Social Support Interactions and Processes Across Cultures

Culture influences the manner in which individuals seek and benefit from social support interactions. To address this cultural influence, we studied the biological, behavioral, and psychological responses of Asian-Americans (AAs) and European-Americans (EAs) to reciprocal and unilateral support interactions. The study consisted of female participants primed to have either reciprocal or unilateral support interactions in the laboratory. We measured mood, blood pressure, heart rate, behaviors coded from the video recording of the interaction, and perceptions of the interaction. AAs were predicted to find reciprocal interactions less distressing than unilateral interactions whereas EAs were predicted to rate reciprocal and unilateral interactions equally. Results indicated that EAs benefited more overall from the support interactions than AAs and unilateral interactions were more beneficial than reciprocal interactions. Interestingly, objective observations of the support interactions indicated that AAs were less engaged in reciprocal interactions compared to unilateral interactions, which we attribute to the anticipation of participating in a second support interaction. These differences are attributed to cultural differences in self-disclosure and relational concerns