Below are some of my recent projects.
The Psychology of Apology in Honor Cultures
Conflict is widespread and can easily escalate in regions where honor is a central value. We find evidence that honor cultures’ focus on virility impedes a key conflict deescalation strategy—apology—that can be successfully promoted through a shift in mindset. Building on the conceptualization of honor as both virility and virtue, we show that virility concerns of maintaining one’s reputation underlie the reluctance to apologize. Conversely, shifting the focus of honor to virtue concerns promotes apologizing. Our findings suggest that honor is a double-edged sword with the potential to both escalate and de-escalate conflicts.
Lin, Y., Caluori, N., Öztürk, E. B., & Gelfand, M. J. (2022). From virility to virtue: the psychology of apology in honor cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(41), e2210324119.
Seeing Meaning Even When None May Exists
People believe claims that lack concern for truth. For instance, “fake” news spreads widely and rapidly in part because people are receptive to finding these claims meaningful, truthful, and even profound. Six studies show that this receptivity can stem from a universal feature of human culture – collectivism. Collectivism sensitizes people to the importance of human connection. By triggering a motivation to seek common ground, collectivism focuses people on what the communicator intends and hence how a claim might make sense. This very human motive to relate with others may explain why people so readily take up and even spread misinformation.
Lin, Y., Zhang, C. & Oyserman D. (2021) Seeing Meaning even when None May Exist: Collectivism Increases Belief in Empty Claims. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Upright and Honorable
Honor is abstract. We predict that people make use of honor metaphorically by situating it up and to the right in space. Supporting our prediction, people in the United States and China associate honor with up and right and dishonor with down and left. Images from conservative news websites position the President’s face in the up–right quadrant more than non-conservative ones. Regarding perception, Americans who rate President Trump as honorable are more likely to perceive him as facing up and to the right in news website images
Lin, Y., & Oyserman, D. (2020). Upright and Honorable: People Use Space to Understand Honor, Affecting Choice and Perception. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1-17.