A growing literature provides evidence for the multicultural experience–creativity link such that exposure to the juxtaposition of two cultures facilitates individual creativity. The underlying mechanisms for this relationship, however, are still far from being well explored. Drawing upon the novel perspective of motivated cognition, we hypothesize that two factors interact to affect creative outcomes: (a) perceived cultural distance between the two juxtaposed cultures, and (b) comparison mind-sets. Specifically, we argue that individuals’ creative performance will be increased only when a difference mind-set is employed to process the cultural stimuli that are sufficiently different from each other. In two studies, individuals exposed to dual cultural primes with higher levels of perceived cultural distance consistently performed more adeptly in creative insight tasks when they personally predisposed to or experimentally manipulated to adopt a difference (vs. similarity) mind-set. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This research examines the mediating role of emotions implicated in the multicultural experience reativity link. We propose that when individuals are dealing with apparent cultural contradictions upon encountering two cultures simultaneously, mentally juxtaposing dissonant cultural stimuli could lower positive affect or increase negative affect, which could in turn induce a deeper level of cognitive processing of cultural discrepancies and inspire creativity. Two studies compared dual cultural exposure versus single cultural exposure among bicultural Singaporeans (Study 1) and compared self-relevant (jointly presenting local and foreign cultures) versus self-irrelevant (jointly presenting foreign cultures only) dual cultural exposure among monocultural Taiwanese (Study 2). As in past research, dual cultural exposure promotes creativity, particularly if one presented culture is self-relevant. Further, this effect was mediated by a less positive or a more negative emotional state. These findings illuminate the underlying influence of emotions activated by simultaneous exposure to diverse cultures.

In most parts of the world, globalization has become an unstoppable and potent force that impacts everyday life and international relations. The articles in this issue draw on theoretical insights from diverse perspectives (clinical psychology, consumer research, organizational behavior, political psychology, and cultural psychology) to offer nuanced understanding of individuals’ psychological reactions to globalization in different parts of the world (Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Mainland China, Singapore, Switzerland, United States, Taiwan). These articles address the questions of how people make sense of and respond to globalization and its sociocultural ramifications; how people defend the integrity of their heritage cultural identities against the “culturally erosive” effects of globalization, and how individuals harness creative insights from their interactions with global cultures. The new theoretical insights and revealing empirical analyses presented in this issue set the stage for an emergent interdisciplinary inquiry into the psychology of globalization.

The present research tests the hypothesis that the copresence of images from two seemingly distinctive cultures (Chinese and American) in the same space increases individuals' sensitivity to the psychological characteristics of the in-group culture and the tendency to use culture as a schema to organize perceptions. The authors contend that viewing images from Chinese and U.S. cultures simultaneously evokes a culture mind-set. As a consequence, individuals (from both China and the United States) tend to enlarge the perceived incompatibility between Chinese and U.S. cultures and expect members of the in-group culture to possess culture-typical psychological attributes. In two experiments, one conducted in Beijing, China, and one in the United States, supportive evidence is found for this contention.

This study presents a structural equation test of the interrelationships among ad-induced emotional and cognitive responses, attitude toward the ad$(A_{ad})$, brand attitudes$(A_{b})$, and purchase intentions (PI). Consistent with past research, feelings affect Abdirectly and indirectly via$(A_{ad})$. Differences between positively and negatively framed print appeals are also examined. Findings indicate that feelings' effects on Aboffer a significant contribution regardless of the ad execution, but brand-related thoughts are more important in brand attitude formation when the message is negatively framed.

The cross-cultural generality of terror management theory was examined in Australia and Japan. Based on previous research suggesting that individualism is stronger in Australia than in Japan, mortality salience was predicted to enhance individualism in Australia, but to reduce it in Japan. The results supported this prediction. Consistent with the theory, the cultural pattern of worldview defense was found only among Australians and Japanese with low self-esteem. We also found preliminary evidence that collective mortality (death of one in-group) has a greater impact than personal mortality (personal death) in Japan. Although the cultural worldview and self-esteem may serve terror management functions in both cultures, there may be differences between cultures in the type of mortality that produces the greatest levels of anxiety and the manner in which a given worldview is used to cope with anxiety about mortality.

