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A review of the theoretical and empirical literature suggests that social identity theory does not account well for collectivistic behaviors among East Asians. I hypothesize that the central theme of East Asian group behavior is cooperation within a group; this is represented cognitively as an interpersonal network among the members, with the emphasis on the relational self. Results of a survey of 122 Japanese and 126 American respondents largely supported this hypothesis. For Americans, in-group loyalty and identity with their small and large in-groups were correlated positively with perceived in-group homogeneity and in-group status. No such correlation was found for Japanese respondents, however. Instead, Japanese in-group loyalty and identity were predicted by respondents' knowledge of the relational structure within the group, knowledge of the individual differences between members of the group, and feelings of personal connectedness with in-group members. I discuss the meaningfulness of comparing group processes in different cultural contexts.
Social identity theory (e.g., Tajfel and Turner 1979) now provides perhaps the most widely accepted psychological social psychology theory of group behavior. This theoretical framework has received considerable support from many studies conducted in Western countries. (For a review, see Abrams and Hogg 2001; Hogg 2001 a, 2003.) Yet the extent to which the theory is applicable in different cultural contexts, including Eastern societies, is a matter of ongoing debate (Brown et al. 1992; Feather 1994; Hinkle and Brown 1990; Jackson and Smith 1999; Jetten, Postmes, and McAuliffe 2002; McAuliffe et al. forthcoming; Morales, Lopez-Saez, and Vega 1999; Sedikides and Gaertner 2001). In this paper I theoretically and empirically evaluate how well social identity theory accounts for group behaviors of people in East Asian countries, as compared with those of people in Western countries.
SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY
Social identity theory in conjunction with self-categorization theory provides a single comprehensive theory of group behavior and of the cognitive processes underlying an array of intergroup and group phenomena (Tajfel and Turner 1979; Turner et al. 1987). The basic tenet of these theories is that group behaviors derive from cognitive representations of the self in terms of membership in a shared social category, in which, in effect, there is no psychological separation between self and the group as a whole. This phenomenon is known as depersonalization...