《社会心理学》课程教学资源（文献资料）social cognition——Culture and cause - American and Chinese Attributions for Social and Physical Events

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954 MICHAEL W. MORRIS AND KAIPING PENG school students, whom we drew from a school serving the mixed college and factory town of Ypsilanti, Michigan (Willow Run High School). Classrooms were accessed through psychology department channels. The American sample comprised roughly equal numbers of European￾American and African-American students plus a smaller number of Asian-American students. In each country, we selected several classes and recruited the participation of all students in these classes, resulting in a sample evenly divided by gender. Materials. We produced a series of animated displays with the Mac￾romind Director program on a Macintosh Ilci computer and then trans￾ferred them to videotape so that they could be displayed on 20-inch television screens. Physical displays featured a round object moving across a soccer field. All displays featured a solid black circle (5 cm diameter) and some also featured a yellow rectangle (10 cm X 2 cm). We produced two sets of five displays: 1. Collision displays resembled those of Michotte (in his Experiments 2, 1, 29, 31, and 3, respectively). The circle always began at rest, center￾screen, then moved rightward; what varied was the degree to which its movement coincided with being struck by the rectangle (see diagrams in Figure 1). Across five displays, the circle increasingly deviated from conservation of rest: (a) It moved while in continuous contact with the moving rectangle (entraining); (b) it moved immediately on impact of the rectangle (launching); (c) it moved 500 ms after impact (time gap); (d) it moved before impact, when the approaching rectangle was still 2 cm away (space gap); and (e) it moved without any rectangle present (starting). 2. Acceleration displays resembled those of Stewart and Runeson. The circle always appeared from beyond the left edge and traversed the screen; what varied was its change in velocity as it crossed the screen (see diagrams in Figure 2). Across five displays, the circle increasingly deviated from the slight deceleration characteristic of inanimate objects in the terrestrial ecology: (a) It decelerated slightly as if by friction (de￾celerating); (b) it held a constant speed (constant); (d) it stopped sud￾denly (stop); (d) it accelerated slightly (accelerating); (e) it suddenly stopped, started, stopped, and started again (stopping and starting). Social displays portrayed events involving a group of fish. All fish were identical in size (6 cm from gill to tail), features, and manner of swimming, but each was a different color. The blue fish (on which ques￾tions were focused) swam on a trajectory that deviated from that of others. The animations were designed to resemble a film of actual fish as much as technically possible so as not to invite anthropomorphiza￾tion any more than actual fish do.5 We produced three sets of displays: 1. Compulsion displays were like collisions between the blue fish and the group. In these displays (see Figure 3), one party approached the other and compelled it to move. This compelling took the form of either harmonious entraining (parties swim together and in synchrony after contact) or discordant launching (parties swim separately and out of synchrony after contact). We varied which party compelled the other. 2. Connection displays showed movements that resulted in either con￾necting or separating the blue fish and the group. In these displays (see Figure 4), one either left or joined the other. We also varied which party made the move. 3. Collection displays showed the group either collecting or dispersing in the presence of the blue fish. In these displays, group members moved on radial paths and the blue fish swam in either the center or the periphery. Groups of 5-10 subjects sat at desks in classrooms in front of a large TV and were given questionnaires in English or Chinese. The English version was translated into Chinese and back-translated successfully. The questionnaire cover stated as follows: "In this experiment you will answer questions in this booklet while watching cartoons on the televi￾sion. Always try to answer quickly, based on your first impression." Instructions for Part 1 described cartoons set on a soccer field in the evening, which feature a dark circular shape moving across the field that could be "either a soccer ball or an animal." Subjects were instructed to observe "how much its movement is influenced by internalfactors, such as the pressurized air inside the soccer ball that makes it bounce, or the muscles of an animal that allow it to run" and "how much the move￾ment is influenced by external factors, such as a person kicking a ball or scaring an animal." Subjects were instructed to familiarize themselves with the following questions: 1. "Does the dark thing look like a soccer ball or like an animal?" answered on a 5-point scale labeled looks like soccer ball, more like soccer ball than animal, could be either, more like animal than soc￾cer ball, and looks like animal. 2. "To what extent do the thing's movements seem influenced by internal factors?" answered on a 5-point magnitude scale labeled hardly at all, slightly, moderately, greatly, and almost entirely. (This scale was used with all influence questions.) 3. "To what extent do the thing's movements seem influenced by external factors?" When subjects had read the instructions, the videotape was started by the experimenter. The videotape showed each display three times, each time preceded by an attention-getting beep and followed by a ques￾tion then a 30-s pause. During the pause, subjects responded by marking a scale in their questionnaire. The entire running time of Part 1 was slightly over 10 min. Instructions for Part 2 described cartoons offish swimming in a lake. Subjects were instructed to observe the blue fish's relationship to the group and the influences on fish movements, including internal factors, "such as when a fish is hungry and swims to look for food," and external factors, "such as when one fish . . . follows another fish." Subjects were instructed to familiarize themselves with the following questions: 1. "Does the blue fish seem to be an important member of the group?" answered on a 5-point scale labeled not at all, less than average, average, more than average, and most important member. 2. "To what extent do the blue fish's movements seem influenced by internal factors?" 3. "To what extent do the blue fish's movements seem influenced by the other fish?" 4. "To what extent do the other fish's movements seem influenced by the blue fish?" Each of the 12 cartoons was shown four times, each time preceded by a beep and followed by a question then a 30-s pause. The entire running time of Part 2 was just over 15 min. Half of subjects saw the forward￾order videotape and half saw the reverse-order videotape. In the forward tape, the five physical displays in each set were ordered by increasing deviation from natural trajectories (as in Figures 1 and 2), and the four social displays in each set were ordered randomly. In the reverse tape, the order of displays within each set was reversed. Graduate School Sample Subjects. Subjects were students in the mechanical engineering and chemistry graduate programs at the University of Michigan. We con￾tacted all Chinese students (citizens of the People's Republic of China [P.R.C.], Hong Kong, or the Republic of China [R.O.C.]) in the 2nd and 3rd year cohorts and an equal number of randomly selected American students (U.S. citizens). They were offered $ 10 for participating. A total of 22 (of 28) Chinese and 22 (of 29) American students participated. Materials and procedure. The same materials were used as in Study 1. Sessions were held in the Institute for Social Research laboratory. American and Chinese natives were both tested in English. For each 5 We used a sequence of computer graphic images showing a fish in four phases of its swimming motion, each with different fin and tail positions. In the 100 frames of each animation, we cycled through this sequence (a film loop) as we translated the fish along its trajectory

