What Are Friends for in Russia Versus Canada

An Approach for Documenting Cross-Cultural Differences

Bibliographic Data

ID7276583
AuthorsM M Doucerain (0000-0003-0479-6141, Université du Québec à Montréal, corresponding author), Andrew G Ryder (0000-0003-3041-7168, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada), Catherine E Amiot (0000-0001-9774-4804, Université du Québec à Montréal)
Year2021
Volume55
Issue4
Pages382-409
Publication date2021-06-16
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCross-Cultural Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1069-3971 • E-ISSN: 1552-3578
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/10693971211024599
OpenAlexW3171580706
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited56

Most research on friendship has been grounded in Western cultural worlds, a bias that needs to be addressed. To that end, we propose a methodological roadmap to translate linguistic/anthropological work into quantitative psychological cross-cultural investigations of friendship, and showcase its implementation in Russia and Canada. Adopting an intersubjective perspective on culture, we assessed cultural models of friendship in three inter-related ways: by (1) deriving people’s mental maps of close interpersonal relationships; (2) examining the factor structure of friendship; and (3) predicting cultural group membership from a given person’s friendship model. Two studies of Russians (Study 1, n = 89; Study 2a, n = 195; Study 2b, n = 232) and Canadians (Study 1, n = 89; Study 2a, n = 164; Study 2b, n = 199) implemented this approach. The notions of trust and help in adversity emerged as defining features of friendship in Russia but were less clearly present in Canada. Different friendship models seem to be prevalent in these two cultural worlds. The roadmap described in the current research documents these varying intersubjective representations, showcasing an approach that is portable across contexts (rather than limited to a specific cross-cultural contrast) and relies on well-established methods (i.e., easily accessible in many research contexts

Cross-cultural · Cultural diversity · Friendship · Interpersonal communication · Interpersonal relationship · Perspective (graphical · Sociology · Anthropology · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · Cultural Differences and Values · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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Open DOIOpen Access