Message source effects on rejection and costly punishment of criticism across cultures

Subgroups of societies evaluate information differently, leading to partisan polarization and societal rifts world-wide. Beyond mere disagreement about facts or different preferences, we identify a group-based mechanism predicting the rejection of critical messages and costly punishment of the commenter across three previously understudied and representative cultures. Our pre-registration was peer-reviewed within the Leibniz-Institute for Psychology lab-track scheme prior to data collection and, once accepted, funded. Participants (N = 2207) from China (collectivism, n = 786), Canada (individualism, n = 666), and Japan (honor, n = 755) consistently rejected criticism of their own national group that was attributed to a source from a different national group (intergroup criticism), as compared to the same criticism from within their group. These intergroup sensitivity effects were larger in China than in Canada or Japan. In Canada and Japan only, a bystander intergroup sensitivity effect emerged such that participants rejected criticism of another national group (i.e., they do not belong to) that was attributed to a source from a different national group (intergroup criticism), as compared to the same criticism from within that group. Apparently, the processes underlying this robust effect differ between cultures. We conclude that group-based message rejection contributes to societal rifts in many different cultures.