CULTURE AND CAUSE 955 COLLISION ENTRAINING LAUNCHING LAUNCHING W/TIME GA oves after delay LAUNCHING W/SPACE GAP STARTING there were no cultural differences in perc ption tched a fo or extern s.Ame can and Chi nese per sample of subjects.The lack of cultural differences in the phys Results Physical Events urietcoicenlbaperCCpdootfiaiemlforce,extemalforsg ion from na al tra

CULTURE AND CAUSE 955 COLLISION ENTRAINING LAUNCHING LAUNCHING w/ TIME GAP (moves after delay) LAUNCHING w/ SPACE GAP STARTING Figure 1. Diagrams showing trajectories of objects in collision displays. Arrowed lines show direction of movement; vertical lines show where the object stopped, if it stopped. session, one American and one Chinese graduate student were seated near opposite ends of a long table, each in front of a TV and VCR (vid￾eocassette recorder). One of them watched a forward-order videotape and the other a reverse-order tape. They controlled the pace of the ex￾periment by pausing the VCR with a remote control as needed. Results Physical Events We predicted that causal perceptions of physical events by American and Chinese subjects would not differ. As predicted, there were no cultural differences in perception of internal force or external force. As Table 1 shows, American and Chinese per￾ceptions did not differ with either set of displays or with either sample of subjects. The lack of cultural differences in the phys￾ical domain suggests that we successfully translated the ques￾tionnaire into Chinese and supports interpretation of culture effects in the social domain as differences in perception, not fail￾ures of communication (Campbell, 1964). We predicted that perception of internal force, external force, and animacy would be cued by an object's trajectory. Specifi￾cally, we tested the prediction that deviation from natural tra-

956 MICHAEL W.MORRIS AND KAIPING PENG ACCELERATION DECELERATING CONSTANT SUDDEN STOP ACCELERATING SUDDEN STOPS AND STARTS jectory constraints increases rception of internal force,de increasingly deviated of rest,s acy(se Figure 5).Across the five acceleratic displays,in whi e en g d d as ph cts like ral p a perceptu to the ce more re

956 MICHAEL W. MORRIS AND KAIPING PENG ACCELERATION DECELERATING CONSTANT SUDDEN STOP ACCELERATING SUDDEN STOPS AND STARTS Figure 2. Diagrams showing trajectories of objects in acceleration displays. Dashes of constant length represent constant velocity; dashes of increasing length indicate acceleration; dashes of decreasing length indicate deceleration; vertical lines show where the object stopped, if it stopped. jectory constraints increases perception of internal force, de￾creases perception of external force, and increases perception of animacy. Across the five collision displays, in which the circle increasingly deviated from conservation of rest, subjects per￾ceived more internal force, less external force, and more anim￾acy (see Figure 5). Across the five acceleration displays, in which the circle increasingly deviated from gradual deceleration, sub￾jects showed the same predicted pattern (see Figure 6).6 This general pattern might also be predicted from a perceptual mod￾ule, but the fact that science graduate students were relatively more responsive to trajectory cues inclines the evidence in favor 6 Slopes of the functions in Figures 5 and 6 (estimated by linear con￾trasts) differed from zero in the predicted direction and did not differ by culture. We excluded the entraining display from analyses on learning that it is perceived as physical causation only with square objects like Michotte's, not with round objects like ours (Beasley, 1968). Because they are tangential to the central thesis of the article, details of slope computations and comparisons are omitted here and can be obtained by writing to Michael W. Morris