Speaker:　Dr. Virginia S. Y. Kwan
　　　　    Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University
Time:　　 13:30pm-15:00pm
Date:　　　Dec 22, 2011
Venue:　   Lecture Hall, North Building

Abstract:  Traditional models of culture suggest that cultural worldviews exert stable and enduring effects on human cognition. According to these models, people from different cultures hold distinct worldviews and, more importantly, those worldviews remain consistent in the short term.  However, with the advent of the internet and widespread international travel, people are increasingly exposed to the tenets of foreign cultures, even within their own backyards. Therefore, I argue that people who have predominantly been socialized and functioned in one culture sometimes adopt the cultural worldviews of a second culture.  Accordingly in a series of studies I sought to show that White Americans do not always behave according to the norms of American culture. Instead, their cognitions and behaviors are affected by their immediate cultural context. In this research, I focus on predictions of change. Findings of this research illuminate the power of cultural contexts on everyday judgment and decision-making. These findings have important practical implications. The growth of international travel, trade, and the internet suggest that culturally-laden stimuli will increasingly influence commerce and transcultural relations, sometimes counter to naïve intuitions.  Researchers and businesspeople who work across international boundaries should assume that people from one culture behave predominantly according to their own cultural worldview, although they also may adopt salient foreign worldviews.

Attachment:

　　Evidence of Decision-making that Bridges the Boundaries of Culture(.doc)