Cultural variation in correspondence bias: The critical role of attitude diagnosticity of socially constrained behavior

Miyamoto (2002) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · Read the paper

Miyamoto and Kitayama compared Americans and Japanese on the correspondence bias, the tendency to ascribe to a person an attitude matching behaviour that was socially constrained. When the behaviour was still diagnostic of the actor's attitude, both groups showed an equally strong bias. When it was minimally diagnostic, Americans still showed a strong bias and Japanese showed none. A second study found that the difference was due in part to the explicit inferences generated while judging the attitude. The paper discusses the cultural grounding of social perception.

Miyamoto and Kitayama compared Americans and Japanese on the correspondence bias, the tendency to ascribe to a person an attitude matching behaviour that was socially constrained. When the behaviour was still diagnostic of the actor's attitude, both groups showed an equally strong bias. When it was minimally diagnostic, Americans still showed a strong bias and Japanese showed none. A second study found that the difference was due in part to the explicit inferences generated while judging the attitude. The paper discusses the cultural grounding of social perception.

Written from the abstract read 2026-10-25 via OpenAlex.

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Miyamoto, Y., & Kitayama, S. (2002). Cultural variation in correspondence bias: The critical role of attitude diagnosticity of socially constrained behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1239-1248. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.5.1239