How are Responses to Verbal Insult Related to Cultural Collectivism and Power Distance?

Abstract

It is assumed that an act is construed as aggressive and the actor thus negatively evaluated when that act falls outside legitimate modes of social control. If true, then cultural variations in the use of social control should be related to perceptions of an insult and of the insulter. In a scenario study, responses of Hong Kong Chinese, who are high in collectivism and power distance, were compared with those of Americans, who are low in collectivism and moderately low in power distance. In confirmation of this reasoning, the Chinese were found to be less critical of an insulter and of his or her action as long as he or she had higher status than the in-group target. Americans made no consistent distinctions as a function of the insulter's status or group membership.