Culture, Category Width, and Attributions

Abstract

The functional relationship among culture, category width (a cognitive individual difference variable), and social attributions was examined. Since these variables have not all been investigated in the same study previously, it has not been possible to build an adequate model of the relationships among them. Trukese and American subjects were administered a new, cross-culturally applicable measure of category width and were then presented with paragraphs describing an interaction between two men. Attributions about the men were elicited. Analyses indicated that the best general model of the relationship among culture, category width, and attributions is one in which category width mediates cultural effects: culture influences category width which in turn influences attributions. This result indicates the potential power of category width in cross-cultural research and the importance of a model-building approach to understanding the reasons for the effects of culture on psychological phenomena.

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