Inspired by recent advances in creative cognition research, the authors examined in the current research some creative benefits of multicultural experiences. Study 1 showed that European American undergraduates had better creative performance immediately after being exposed to American and Chinese cultures or to a hybrid culture formed by fusing American and Chinese cultures; this effect was also observed 5 to 7 days after the initial exposure. Studies 2 and 3 showed that exposure to multicultural experiences is positively related to the likelihood of engaging in some creativity-supporting processes—generation of unconventional ideas (Study 2) and receptiveness to ideas originated from foreign cultures (Study 3). Finally, in Studies 4 and 5, the authors found that need for cognitive closure (or the need for firm answers) and existential terror significantly attenuated the positive link between multicultural experiences and receptiveness to ideas originated from foreign cultures. The authors discussed these findings’ implications on multicultural learning and creativity.

Political theorists of globalization have argued that foreign inflows to a society can give rise to collective-identity closure ocial movements aiming to narrow the in-group, and exclude minorities. In this research we investigate whether exposure to the mixing of a foreign culture with one's heritage culture can evoke need for closure, a motive that engenders ethnocentric social judgments. On the basis of a proposed identity threat mechanism, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to situations mixing foreign and heritage cultures would evoke need for closure for individuals with low foreign identification but not those with high foreign identification. An experiment with Hong Kong Chinese students varied linguistic and visual cues of Western and Chinese culture and found, as predicted, that exposure to mixed Western/Chinese conditions elevated need for closure for those low in Western identification but not those high in Western identification.

The authors examine how judgmental priming effects are shaped by comparisons. Specifically, they suggest that concept priming involves spontaneous activation of concept-consistent standards, which are then spontaneously compared to the judgmental target. In 6 studies, they used a variety of priming methods (contextual cue, subliminal priming, indirect priming) to test these notions of spontaneous standard activation and spontaneous comparison. Study 1 demonstrates that priming a trait concept activates concept-consistent standards. Study 2 suggests that these activated standards contribute to priming effects. If alternative standards that are not particularly consistent with the primed concept are activated, priming effects diminish. Studies 3-6 show that the magnitude and direction of priming effects depend on the intensity and the type of the engaged comparison. Specifically, Study 3 demonstrates that the magnitude of a priming effect depends on the intensity of comparative processing. Studies 4 through 6 show that the direction of a priming effect (assimilation vs. contrast) depends on whether judges engage in a similarity or dissimilarity testing comparison mechanism--a factor which has been found to shape comparison consequences in other domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).

People, it is hypothesized, show an asymmetry in assessing their own interpersonal and intrapersonal knowledge relative to that of their peers. Six studies suggested that people perceive their knowledge of their peers to surpass their peers' knowledge of them. Several of the studies explored sources of this perceived asymmetry, especially the conviction that while observable behaviors (e.g., interpersonal revelations or idiosyncratic word completions) are more revealing of others than self, private thoughts and feelings are more revealing of self than others. Study 2 also found that college roommates believe they know themselves better than their peers know themselves. Study 6 showed that group members display a similar bias-they believe their groups know and understand relevant out-groups better than vice versa. The relevance of such illusions of asymmetric insight for interpersonal interaction and our understanding of "naive realism" is discussed.

This article examines how consumers evaluate hybrid products. Hybrid products possess features of more than one category and hence may be categorized into alternative categories. We combine two different streams of literature—traditional categorization and psycholinguistics—to demonstrate how beliefs about two different categories can be elicited for a hybrid product using a priming approach. We also find that relative category knowledge can moderate the elicitation of multiple category beliefs.

Previous research on the persuasive effects of ad cues, such as endorser attractiveness, has shown that these cues often serve as shortcuts to product evaluation when recipients are not motivated to process product information. In this article, the role of message cues was hypothesized to depend as much on the types of motives that guide message processing as on the degree of motivation. In an experiment, different goal-relevant attributes were made salient prior to viewing a target ad for a restaurant. The attractiveness of endorsers in the ad and the level of motivation to process the ad (involvement) were also manipulated. When the salient attributes were relevant to sensory gratification (e.g., taste and aroma), endorser attractiveness influenced evaluations of the restaurant under low but not high involvement. When the salient attributes were relevant to public image goals (e.g., creating a good social impression), endorser attractiveness influenced evaluations under high but not low involvement. Analysis of subjects' listed thoughts suggested that, when sensory attributes were salient, the persuasive impact of endorser attractiveness occured via a relatively peripheral route. However, when image attributes were salient, the effect of endorser attractiveness occurred through a more central route, providing information that was processed elaborately when motivation to process was high.

