relationships (inconsistency condition), interference between two roles or relationships (conflict condition), or descriptions of two roles or relationships (control condition). Inconsistency decreased moral self-regard in the U.S. but not in Japan, whereas conflict decreased moral self-regard in both cultures. Americans had a more globally negative reaction to role conflict, but only inconsistency reduced their feelings of authenticity. In other words, the negative relationship between inconsistent roles and well-being observed in the U.S. appears both causal in nature and distinct from the effect of conflict within the self-concept. In addition, although inconsistency does not elicit negative reactions in Japan, role conflict does reduce positive feelings about the self.
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Notes
Given that cultural values can be different for White Americans than other Americans (English and Chen 2007), we repeated all analyses with non-White participants excluded from the American sample. The results were overwhelmingly unchanged. The only results that changed are reported in subsequent footnotes. That being said, given that our sample was majority White, it remains possible that different patterns might be observed in large samples of specific ethnic groups.
With non-White participants excluded from the American sample, this contrast becomes marginally significant, Mdiff = − .36, SE = .22, p = .106 (95% CI − .79, .08).
We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.
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The authors thank Kayla Sansevere, Leslie Remache, Phylicia Hardy, and Ariel Kershner for their feedback on materials and assistance with data collection, and Yuri Tanaka, Momina Shabbir, and Steven Young for their assistance rating essays.
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Brown, C.M., Matsuo, A. Emotional reactions to self-inconsistency and self-conflict in Japan and the U.S.. Cult. Brain 8, 166–185 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-019-00087-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-019-00087-w