Do Different Features of Interdependence Have the Same Psychological Consequences? Familial Respect Predicts Dispositional Bias

People from interdependent cultures are thought to show a weaker dispositional bias because they are more attuned to situational factors, such as norms and roles. However, do interdependent psychological tendencies always predict this pattern in attributions? Another aspect related to interdependence is a focus on maintaining positive family and social relations. The importance of maintaining close family relationships, known as familial obligation, may promote dispositional attributions for positive behaviors. Using an EEG measure of dispositional bias with Latinx college students (N = 41), we found that familial respect predicted a stronger dispositional bias, while interdependent self-construal predicted a weaker one (Study 1). In Study 2, we replicated the pattern in a pre-registered cross-cultural comparison between Mexicans and European Americans (N = 802): familial respect predicted a tendency to form internal attributions, while interdependent self-construal predicted a tendency to form situational attributions. To examine the mechanism for the effect we examined the role of the valence of the situation (Studies 2-3) and the Latinx cultural value of simpatía (a tendency to be warm and positive) in a sample of Mexicans (N = 393; Study 3). Familial respect predicted internal attributions for positive situations only (Studies 2-3), which was in part explained by simpatía (Study 3). We propose that different features of interdependence, such as familial obligation, need to be examined separately to understand cultural variation in psychology.