%A LUO Cheng, REN Xiaopeng %T Ongoing voluntary settlement and independent agency: Evidence from several cultural tasks %0 Journal Article %D 2018 %J Advances in Psychological Science %R 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2018.01928 %P 1928-1934 %V 26 %N 11 %U {https://journal.psych.ac.cn/xlkxjz/CN/abstract/article_4499.shtml} %8 2018-11-15 %X

The voluntary frontier settlement hypothesis proposed that voluntary frontier settlement leads to independent agency. The present work compared 538 college students from Shenzhen (an ongoing voluntary frontier settlement region) and Xiangfan. Controlling for resident status, the Singelis self-construal scale, the collectivist orientation scale, the triad task, the attribution task and loyalty/nepotism task were administered to examine the relationship between ongoing voluntary settlement and independent agency. As predicted, the results indicated that residents of Shenzhen scored higher in self-reported independent index, lower in self-reported collectivist orientation and holistic thinking, lower in rewarding honest friend and higher in punishing dishonest friend than those from Xiangfan. These findings indicate that Shenzhen as an ongoing voluntary frontier settlement is more independent than other regions of Mainland China such as Xiangfan. This implies that even in a generally interdependent culture in East Asia, ongoing voluntary frontier settlement leads to independent agency.