Abstract
One stream of research suggests that individuals in a collectivistic culture tend to follow the others’ choices in a group choice setting (e.g., Markus and Kitayama 1991). Other research, however, suggests that the choices others make have little impact on the individuals’ choices in this cultural context (e.g., Kim and Drolet 2003). The current research attempts to test these competing hypotheses by examining individuals’ choices in group choice contexts (Ariely and Levav 2000). First, comparisons of 517 meal order slips from two local restaurants in Korea with simulated outcomes indicate a profound group-level uniformity seeking in dish selections. Second, our field experiment reveals that members of a collectivist culture tend to follow group members’ choices when group influence is evident. Unlike the previous findings of studies conducted on individuals from Western cultures, selections made in accordance with the cultural norm do not result in the reduction of emotional well-being for the collectivist cultural individuals. Finally, we provide more direct evidence for the hypothesized role of culture by showing that the choices of individuals with collectivistic cultural backgrounds are associated with higher uniformity-seeking tendency compared to those of individualistic cultural backgrounds.
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Notes
The VI is lower for larger than smaller size tables for both real and simulated groups (ps <0.01). However, the null interaction effect between the table type (real vs. simulated) and group size indicates that this linear trend should be attributed to the nature of VI that does not adjust for the overlap of choice by chance, rather than increasing conformity with table size.
The overall VI in study 2B was lower than those of study 1A. As noted, the size of the menu selection in study 1B was much smaller than in study 1A (four vs. 34), leading to greater potential for choice overlap.
Initially, 29 groups (95 participants) of international students were recruited. Based on post hoc screening, we eliminated ten groups because they included at least one member from collectivist culture (e.g., students from China, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia). Cultural backgrounds of the individualist participants include North America (n = 40), Europe (n = 10), and others (n = 4).
Additional analysis treating knowledge as continuous variable also yielded the same results. In this analysis, the real VI score was regressed on knowledge index for the collectivist and the individualist groups, separately. The results showed that knowledge score was related to the VI score for collectivist groups (b = 0.27, t = 1.78, p = 0.08), but not for individualist groups (b = 0.03, t = 0.34, p = 0.74).
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge Seoung Wan Cho, Jieun Choi, Chiah Cheon, Jinkyung Goo, Kyoungmi Kim, So Hyun Kim, Eun-Eui Lee, Jiheon Lee, Hyesung Park, and Kikyung Park for their assistance in data collection. The authors also thank the manager of Little Province (study 1A) and the owner of Ire restaurant (study 1B) and Utpal Dholakia (Study 3) in their generous supports in data collection. Correspondence: Song-Oh Yoon and Kwanho Suk.
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Yoon, S.O., Suk, K., Lee, S.M. et al. To seek variety or uniformity: The role of culture in consumers’ choice in a group setting. Mark Lett 22, 49–64 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-010-9102-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-010-9102-5