Own Benefit and Other's Cost: Cross-Cultural Comparison of “Indebtedness” among American and Japanese Students

Abstract

We tested the cross-cultural applicability of Greenberg's (1980) "Indebtedness model" in Japan and United States. We hypothesized that while the major antecedent of indebtedness is the recipient's benefit for American students, those of Japanese students is the donor's cost perceived by the recipient. University students from U.S.A. (n＝151, male＝47, female＝104) and Japan (n＝88, male＝25, female＝63) reported their recent experience of being aided by their families, friends, and strangers. They also rated on 75 items of questions concerning the intensities of indebtedness and other emotions they felt on receipt of aid, impression of the donor, and the amount of benefit and perceived donor's cost. Supporting our hypothesis, recipient's benefit was the major antecedent of indebtedness for American students and perceived donor's cost was the major antecedent for Japanese students. We also found positive correlation between the intensities of positive and negative emotions evoked by receiving aid, and a small amount of negative impression of the donor from one's own family only in the Japanese sample.

When Gratitude Evokes Indebtedness

“…This is presumably because Koreans do not want to burden their friends or family. Our findings suggest that Koreans do not seek social support as much as Americans in part because receiving social support from friends and family means indebtedness as well as gratitude for them (see Hitokoto, Niiya, & Tanaka‐Matsumi, , for the relevant findings in Japan). It would be interesting to extend the current research to the realm of social support.…”

Indebtedness in cultural context: The role of culture in the felt obligation to reciprocate

“…For example, in a single culture study, Aikawa () pointed out that Japanese indebtedness involves strong inference of another's (donor)'s cost. Hitokoto, Niiya and Tanaka‐Matsumi () confirmed this by comparing Japanese and American students’ recollections of situations in which they received help, and also showed that Japanese students reported a stronger sense of indebtedness than Americans. This is consistent with Naito, Wangwan and Tani's () report of a strong sense of indebtedness among Japanese students, and Kitayama, Mesquita, and Karasawa's () finding that Japanese students felt indebtedness more strongly in their daily life than American students.…”

“…A fourth question pertains to the repertoire of appraisal dimensions people might have mustered in response to the scenario (Ellsworth, ). In the case of indebtedness, not only an appraisal of one's own benefit and another's cost (Aikawa, ; Hitokoto et al ., ), but also positive responses such as approach and adoration, or negative responses such as inhibition, rejecting/avoiding, feeling actively against or passively negative, and appraisals of the ‘other's expectation to repay’ might also follow the receipt of help (Watkins, Scheer, Ovnicek & Kolts, ). Additionally, as Shen, Wan, and Wyer () pointed out, if East Asians are sensitive to indebtedness as a result of their interdependence, then indebtedness might also involve a strong sense of ‘relational concern’ (Taylor et al ., ).…”

“…Specifically, in Study 1, I presented daily situations of help receipt to Japanese and American students, and required them to rate the situations on a scale of felt indebtedness. The daily situations were collected in past studies (Hitokoto, ; Hitokoto et al ., ) from individualistic and collectivistic countries. By choosing scenarios from this dataset, I created culturally based, everyday situations (Kitayama et al ., ) that vary in terms of relationship with the donor (family, friend and stranger) and help initiation (asked or offered)…”

“…According to Hitokoto et al . (), the indebtedness of Japanese involves a strong sense of a donor's cost, while that of Americans involves a recipient's own benefit. Therefore, I manipulated and emphasized the recipient's own benefit and donor's costs in the scenario, providing participants with a chance to appraise the situations in a culturally meaningful manner.…”