American friends resemble each other more than Japanese ones due to relational mobility
Evidence
Additionally, in societies high in relational mobility, individuals are able to form groups around similarities and common interests, which facilitate coordinated action and collective goal pursuit. Consistent with this, my colleagues and I have data suggesting that the reason why friends in the United States are more similar with each other than those in Japan is because of higher relational mobility in the former society. Although the preference for similar to dissimilar other is common to both countries, the opportunities to find and make friends with similar others are fewer in Japan, a society low in relational mobility (Schug, Yuki, Horikawa, & Takemura, 2009). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1646
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
Related
- Lower relational mobility forces friendships across dissimilar others. (similarity 0.93)
- High relational mobility fosters self-other overlap friendships unlike ascribed networks (similarity 0.85)
- Americans trust shared categories while Japanese trust shared relationship links (similarity 0.80)
- A society’s relational mobility explains cross-cultural differences in trust, well-being, and self-disclosure (similarity 0.80)