Americans trust shared categories while Japanese trust shared relationship links

Evidence

My colleagues and I conducted a couple of experimental studies to test this idea, and obtained support (Yuki, Maddux, Brewer, & Takemura, 2005). Across both studies, Americans tended to trust strangers who shared the same categorical memberships more than those who did not, while the presence of an acquaintance in the target persons’ groups, or the estimated likelihood of a mutual acquaintance, had no effect on levels of trust. In contrast, for Japanese participants, trust depended more on the likelihood that targets shared direct or indirect relationship links. In particular, the presence of a potential cross-group relationship had a strong effect on out-group trust for Japanese. This evidence led us to conclude that, in line with the present theory, in contrast to a mechanism of trust and cooperation based on depersonalized shared group memberships in the West, East Asian trust is dependent on interpersonal connections and reciprocal obligations. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1634

Categorization

• SHARE: Send to anyone interested in cross-cultural social psychology — neat empirical asymmetry that overturns simplistic in-group/out-group universality.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1634
• XREF: connects to: Japan and China sustain structurally distinct celebrity categories the English term internet celebrity erases — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 63