Understanding Cultural Variations in Giving Advice Among Americans and Chinese

Abstract

This study examined underlying mechanisms of cultural variations in giving advice between American and Chinese college students by assuming a belief framework specified in the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). American ( N = 289) and Chinese college students ( N = 227) first completed belief-based measures of attitudes and subjective norms of giving advice, and later completed measures of behavioral intentions of giving advice. Results revealed that there were similarities as well as noteworthy cultural differences with respect to ratings of the TRA components and strengths of associations between attitudes, subjective norms, and intentions. The TRA model showed relatively stronger prediction for giving advice intentions for Chinese than it did for Americans. A belief framework specified by the TRA demonstrated stronger power to capture finer cultural variations in giving advice as a form of support provision.