Siqing Peng

Abstract: Cross-cultural psychologists assume that core cultural values define to a large extent what a culture is. Typically, core values are identified through an actual self-importance approach, in which core values are those that members of the culture as a group strongly endorse. In this article, the authors propose a perceived cultural importance approach to identifying core values, in which core values are values that members of the culture as a group generally believe to be important in the culture. In 5 studies, the authors examine the utility of the perceived cultural importance approach. Results consistently showed that, compared with values of high actual self-importance, values of high perceived cultural importance play a more important role in cultural identification. These findings have important implications for conceptualizing and measuring cultures.

Abstract: Core values of a culture may refer to values endorsed by most members of the culture or to values members of the culture generally believe to be widely shared in the culture. The authors propose an intersubjective consensus approach to identifying core cultural values based on the latter definition. In three studies, they illustrated the utility of the intersubjective consensus approach for identifying the cultural values that differentiate two or more nested cultural groups. They showed that endorsement of these values was related to the relative strength of identification with these cultural groups. The findings from the present research have important implications for social identity theories and acculturation research.

Abstract: The authors contend that although people in both Eastern and Western cultures are motivated to make favorable self-evaluations, the actual likelihood of expressing favorable self-evaluations in a concrete situation depends on (a) the dominant self-presentation norms in the culture, (b) how salient the norm is in the immediate situation, and (c) the availability of normatively permissible means to make favorable self-evaluations. The authors tested this proposal in three studies. Study 1 showed that given the strong influence of the modesty norm in Eastern cultures, Chinese are more comfortable making favorable self-evaluations when evaluation apprehension pressure in the immediate situation is reduced. Furthermore, Studies 2 and 3 showed that Asian Americans and Chinese are more comfortable making favorable self-evaluations when they can do it indirectly by denying possession of negative traits than when they have to do it directly by claiming possession of positive traits. In contrast, among European Americans, given the relative weak influence of the modesty norm in their culture, they are equally comfortable with making favorable self-evaluations in public and private situations through affirmation of positive selfaspects and repudiation of negative self-aspects.

Abstract: Past studies showed that compared to North Americans, East Asians have lower self-esteem and their self-esteem scores do not predict self-esteem-related motivations and self-perceptions. These findings have been interpreted in terms of a lack of the need for positive self-regard in East Asian contexts. We posit that the East – West difference in self-esteem may arise from the popularity of the dialectical self (the idea that one can have both a positive and negative self) in East Asia and of the internally consistent self (the notion that having a positive self implies not having a negative one, and vice versa) in North America. Consistent with this idea, we found that the Chinese American difference in self-esteem level was driven primarily by Chinese participants' greater tendency to agree with negatively worded self-esteem items. Furthermore, because of the motivation to maintain consistent responses, North Americans' response pattern varied depending on whether the first item in the self-esteem measur...

Abstract: Globalization has rendered culture mixing a pervading and overwhelming phenomenon. Culture mixing refers to the coexistence of representative symbols of different cultures in the same space at the ...

Abstract: American universities increasingly admit first-generation college students whose parents do not have 4-year degrees. Once admitted, these students tend to struggle academically, compared with continuing-generation students--students who have at least 1 parent with a 4-year degree. We propose a cultural mismatch theory that identifies 1 important source of this social class achievement gap. Four studies test the hypothesis that first-generation students underperform because interdependent norms from their mostly working-class backgrounds constitute a mismatch with middle-class independent norms prevalent in universities. First, assessing university cultural norms, surveys of university administrators revealed that American universities focus primarily on norms of independence. Second, identifying the hypothesized cultural mismatch, a longitudinal survey revealed that universities' focus on independence does not match first-generation students' relatively interdependent motives for attending college and that this cultural mismatch is associated with lower grades. Finally, 2 experiments at both private and public universities created a match or mismatch for first-generation students and examined the performance consequences. Together these studies revealed that representing the university culture in terms of independence (i.e., paving one's own paths) rendered academic tasks difficult and, thereby, undermined first-generation students' performance. Conversely, representing the university culture in terms of interdependence (i.e., being part of a community) reduced this sense of difficulty and eliminated the performance gap without adverse consequences for continuing-generation students. These studies address the urgent need to recognize cultural obstacles that contribute to the social class achievement gap and to develop interventions to address them.

Abstract: Cultural Importance Indices: A Comparative Analysis Based on the Useful Wild Plants of Southern Cantabria (Northern Spain) This paper compares four indices based on informant consensus Each index aims to assess the cultural significance of plant species and is suitable for statistical testing of different hypotheses For the comparison, we used data concerning plants traditionally used in the Campoo area of southern Cantabria in northern Spain Our results show a positive and significant correlation between the number of uses (NU) and the frequency of citation (FC) of the species It seems to be a general rule that the more versatile a plant, the more widespread its usefulness In addition, NU is highly influenced by the number of use-categories in the study Consequently, an objective index must rely on FC more than NU We propose the use of the cultural importance index (CI), which is defined as the summation of the informants’ proportions that mention each of the uses of the species The CI index is highly correlated with FC and, although it also considers diversity of use, each use-category is conveniently weighted by the number of informants mentioning it Despite the use of cultural significance indices being questioned, we believe that indices based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews are still very useful for compilation studies of passive knowledge, such as most ethnobotanical works conducted in the last three decades in Europe

Abstract: Product-harm crises are among a firm's worst nightmares. A firm may experience (i) a loss in baseline sales, (ii) a reduced own effectiveness for its marketing instruments, (iii) an increased cross sensitivity to rival firms' marketing-mix activities, and (iv) a decreased cross impact of its marketing-mix instruments on the sales of competing, unaffected brands. We find that this quadruple jeopardy materialized in a case study of an Australian product-harm crisis faced by Kraft peanut butter. We arrive at this conclusion by using a time-varying error-correction model that quantifies the consequences of this crisis on base sales, and on own-and cross-brand short-and long-term effectiveness. The proposed modeling approach allows managers to make more informed decisions on how to regain the brands' pre-crisis performance levels.

Abstract: Since the publication of Peng and Nisbett’s seminal paper on dialectical thinking, a substantial amount of empirical research has replicated and expanded on the core finding that people differ in the degree to which they view the world as inherently contradictory and in constant flux. Dialectical thinkers (who are more often members of East Asian than Western cultures) show greater expectation of change in tasks related to explanation and prediction and greater tolerance of contradiction in tasks involving the reconciliation of contradictory information. The authors show how these effects are manifested in the domains of the self, emotional experience, psychological well-being, attitudes and evaluations, social categorization and perception, and judgment and decision making. They note important topics in need of further investigation and offer predictions concerning possible cultural differences in unexplored domains as a function of the presence or absence of naive dialecticism.