Results of four studies demonstrate that perceptions of how different a brand is from other brands in the product category affect perceptions of the brand's position within the category. Specifically, perceptions that a brand is strongly discrepant result in a subtyped (or niche) position, whereas perceptions that a brand is moderately discrepant result in a differentiated position within the general category. Perceptions of discrepancy are affected both by the extent of discrepancy on an attribute and whether the discrepant information is concentrated in a single ad for the brand or dispersed across multiple ads for the product. The effects associated with a subtyped position, in comparison with a differentiated position, are identified (study 1) and are found to increase with time (study 2). The subtyped versus differentiated distinction for a strongly versus moderately discrepant brand is validated with a sorting task (study 3). This distinction is shown to hold in the context of multiple discrepant brands that differ in their extent of discrepancy (study 4). Implications of the findings for a theoretical understanding of subtyping versus differentiation and for the application of positioning strategies in the marketplace are discussed.

In globalized economies, people often encounter symbols of dissimilar cultures simultaneously. Research on the psychological effects of simultaneous exposure to dissimilar cultures is therefore strategically located at the intersection of globalization, culture, and psychology. In seven experiments, we showed that exposure to a commercial product that embodies symbols of two dissimilar cultures can enhance perceptibility of cultural differences (Experiments 2, 5, and 6) and perceptions of cultural incompatibility (Experiment 1). Furthermore, following simultaneous exposure to two dissimilar cultures, individuals may display defensive responses to “cultural contamination” of an iconic cultural brand when mortality concerns are salient (Experiments 3, 4, and 7). Finally, although we obtained a robust bicultural exposure effect across experiments, thoughtful elaboration about cultural complexities can attenuate this effect and its attendant defensive responses to “cultural contamination” (Experiments 5–7).

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. ((c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

Collective beliefs about the values that are widely shared among members of a group are important constituents of the normative shared reality in the group. In two studies, we examined how (a) the circulation of a narrative that resonates with intersubjectively important values and (b) communication that threatens the normative shared reality affect people's culturally motivated evaluative responses, and their implications for the maintenance of normative shared reality. Study 1 showed that an actor received the most positive evaluation when a narrative about him was widely circulated, when his behavior signaled the central value of American culture, and when he was perceived as a symbol of American culture. Study 2 showed that formulating a communicative message that denounces the normative shared reality of a culture can elicit more positive evaluation of the culture, leading to a “saying is disbelieving” effect. The results of this research extended shared reality research, and have implications for understanding the role of collective beliefs in the characterization and maintenance of culture.

ABSTRACT Current views of conceptual combination postulate that novel phrases are interpreted by linking one constituent to another via a relation. For example,robin snakemight be interpreted as “a snake thateatsrobins.” Two studies examined the generality of thisrelation linkingview by examining interpretations of novel noun–noun combinations. The results provide support for the relation linking view but suggest other ways that novel phrases are interpreted. In particular, the first study suggested that people commonly use a strategy calledproperty mapping,in which they assert that a property of the modifier concept is true of the head noun, e.g., interpretingrobin snake,as “a snake with ared underbelly.” A second study showed that high similarity between the two nouns strongly predicts when people will map properties. I propose an extension to current models of conceptual combination in which property mapping is carried out by acomparison process.

We evaluate the hypothesis that people interpret noun-noun combinations by first attempting to find a plausible relation in which the constituents play different functional roles (as in “a hawk that preys on robins” for robin hawk ). If they do not succeed, they then attempt as a last resort to derive an interpretation based on properties of the modifier (“hawk with a red breast ”). In one study, combinations with plausible relations were more often interpreted with properties when their constituents were highly similar. In a second study, property and relation interpretations of the same combination were selectively primed. In a final study, we show that property interpretations characterize the meanings of a number of familiar combinations in the English language. Taken together, the results of these studies run counter to the view that concepts are combined by first attempting to link them by a relation. We describe other reasons to doubt this view and discuss the implications of our findings for models of conceptual combination.