Choice as an Engine of Individualism: When and Why is Choice Beneficial or Detrimental in Three Cultural Contexts

这个研究项目旨在更好地理解人类的动机系统，特别是选择在组织和指导行为中的作用。虽然选择通常被认为具有普遍的影响力，但最近的跨文化比较表明，选择的强大激励效应可能仅限于欧洲和美国的中产阶级群体。换句话说，选择及其对行为的影响与个人主义文化观点密切相关。本研究项目探讨了选择在自我过程中的作用，特别是在代理意识方面，以及三种文化背景下选择的性质和后果——中产阶级欧美人、中产阶级印度人和工人阶级欧美人。14项研究将检验几个关键观点。首先，在欧美中产阶级背景下，选择影响自我表达和代理感受，这有利于认知和身体任务的表现，但对人际关系产生负面影响。其次，在印度中产阶级的背景下，自我约束而不是通过选择的自我表达与代理和个人绩效有关。第三，在欧美工人阶级背景下，社会团结而不是自我表达（同样是通过选择）与代理和福利绩效有关。因此，选择对每个人来说都不是同等重要的，甚至对那些最有可能获得回报的人也会产生一些负面影响。这个项目的理论意义部分在于提炼和丰富先前对社会文化影响的理解，而不是像通常的情况那样，引入文化变异的新维度。此外，具有理论和实践意义的是，该研究试图表明，虽然选择可以有效地激励行为，但其影响取决于人们参与的特定社会文化背景。也就是说，有效地激励人们戒烟、投票或节约能源取决于调用与社会文化相匹配的代理模型。总的来说，这项研究有望通过将其嵌入社会文化背景来更充分地解释选择，从而有助于政策制定者设计有利于社区的干预措施。

This research project aims to provide a better understanding of the human motivational system, and particularly the role of choice in organizing and guiding behavior. While choice is generally seen as universally impactful, recent cross-cultural comparisons reveal that the powerful motivational effects of choice may be limited to middle class European American groups of people. In other words, choice and its effects on behavior are intimately tied to an individualistic cultural perspective. This research project explores the role of choice in self processes, especially with respect to a sense of agency, and the nature and consequences of choice in three cultural contexts -- middle class European American, middle class Indian and working class European American. Fourteen studies will examine several key ideas. First, in middle class European American contexts, choice impacts self expression and feelings of agency, which benefits performance on cognitive and physical tasks but negatively affects interpersonal relations. Second, in middle class Indian contexts, self restraint rather than self expression via choice is associated with agency and benefits individual performance. And third, in working class European American contexts, social solidarity rather than self expression (again, via choice) is related to agency and benefits performance. Thus, choice is not equally powerful for everyone and has some negative consequences even for those who are most likely to reap its rewards. The theoretical significance of this project rests, in part, on refining and enriching previous understandings of sociocultural effects and not, as is often the case, on introducing a novel dimension of cultural variation. Moreover, of both theoretical and practical significance is that the research seeks to show that while choice can be effective in motivating behavior, its impact depends on the specific sociocultural contexts with which people engage. That is, effectively motivating people to stop smoking, to vote, or to save energy resources depends on invoking socioculturally matched models of agency. Overall, then, this research promises to more fully explicate the choice by embedding it in sociocultural contexts and thereby contribute to policy makers' efforts in designing interventions that benefit communities.