Reciprocity and Mutuality of Social Support Across Cultures

We performed two studies designed to evaluate the effects of reciprocity and mutuality of social support across cultures on satisfaction with a personal close friendship as well as an evaluation of a simulated dialogue between two friends. In Study 1, we examined the role of reciprocity in determining relationship satisfaction, mental health, and self-esteem among European American (EA) and Asian/Asian American (AA) female friend pairs studying at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges and the University of Pennsylvania. Each individual completed a series of measures about supportive behavior in the friendship, as well as questionnaires about communal orientation, relationship satisfaction, mental health, and selfesteem. The results indicated that there was a main effect of reciprocity and an interaction of culture such that EA participants were more strongly affected by reciprocity match, in line with previous supportive equity research. Study 2 examined the effect of mutuality on appraisals of support dialogues. Conducted on mTurk with participants from the United States and India, this study consisted of a prerecorded mutual or nonmutual dialogue and a series of evaluation questions, as well as a short narrative about a recent stressor and a series of culturally driven questionnaires such as the communal orientation scale. Results demonstrated supported the hypotheses that the Indians would score higher on measures of communal orientation than EAs and that overall impressions of mutual dialogues would be more favorable than those for nonmutual dialogues. There was found to be a main effect of dialogue support type and an interaction of culture such that EAs were found to be more affected by support type, contradicting the second hypothesis. These results are attributed chiefly to harmony values that are omnipresent in Indian lives