ABSTRACT
T his book investigates the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie social interaction. Many cognitive and social psychologists talk about “fun-damental processes” as if they were universally uniform, thus independent of culture. Yet, this assumption seems questionable if one takes into account that the vast majority of what is known in psychology has been found in experiments conducted by Western, individualist researchers with Western, individualist college students as participants. In this chapter, we explore the extent to which even fundamental cognitive processes involved in social interaction are influenced and shaped by the individual’s cultural background.
