Seoul National University · Psychology
Professor Incheol Choi's research lab specializes in cross-cultural psychology, focusing on how cultural differences shape cognitive processes such as attribution, reasoning, and self-construal. The lab investigates the contrast between analytic (Western) and holistic (East Asian) thinking patterns, particularly in how individuals interpret behavior, manage contradictions, and form self-concepts. Key research directions include the correspondence bias, causal attribution, dialectical thinking, and the role of situational context in shaping perception and judgment across cultures.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Growing cross-cultural evidence suggests that East Asians are less likely to show the correspondence bias, or a preference for explanations of behavior in terms of traits, dispositions, or other internal attributes of the target. The scope of this evidence spans several research paradigms and diverse methodologies. The cultural difference, however, appears not to be caused by an absence of dispositional thinking in East Asian cultures. Indeed, extensive ethnographic and psychological data indica
The authors constructed the Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS) to measure analytic versus holistic thinking tendency. In Study 1, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, a 24-item scale was developed. In Study 2, convergent and discriminant validities were tested. In Studies 3 and 4, the known-group difference validity was examined by comparing scores on the AHS of Americans and Koreans (Study 3) and of Korean students of Oriental medicine and Korean students of non-Oriental medicine majors
Two studies examined the correspondence bias in attitude attributions of Koreans and Americans. Study I employed the classic attitude attribution paradigm of Jones and Harris and found that both Korean and American participants displayed the correspondence bias in the no-choice condition. This lack of difference might have been due to weak salience of the situational constraints. Study 2 was designed to make the situational constraints of the no-choice condition salient in two ways: (a) by askin
The authors hypothesized that because the causal theories of East Asians were more holistic and complex than those of Americans, the amount of information considered before making a final attribution would be larger for East Asians than for Americans. This hypothesis was supported through 4 studies. When participants attempted to explain a deviant behavior (Study 1) or a prosocial behavior (Study 2), Korean participants took into consideration a greater amount of information than did either Amer
The authors tested the hypothesis that East Asians, because of their holistic reasoning, take contradiction and inconsistency for granted and consequently are less likely than Americans to experience surprise. Studies 1 and 2 showed that Korean participants displayed less surprise and greater hindsight bias than American participants did when a target's behavior contradicted their expectations. Studies 3 and 4 further demonstrated that even when contradiction was created in highly explicit ways,
Past research has shown that East Asians are more tolerant of apparent contradiction and tend to accept contradictory beliefs more readily than Americans. The present research examined through three studies whether such a dialectical tendency among East Asians also would be found in beliefs about the self. The results showed that in all three studies, Koreans displayed inconsistent beliefs about the self across contexts more than Americans. Unlike Americans, Koreans considered themselves more ex
The present study examines momentary experiences of happiness and meaning, two components of well-being, by using an experience sampling method. Participants included 603 Korean adults, who generated 24,430 responses over the course of 2–4 weeks. Results revealed that reported levels of happiness and meaning fluctuated substantially over the course of a day and that contextual factors, such as daily activities, social interaction partners, day of week, and time of day, along with demographic var
Abstract The authors investigated whether need for cognitive closure (NFCC) affected one's style of information search (attribute‐based search vs. alternative‐based search) in consumer choice. There has been growing interest in NFCC in marketing and its relationship to consumer information processing. However, no study to date has examined the different information search strategies that consumers employ when they (1) possess different levels of NFCC or (2) are exposed to situations that evoke m
The present study examined the daily well-being of Koreans (n = 353,340) for 11 weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 20 -April 7). We analyzed whether and how life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, and life meaning changed during the outbreak. First, we found that the well-being of Koreans changed daily in a cubic fashion, such that it declined and recovered during the early phase but declined substantially during the later phase (after COVID- 19 was declared world pandemic
The authors hypothesized that training in Oriental medicine would make students think in a more holistic way. Study 1 found that students of Oriental medicine exhibited a cyclic expectation of future change, a key characteristic of holistic thinking, more than did students in other majors, such that the former, not the latter, believed that if something was going up or going down, it would reverse its direction in the future. Study 2 found that students in Oriental medicine also possessed a more
This chapter contains section titled: Introduction Why Cross-cultural Differences in JDM Have Been Overlooked Chapter Overview Surprises in Cross-cultural Research in JDM Analytic versus Holistic Modes of Thinking Implications of Analytic versus Holistic Thinking for Information Search Future Direction: A Dynamic Approach to Culture and JDM Concluding Remarks
The Korean Light Verb Construction (LVC) contains a Sino-Korean main predicate (tayhwa-lul), a Light Verb (ha-ta), and semantic arguments of the main predicate (John-i, Tom-kwa): John-i Tom-kwa tayhwa-lul ha-yess-ta. John-Nom Tom-with talk-Acc do-Pst-Dc 'John talked with Tom.' We defend a three-part analysis: (i) The subject of the main predicate is thematically controlled by the LV's subject. Evidence: Korean verbs assigning Accusative take an external argument (Wechsler/Lee 1996; Burzio's Gene
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