Abstract
Easterners tend to process information more holistically than Westerners. Kim and Markman (J Exp Soc Psychol 42(3):350–364, 2006) suggest that these differences are rooted in higher chronic levels of Fear of Isolation (FOI) for those cultures that process information more holistically. The goal of this study was to determine if these differences and their suggested cause could be found with two different Western cultures. Testing Italian (IT) and US American (US) adults, we found that IT participants processed information more holistically and had a higher chronic level of FOI than US participants; furthermore, the manipulation of FOI affected context sensitivity more for IT than for US participants. The results demonstrate that IT participants were more similar to previous research with Eastern populations than with Western populations (Kim and Markman in J Exp Soc Psychol 42(3):350–364, 2006) and indicate a within-Western culture difference for reasoning styles and support the hypothesis that this difference is due to different chronic levels of FOI.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia Grant # 2009.010.0344 to SF, a University for Foreigners Research Grant to AS and a Cassa di Risparmio Perugia Fellowship to JLD. We would like to thank Ori Friedman and Tyler Davis for helpful discussions and comments on earlier manuscripts. We would like to also thank Anna Selberg at The Umbra Institute for enabling the participation of her students and providing us with two able research assistants, Lauren Rockoff and Rosalie Paterson. Finally, we would like to thank Piera Pandolfi for her extraordinary grant assistance.
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Federici, S., Stella, A., Dennis, J.L. et al. West vs. West like East vs. West? A comparison between Italian and US American context sensitivity and Fear of Isolation. Cogn Process 12, 203–208 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-010-0374-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-010-0374-8