Cultural psychology has relied heavily on the framework of individualism and collectivism to make sense of cultural variability. However, the predominant focus on two-way comparisons between samples from countries that vary on the individualism–collectivism dimension has encouraged conceptions of culture as bounded, monolithic and stable and has implied an unwarranted dichotomy of cultural differences in psychological processes. In this Review, we summarize theoretical developments in cultural psychology that go beyond the cultural dichotomy of individualism and collectivism and that consider cultures as internally diverse and dynamic. To that end, we describe insights from research conducted outside the usual east–west comparisons that explore a wider range of cultural variety in psychological tendencies, literature on within-culture variation, and conceptual as well as empirical advances regarding the cultural dynamics of psychological phenomena at the individual level (psychological acculturation) and group level (cultural change). We conclude by outlining future steps for the field of cultural psychology and highlighting its relevance in an increasingly multicultural world. The framework of individualism versus collectivism has encouraged conceptions of culture as dichotomous, bounded, monolithic and stable. In this Review, Uskul and Mesquita describe research that moves beyond these conceptualizations of culture and considers research on a wider range of cultural variety in psychological tendencies, within-nation variation and cultural dynamics.

This study examines how the socio-ecology of honour shapes the justification of violence, focusing on resource scarcity and inadequate law enforcement at both national and individual levels. Using World Values Survey data and a multilevel design (57 countries, N = 73,838), we found that personal experiences of economic precarity and witnessing crime predict stronger justification of violence. These relationships were moderated by country-level indicators of honour-related socio-ecology: national-level low income, unequal distribution of resources, and low adherence to the rule of law, used as proxies of resource scarcity and inadequate law enforcement. In countries with weak socio-ecological roots of honour (higher income, lower inequality, and stricter rule of law), personal experiences of precarity and crime exposure are linked to stronger justification of violence, whereas in countries with strong socio-ecological roots of honour, the effect sizes of these associations were negligible. We discuss the social comparison, cultural fit, and cultural backlash hypotheses as possible explanations of the observed interaction effect between national- and individual-level factors.

How do internalized cultural values shape responses to discrimination among minoritized groups? This research investigates how honour values, originating from socio-ecological contexts marked by insecurity and weak institutional protection, shape prejudice confrontation among individuals from honour-culture backgrounds living in Western European dignity cultures. Across three studies, we examined South and West Asians in the United Kingdom and Turkish post-migrants in Germany. We tested whether endorsement of collective honour and modern proxies of socio-ecological conditions in which honour cultures emerge (e.g., perceived financial threat, low trust in police effectiveness and procedural unfairness) predict intentions to confront discrimination. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the frequency of discrimination experiences and collective honour predicted aggressive confrontation. Studies 2 and 3 showed the dual role of honour norms: endorsement of honour norms related to family reputation predicted only non-aggressive confrontation, whereas endorsement of retaliation norms predicted only aggressive confrontation. Study 3, a pre-registered experiment, found no causal effect of manipulated contemporary manifestations of long-term socio-ecological conditions on honour endorsement or confrontation. Together, findings suggested that lived experiences of discrimination, alongside honour norms, predict confrontation. Moreover, they highlight the importance of distinguishing between dimensions of honour norms when examining culturally grounded responses to intergroup discrimination.

We examined differences and similarities between groups sampled from the Mediterranean region in social orientation, cognitive style, self-construal, and honor, face, dignity values, and concerns using a large battery of tasks and measures. We did this by conducting secondary data set analyses focusing on comparisons between nine pairs of samples recruited from the Mediterranean region (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus [Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities], Lebanon [Muslim Lebanese and Christian Lebanese], Egypt) that have overlapping and divergent features in terms of religious, ethnic, national, and linguistic factors as well as various physical and socioecological characteristics. Across 38 different psychological characteristics, comparisons between Turkish and Turkish Cypriot samples and between Christian and Muslim samples from Lebanon revealed that they were most similar to each other. In contrast, Greek and Turkish samples were the least similar. Our analyses of intercorrelations between variables, variability, and size of differences provide additional insights into the within-region variation in social orientation, cognitive style, self-construal indicators, as well as honor, face, and dignity values and concerns. Our research contributes to the growing literature on regional variation of psychological processes while raising important pointers for the role of background and socioecological characteristics in cultural group similarities and differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion Recognition Accuracy (ERA) is vital for social functioning and social relationships, yet empirical support for a positive link with well-being has been sparse. In three studies, we show that the Assessment of Contextualized Emotions (ACE) which distinguishes between accurately perceiving intended emotions and bias due to perceiving additional, secondary emotions, consistently predicted personal and social well-being. Across thirteen world cultures, accuracy was associated with higher well-being and life satisfaction, and bias linked to loneliness. A social interaction study in Czech Republic found accuracy (bias) was positively (negatively) associated with social well-being. The effects of accuracy and bias on well-being were partially mediated by social interaction quality in a third study. These findings further our understanding of ERA’s social functions.

