Adherence to perceived norms across cultural boundaries: The role of need for cognitive closure and ingroup identification

Abstract

Need for closure (NFC) refers to the need for firm answers to reduce uncertainty. We propose that because cultural norms are closure providers, when rendering social judgments, individuals with higher NFC would be more likely to conform to the dominant norms. Furthermore, because ingroup identification increases the perceived contrast between ingroup and outgroup cultures and enhances the perceived consensual validity of the dominant cultural norms within a country, high ingroup identifiers with high NFC would adhere to their native cultural norm when managing situations in their own country; however, they would rely more on the dominant cultural norms in a foreign country when deciding how to respond in that country. Two studies provided consistent support to our hypotheses.