influencing inter-cultural and ntra-cultural variability

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In our previous three research projects, we have studied US-Japan difference in social judgments and hypothesized that the difference in social systems in near past to which people had to adjust could explain some features of this difference. More specifically, the adjustment to semi-feudalistic social hierarchy and relatively closed economical system of Japan in the period of three centuries from the 16th C. fostered a belief system about how things should be. On the other hand, the egalitarian nature of individualistic society and the open market system of early capitalism shaped another view of how things should be. It was our hypothesis that this difference caused the difference of social judgment that we have observed. Although two countries are much more alike than they used to be centuries ago, the ole influences are sustained through parental socialization practices and social expectations. In order to cross-validate this hypothesis, we have chosen several areas of Japan supposedly differ in the degree of the influence of Edo-period feudalism. The difference among local groups were generally in the predicted direction, but the differences were usually much smaller than those found between Japan and the US. Intra- cultural similarity of schooling, curriculum contents, cultural media, etc., may account for this.