Kim & Markus 1999; Lalwani et al. 2006). However, research has not addressed the mechanisms by which such impression management takes place. Research on automaticity suggests that processes that are practiced frequently over time become automatic (Bargh 1994, 1997; Smith & Lerner 1986). Automaticity of frequently practiced processes will result in these processes becoming relatively effortless, in the sense that they do not require cognitive resources. This suggests that individualists engage in impression management through a more effortful process, whereas collectivists can do so automatically without investing significant cognitive resources. Therefore, we hypothesize that, when motivated to impression manage, collectivists will do so regardless of their cognitive capacity, but individualists will be more likely to impression manage when they have (versus do not have) the cognitive capacity to do so. Experiment 1 Method Eighty-one students participated in a 2 (cognitive load: low vs. high) × 2 (cultural orientation: collectivists vs. individualists) between-subjects study. The high and low cognitive load conditions were based on a well established manipulation (e.g., Gilbert and Osborne 1989). High load condition participants were asked to keep an eight-digit number in memory while answering the questionnaire. Low load condition participants were not given this instruction. Cultural orientation was measured using the 16-item Triandis and Gelfand (1998) scale. The scale contains 8 items measuring forms of individualism (e.g., rather depend on myself than “I'd others”) and 8 measuring forms of collectivism, e.g., feel good when I cooperate with others”) “I which respondents answered on 7-point scales (1=strongly disagree, and 7=strongly agree) (αindividualism = .71 ; = .73)2. αcollectivism
Kim & Markus 1999; Lalwani et al. 2006). However, research has not addressed the mechanisms by which such impression management takes place. Research on automaticity suggests that processes that are practiced frequently over time become automatic (Bargh 1994, 1997; Smith & Lerner 1986). Automaticity of frequently practiced processes will result in these processes becoming relatively effortless, in the sense that they do not require cognitive resources. This suggests that individualists engage in impression management through a more effortful process, whereas collectivists can do so automatically without investing significant cognitive resources. Therefore, we hypothesize that, when motivated to impression manage, collectivists will do so regardless of their cognitive capacity, but individualists will be more likely to impression manage when they have (versus do not have) the cognitive capacity to do so. Experiment 1 Method Eighty-one students participated in a 2 (cognitive load: low vs. high) × 2 (cultural orientation: collectivists vs. individualists) between-subjects study. The high and low cognitive load conditions were based on a well established manipulation (e.g., Gilbert and Osborne 1989). High load condition participants were asked to keep an eight-digit number in memory while answering the questionnaire. Low load condition participants were not given this instruction. Cultural orientation was measured using the 16-item Triandis and Gelfand (1998) scale. The scale contains 8 items measuring forms of individualism (e.g., “I'd rather depend on myself than others”) and 8 measuring forms of collectivism, e.g., “I feel good when I cooperate with others”) which respondents answered on 7-point scales (1=strongly disagree, and 7=strongly agree) (αindividualism = .71 ; αcollectivism = .73)2.
Riemer%20and%20Shavitt.JCP%202011%20.docx