TY - JOUR
T1 - When Does Life Satisfaction Accompany Relational Identity Signaling
T2 - A Cross-Cultural Analysis
AU - Kreuzbauer, Robert
AU - Chiu, Chi yue
AU - Lin, Shengdong
AU - Bae, So Hyun
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a Tier1 grant from the Singapore Ministry of Education to the first author.
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - Economists have proposed that signaling one's social identity can increase a person's subjective utility or happiness. However, there is little cross-cultural research on this relationship. The present research fills this knowledge gap. Using relational identity signaling as an illustration, in two studies, the authors showed that relative to European Americans, Asians (Chinese and Indians) value the relational self more and have relatively high intention to signal their relational identities publicly. Furthermore, for Asians, relational identity signaling is accompanied by higher life satisfaction (the cognitive component of happiness) only when the assimilation motive is salient. In contrast, for European Americans, a positive relationship between relational identity signaling and life satisfaction emerges only when the differentiation motive is salient. These findings suggest that relational identity signaling can confer utility to both Asians and European Americans. Moreover, whether relational identity signaling would increase life satisfaction in a certain culture is a joint function of what the normative practice is in the culture and the motivation to seek social connection of the self to or differentiation of it from others.
AB - Economists have proposed that signaling one's social identity can increase a person's subjective utility or happiness. However, there is little cross-cultural research on this relationship. The present research fills this knowledge gap. Using relational identity signaling as an illustration, in two studies, the authors showed that relative to European Americans, Asians (Chinese and Indians) value the relational self more and have relatively high intention to signal their relational identities publicly. Furthermore, for Asians, relational identity signaling is accompanied by higher life satisfaction (the cognitive component of happiness) only when the assimilation motive is salient. In contrast, for European Americans, a positive relationship between relational identity signaling and life satisfaction emerges only when the differentiation motive is salient. These findings suggest that relational identity signaling can confer utility to both Asians and European Americans. Moreover, whether relational identity signaling would increase life satisfaction in a certain culture is a joint function of what the normative practice is in the culture and the motivation to seek social connection of the self to or differentiation of it from others.
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U2 - 10.1177/0022022113518369
DO - 10.1177/0022022113518369
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84898677767
VL - 45
SP - 646
EP - 659
JO - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
JF - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
SN - 0022-0221
IS - 4
ER -