Culture Moderates Biases in Search Decisions

Area of Science:

• Decision-making
• Behavioral economics
• Cross-cultural psychology

Background:

• Previous research indicates individuals often undersearch in sequential tasks, deviating from optimal payoff strategies.
• These findings predominantly stem from studies in Western, individualist cultures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if cultural background influences search behavior, specifically concerning sunk search costs.
• To test the hypothesis that individuals from collectivist cultures may oversearch when search costs are high, reversing the typical undersearch bias.

Main Methods:

• Four experiments were conducted, including a pilot study and cross-cultural priming manipulations using language.
• Bicultural participants were used, with cultural priming achieved by altering the program interface language.
• A third experiment manipulated the salience of sunk costs to examine process evidence.

Main Results:

• Participants generally undersearched with low search costs.
• Eastern participants, but not Western, oversearched when search costs were high.
• Cultural-priming effects were reduced when sunk costs were made nonsalient.

Conclusions:

• Cultural orientation significantly impacts sequential search behavior, particularly in the presence of high sunk search costs.
• Collectivist tendencies may lead to over-investment in search due to escalation of commitment, contrasting with individualist undersearch tendencies.
• Future research should consider cultural factors in understanding economic decision-making and search strategies.