Cultural Variation in the Focus on Goals Versus Processes of Actions

Everyday actions (e.g.,riding a bike) can be described in ways that emphasize either the goals of the action by adapting a higher level identification (e.g.,getting exercise) or the processes of the action by adapting a lower level identification (e.g.,pedaling). in studies 1 and 2,we demonstrate cultural differences in focusing on the process or goal of actions at the individual level: americans are more likely than japanese to focus on the goal (rather than the process) of actions. study 3 recruited chinese participants in addition to american and japanese participants and found that cultural differences in action identification are partly explained by cultural differences in self-consistency. study 4 further showed cultural differences at the collective level: american media presents more goal-oriented information and less process-oriented information than does japanese media. these findings highlight the role of culture in shaping how people attend to different aspects of actions. © 2013 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.