Is there a dark side to collectivist thinking? Cognitive dissonance in the U.S. and Japan

Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort caused by performing an action that is discrepant from one’s customary, typically positive self-conception. Like many other topics we have learned in Social Psychology, cognitive dissonance varies across cultures. Japan has a collectivist culture, meaning that the needs of the group matter more than the individual. As a result, Japanese individuals are more likely to experience cognitive dissonance when their behavior shames or disappoints others instead of themselves.  

 Growing up in a Japanese-American household, it has been extremely interesting to learn about how cultural differences have an affect on many aspects of Social Psychology. We’ve seen that Western societies tend to have Individualistic cultures whereas East Asian societies tend to have Collectivist cultures. We have learned that this difference in cultures has led to analytic vs. holistic style thinking as well as a difference in the attribution of internal and external attributes. After learning about how these cultural differences have an influence on behavior, I’ve started to make connections about observations I have made about Japanese behavior during previous visits to see family in Japan.

Recently, Japan has experienced incredibly high rates of suicide. When I travel to Japan, it feels like there is a train delay due to an “accident” every day of the week. Unfortunately, these “accidents” are due to individuals jumping in front of trains to their death. Many times, footage will show businessmen in full suit attire committing this act of suicide on their way home from work. The news will broadcast later that night that this businessman had recently lost his job and was too ashamed to face his family. To avoid shame by his community, he felt his only option was to end his life. This kind of suicide is so common in Japan that trains have been remodeled to make the post-suicide clean up process easier and new calming blue lights have been installed in many train stations in effort to persuade suicidal individuals not to jump.

Blue lights added to train stations in attempt to decrease suicide attempts.

Many attribute this suicidal tendency in Japan to a term called senkentei, which is a person’s reputation in the community and the pressure he or she feels to impress others. The effects of senkentei have caused many recent college graduates in Japan to fall victim to hikikomori, which is the tendency for young people to withdraw from society and remain indoors for fear of social failure. Seemingly small set backs such as low grades or rejection from college may trigger hikikomori and cause these individuals to withdraw from society by taking shelter in their homes. Unfortunately, parents of children that withdraw and fear the outside world are reluctant to get help because the parents also fear judgment from society for admitting that they have a child with hikikomori.  

A study of Japanese and American college students in 2004 looked at the difference in cognitive dissonance in these two cultures. They asked both Japanese and American students to rank their top 10 favorite CDs as well as what they thought were the top 10 favorite CDs of the average college student in their country. They hypothesized that Japanese students would show a dissonance effect by changing their ranking if they are primed to worry about how others would judge their choices. Supporting this hypothesis, Japanese students were in fact more likely than American students to adjust their ranking of favorite CDs when self-relevant social others were salient (Kitayama, Snibbe, Markus & Suzuki, 2004). On the other hand, priming the American students to worry about how others would judge their choices did not cause them to change their original rankings of the CDs. Instead, American participants’ dissonance reflected a worry about their own competence and internal attributes. American students were more concerned with whether or not their choices were foolish of themselves, whereas Japanese students were concerned with whether or not their choices made themselves look like a fool to others.

This collectivist concentration on the way an individual appears to others can cause increased levels of anxiety about bringing shame to their family or community. I’ve personally witnessed the some of the consequences of this heightened level of anxiety during my visits to Japan. Reading about the effects of culture on Cognitive Dissonance has made me think about whether some aspects of cultural values can be reversed to prevent some of the adverse consequences of the fear of shame. Unfortunately, it seems as if some of the attempts at decreasing suicide are more focused preventing train delaysrather than focusing on decreasing the societal pressures that lead individuals to feel intense Cognitive Dissonance and seek suicidal actions. 

[Submitted by: Tiffany Holland]

Reference

Kitayama, S., Snibbe, A. C., Markus, H. R., & Suzuki, T. (2004). Is There Any 'Free' Choice?: Self and Dissonance in Two Cultures. Psychological Science, 15(8), 527-533. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00714.x