Despite the known benefits of apologies, people often fail to apologize for wrongdoings. We examined the role of a cultural logic of honour-where apologizing may clash with concerns about maintaining an image of strength and toughness-in reluctance to apologize. Using general population samples from 14 societies in Mediterranean, East Asian and Anglo-Western regions (N = 5471), we explored links between honour values and norms, image concerns, and apology outcomes using multilevel mediation analyses. Members of groups with stronger honour endorsement reported stronger image concerns about apologizing relative to their concerns about not apologizing, which, in turn, predicted greater reluctance to apologize and fewer past apologies. However, groups with stronger honour endorsement did not show greater reluctance to apologize overall, and some individual-level facets of honour predicted better apology outcomes. Our results highlight the importance of considering honour as a multifaceted construct and including contextual factors and processes when studying reconciliation processes and obstacles to apologies.

Apologies serve as crucial tools for relationship repair, promoting reconciliation, and demonstrating accountability. However, beliefs about the morality, effectiveness, and responsibility-signaling nature of apologies may vary across cultures, particularly in contexts shaped by honor norms where apologies fit central cultural concerns for morality and strength in ambiguous ways. This study investigates the relation between apology beliefs and cultural honor norms across 14 Mediterranean, East Asian, and Anglo-Western samples (N = 5296). We assessed personal and normative beliefs about apologies and their alignment with apology tendencies (willingness to apologize and past offered apologies) as well as intersubjectively rated honor norms. Results revealed that stronger beliefs in the morality and effectiveness of apologies, as well as perceptions of apologies as admissions of responsibility, consistently predicted greater willingness to apologize across regions and past apologies offered. Against our expectations, honor norms moderated only a few of these relations, with significant interactions suggesting weaker links between apology beliefs and apology tendencies at stronger honor norms. Complementary analyses comparing regional categorizations (Anglo-West, East Asia, and MENA) further supported a picture of relative cultural similarities but also highlighted a wider array of relevant apology beliefs in the MENA region as well as a greater focus on personal morality beliefs in Anglo Western societies and personal effectiveness beliefs in East Asian societies. Our findings underscore the universal significance of apology beliefs in fostering reconciliation while also revealing some cultural variability in how personal beliefs and cultural norms may interact in shaping apology-related behaviors across diverse societies.

Core social psychological processes including morality, punishment, and reciprocity can be significantly shaped by differences in cultural logics. Although the literature on the function of honor (as a cultural logic) in interpersonal relationships is expanding, little is known about how it may play a role in intergroup processes other than negative consequences, such as intergroup hostility. Examining the function of honor value endorsement in transitional justice is a promising direction. The current study investigates these dynamics while considering the role of apology effectiveness in Cyprus, a post-conflict society where honor beliefs are expected to shape interpersonal and intergroup processes. Apologies, while often considered an important prerequisite for forgiveness and reconciliation may also evoke complex reactions tied to revenge-seeking, or honor restoration. These factors complicate their effectiveness in transitional justice settings. This study aims to clarify how honor value endorsement shapes justice preferences and apology perceptions. We found evidence that the relationship between honor value endorsement and retributive justice beliefs was mediated by beliefs in the effectiveness of apologies (while controlling for trust and amount of positive contact), specifically in the Turkish Cypriot community. Results are discussed in light of the unique dynamics within the Cypriot context and underscore the importance of addressing cultural variations to achieve reconciliation and sustainable peace.

Decades of research support the generalization that human males tend to be more aggressive than females. However, most of that research has examined aggression between unrelated individuals. Data drawn from 24 societies around the globe (n = 4,013) indicate that this generalization does not hold in the context of sibling relationships. In retrospective self-reports, females report being at least as aggressive as males toward their siblings, often more so. This holds for direct as well as indirect aggression, and for aggression between adult siblings as well as aggression that occurred during childhood. Consistent with prior research on sex differences, males reported engaging in more direct aggression toward nonkin than did females in the majority of societies. The results suggest that the dynamics of aggression within the family are different from those outside of it, and ultimately that understanding the role of sex in aggressive tendencies depends on context and target.

