The Role of Culture in Interpersonal Relationships

Abstract

Two studies examined the influence of Eastern cultural heritage on relationship preferences among second generation immigrants to the West, and explicitly tested the mediating roles of interdependence and familial cultural influence in mate preferences. The first used a between-subjects approach to compare the preferred mate attributes of South Asian Canadians (n= 97) to those of Euro-Canadians (n= 89). The second study used a within-subject approach by using the strength of cultural identity of South Asian Canadians (n= 92) as a predictor of preferred attributes. Both studies found a culture influence on “traditional” mate attribute preferences. Moreover, familial cultural influence (e.g., family allocentrism) was a better mediator of the culture-traditional attribute preference relationship than the more generic measure of interdependent self-construal. The results further suggest that a cross-cultural approach, rather than a strength-of-culturalidentity approach, is better suited to tap into non-conscious influences of culture on behavior.