Department of Communication and Culture

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 94 p. 104981-104981 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2026.104981

Nature Human Behaviour Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-026-02525-1

Abstract Experts widely agree that East Asian cultures are more collectivistic than Western cultures. Yet 76 survey studies found no reliable difference. Our explanation is that the most-used surveys are contaminated with ‘warm fuzzy’ items, which describe warmth and prosociality towards everyone near and far. We argue that collectivism is better understood as ‘responsibilism’, which emphasizes responsibilities in close relationships. A survey found that many cultural psychologists expect collectivistic cultures to agree with warm fuzzy items. Then we developed a responsibilism scale and tested 12,247 people in 100 cultures. Results showed large cultural differences ( d  = 3.98 [2.50, 5.43]) that were previously obscured by flawed measurement. Responsibilism predicted differences across societies (such as family ties and corruption) and individuals (social class and politics) that most earlier scales missed. This study offers a solution to previous puzzling findings by distinguishing warm fuzzy prosociality from responsibilism and introducing a scale with stronger predictive validity.

De Gruyter Brill

Animal and Vegan Advocacy: The Psychological Science and Practice of A p. 46-54 Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003596837-4

European Journal of Social Psychology Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.70106

Creativity and flourishing are core aims of higher education (HE) institutions and government initiatives globally. Large‐scale projects have linked creativity and flourishing with cultural diversity, yet their associations with majority‐group acculturation (i.e., how members of dominant culture groups adopt minority‐cultural elements and/or maintain their national culture) remain unexplored. We tested relationships between majority‐group acculturation and seven components of creativity and flourishing in UK (Study 1, N = 323) and Chinese (Study 2, N = 174) majority‐group university students and a three‐wave, English majority‐group longitudinal sample (Study 3, N at Time 1 = 219). Results found integration (i.e., adopting other cultures while maintaining one's own) predicted higher cognitive flexibility (Study 1), meaning‐in‐life (Studies 1 and 2) and quality of interpersonal relationships (Studies 1 and 2), while cultural adoption predicted higher cognitive flexibility, curiosity‐exploration and flourishing over time (Study 3). Findings align majority‐group acculturation with key priorities of HE and government programmes.