We examined the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and endorsement of honour. We studied the SES-honour link in 5 studies (N = 13,635) with participants recruited in different world regions (the Mediterranean and MENA, East Asian, South-East Asian, and Anglo-Western regions) using measures that tap into various different facets of honour. Findings from these studies revealed that individuals who subjectively perceived themselves as belonging to a higher (vs. lower) SES endorsed various facets of honour more strongly (i.e. defence of family honour values and concerns, self-promotion and retaliation values, masculine honour beliefs, emphasis on personal and family social image, the so-called street code). We discuss implications of these findings for the cultural dynamics linked to SES.

The present study examines the role of cultural factors in the perceptions of victims of sextortion (the abuse of power to obtain sexual benefits) by comparing participants from a culture of honor (Italy) and a culture of dignity (the U.K.) and by measuring individual-level honor endorsement. A sample of 452 participants were asked to read a fictitious scenario describing a woman target of sextortion. The research employed a 2 × 2 between-participants design: The victim was described either as caving into sextortion for familial reasons (i.e., for her sick child) versus for personal reasons and as exhibiting high versus low levels of sexual modesty. The results revealed that overall Italian participants felt stronger moral outrage towards the victim, perceived her as less moral, and attributed more blame to her than did British participants. Additionally, when the victim was described as caving into sextortion for personal reasons, both groups rated her as less moral compared to when she was described as doing so for familial reasons. Furthermore, participants found the victim marginally more blameworthy when she was described as adhering closely to feminine honor values. An exploratory moderation analysis indicated that stronger endorsement of feminine and family honor values was associated with increased blame towards the victim; these associations were more pronounced in the Italian than in the British sample. These findings underscore the potential role of cultural factors in the perception of sextortion victims and highlight the importance of developing culturally tailored awareness strategies to address victim blaming, especially in honor-oriented societies.

We tested links between social status and emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) with participants from a diverse array of cultures and a new model and method of ERA, the Assessment of Contextualized Emotion (ACE), which incorporates social context and is linked to different types of social interaction across cultures. Participants from the Czech Republic (Study 1) and from 12 cultural groups in Europe, North America, and Asia (Study 2) completed a short version of the ACE, a self-construal scale, and the MacArthur Subjective Social Status (SSS) scale. In both studies, higher SSS was associated with more accuracy. In Study 2, this relationship was mediated by higher independent self-construal and moderated by countries' long-term orientation and relational mobility. The findings suggest that the positive association between higher social class and emotion recognition accuracy is due to the use of agentic modes of socio-cognitive reasoning by higher status individuals. This raises new questions regarding the socio-cultural ecologies that afford this relationship.

Effectively addressing societal challenges often requires unrelated individuals to reduce conflict and successfully coordinate actions. The cultural logic of 'honour' is frequently studied in relation to conflict, but its role in competition and cooperation remains underexplored. The current study investigates how perceived normative and personally endorsed honour values predict competition and cooperation behaviours. In an online experiment testing preregistered hypotheses, 3,371 participants from 13 societies made incentivized competition decisions in a contest game and cooperation decisions for coordination in a step-level public goods game. Perceived normative honour values were associated with greater competition and greater cooperation at both societal and individual levels. Personally endorsing values tied to defence of family reputation was associated with greater coordinative efforts, whereas endorsing self-promotion and retaliation was associated with weaker engagement in coordination. These findings highlight the role of honour as a cultural logic (in its different forms) in shaping competition and cooperation across societies.

Individuals who endorse honor are more prone to react aggressively, both with their partners and in cyber-psychological contexts. However, anticipated feelings previous to the response may influence their reaction. Thus, the role that emotions may have in the way partners in a couple react is an indicator of how they will react in the future. To address this study questions, the present research focuses on the role of two emotions scarcely studied (guilt and frustration) to test whether they mediate the relationship between honor endorsement and aggressive responses in an online context (perpetration and victimization). A sample of 1.173 young people (430 men, 743 women; 15-22 years old) were recruited in secondary schools and universities. To participate, they had to volunteer and had been in a relationship for at least one month in the last year. Once consented, participants provided information about demographic variables and their couple relationships and completed measures about cyber-abuse, feeling guilt, frustration tolerance and honor endorsement. We tested the culture of honor invariance according to sex, and age (adolescents/young adults). Results indicated that invariance can be assumed in the case of age, that means that for adolescents and young adults the responses were comparable. But this was not the case as a function of participant sex. Thus, subsequent analyses were run by considering men and women separately. Path analyses showed that honor endorsement was directly and indirectly (through frustration and guilt) associated with the perpetration of direct cyberaggression and cybercontrol of the partner. However, whilst frustration tolerance strengthened this association, guilt reduced it. These results are important as they contribute to acknowledging how emotions are a key to understanding the underlying processes in interpersonal (violent) relations, to our understanding of the role of emotions in cyber-aggression patterns, and thus, orient future interventions.

