Cultural Differences in Attitudes Toward Action and Inaction : The Role of Dialecticism

Abstract

The current research examinedwhether nations differ in their attitudes toward action and inaction. Itwas anticipated that members of dialectical EastAsian societies would show a positive association in their attitudes toward action/inaction.However,members of nondialectical European-American societieswere expected to showa negative association in their attitudes toward action/inaction. Young adults in 19 nations completed measures of dialectical thinking and attitudes toward action/inaction. Results frommulti-level modeling showed, as predicted, that people fromhigh dialecticism nations reported amore positive association in their attitudes toward action and inaction than people from low dialecticism nations. Furthermore, these findings remained after controlling for cultural differences in individualism-collectivism, neuroticism, gross-domestic product, and response style. Discussion highlights the implications of these findings for action/inaction goals, dialecticism, and culture.