New research at the University, funded via a £1.8 million European Research Council grant, will consider how people from different cultures differ in the way they coordinate with others, compromise when reaching decisions, and apologize for transgressions.
Professor Ayşe K. Üskül of the University’s School of Psychology said: ‘These behaviours play a major role when individuals from different cultural backgrounds work together to solve disputes or address joint challenges. Yet, we know little about what these behaviours mean in different cultural groups or how they are approached.’
Professor Üskül’s research will include Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia where honour has been shown to play a defining role which she predicts plays a role in willingness to coordinate, compromise, and apologize.
Under the project, entitled The Cultural Logic of Honor and Social Interaction: A Cross-Cultural Comparison (HONORLOGIC), Professor Üskül will also run the proposed studies in the UK, the US, Japan and Korea to provide a broader comparative perspective.
Findings will initiate a step-change in understanding of how different cultures differ in cultural interpersonal processes by providing unique, multimethod, comparative and converging evidence from a wide range of cultural groups.
The European Research Council’s five-year funding is being made under its Consolidator Grant scheme, which supports researchers with ‘a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal’.