Scholars have been working through multiple avenues to address longstanding and entrenched patterns of global and racial exclusion in psychology and academia more generally. As part of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s efforts to enhance inclusive excellence in its journals, the Anti Colorism/Eurocentrism in Methods and Practices (ACEMAP) task force worked to develop recommendations and resources to counteract racism and global exclusion in standard publication practices. In this paper, the task force describes a structure and process we developed for conducting committee work that centers marginalized perspectives while mitigating cultural taxation. We then describe our recommendations and openly accessible resources (e.g., resources for inclusive reviewing practices, writing about constraints on generalizability, drafting a globally inclusive demographic information survey, inclusive citation practices, and improving representation among editorial gatekeeping positions; recommendations and resource links are provided in Table 3). These recommendations and resources are both (a) tailored for a particular set of journals at a particular time and (b) useful as a foundation that can be continually adapted and improved for other journals and going forward. This paper provides concrete plans for readers looking to enhance inclusive excellence in their committee work, authorship, reviewing, and/or editing.

This research addresses the important issue of the connection between corruption and gender-based violence, an area that has gained increasing attention in recent years. It provides a new perspective by comparing the perception of victims of monetary corruption versus sexual corruption. Through an experimental study, we exposed participants to a fictitious scenario in which they witnessed an event of sex-based (vs. money-based) extortion. The results showed that the victims’ decision to cave into the extortion (both money or sex-based) led to higher feelings of moral outrage and blame toward them, and a weaker moral perception. Moreover, victims were considered less moral and more prone to reputational damage when described as caving into sex-based (vs. money-based) extortion. Finally, a moderated mediation model showed that the reputational damage suffered by the woman also significantly mediated the relation between the decision to cave into the extortion and the helping intentions toward her, but only when the corruption involved sexual payment. These findings provide insights into the perception of victims of both money-based and sex-based extortion, highlighting the significant role of reputational damage and stigma in the context of sextortion.

How can psychology transform itself into an inclusive science that engages with the rich cultural diversity of humanity? How can we strive towards a broader and deeper understanding of human behavior that is both generalizable across populations and attentive to its diversity? To address these major questions of our field, relying on scholars from different world regions, we outline first the opportunities associated with conducting psychological research in these and other majority world regions, highlighting international collaborations. Cross-cutting research themes in psychological research in the majority world are presented along with the urgent need to adopt a more critical lens to research and knowledge production within psychology. Indigenization, critical, transformative and liberatory approaches to understanding psychological phenomena framed within the decolonial imperative are presented as future options for a more diverse and equitable psychological science. Next, we address challenges, including limited institutional research infrastructure, limited national investment in research, political and social challenges these regions face, and the impact of imported (rather than locally produced) psychological knowledge. We conclude by offering recommendations to enable psychological science to be more representative of the world's population. Our aim is to facilitate a broader, better-informed, and more empathic conversation among psychological scientists worldwide about ways to make psychological science more representative, culturally informed and inclusive.

Sextortion is a scantly investigated crime in which entrusted authority is abused to obtain sex in exchange for a service or benefit. Based on the literature on gender violence, in the present research, we examined the role of moral evaluations of the victims in predicting potential bystanders' attitudes and behavioural intentions towards a woman who is a victim of a sextortion incident. In three experimental studies conducted with Italian participants (Study 1: n = 291; Study 2: n = 288; Study 3: n = 331), participants read a scenario describing a woman victim of sextortion and then rated the victim on moral outrage, moral evaluation, blame attribution, perceived reputational damage, and indicated their willingness to help her. The results highlighted that the victim was always perceived as less moral and more blameworthy when she caved into sextortion (vs. not). Furthermore, a sequential mediation model showed that, across all studies, caving into (vs. resisting) sextortion elicited stronger feelings of moral outrage towards the victim, as well as the perception of lower morality, which, in turn, reduced the willingness to offer help. In Study 3, this pattern was significant only when the woman reported the incident 1 year later (vs. 1 week). Current findings show that the peculiar transactional nature of sexual abuse makes sextortion victims appear to be complicit in the act. Thus, recognising the power dynamics through which sextortion can be used to exploit and abuse individuals is paramount to avoid secondary victimisation.