West and the rest? Interreferencing among majority world countries in developmental psychology research

Despite increasing awareness of sample, author, and editor representation and measurement equivalence in developmental psychology (DP), implicit and nuanced unevenness in the knowledge production consolidating the persisting Minority World dominance remains less explored. Inspired by Chen's (2010) "Asia as Method," this commentary introduces and investigates interreferencing among Majority World countries as a methodological approach that could potentially break through the Minority World dominance. A survey of 3,879 empirical articles from four top DP journals (Developmental Psychology, Child Development, Developmental Science, International Journal of Behavioral Development) up to 2022 showed that the total volume and proportion of studies including any Majority World sample(s) grew from the 2003-2013 period (11.41%) to the 2018-2022 period (14.72%). Nevertheless, studies including multiple Majority World samples (and potentially, using each other as points of reference) remain rare (1.31%), and existing interreferencing studies appear to be the fruits of exceptional teams rather than routinized scholarly practices. While challenging, interreferencing among Majority World countries is important as it can help demonstrate the contextual diversity within the Majority World; identify and test border-crossing processes and their developmental impacts; generate new scholarly insight; avoid essentialist or nationalist interpretation of research findings; and alleviate power imbalance in international research teams. Without excluding Minority World scholarship or undervaluing studies that include single Majority World samples, interreferencing can help Majority World scholars accumulate a greater presence, build allegiance, and develop a stronger sense of subjectivity that would lead to theoretical and methodological breakthroughs in the long run. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).