This national survey tracks changes in Singaporeans' attitudes toward lesbians and gay men (ATLG) and examines value predispositions, interpersonal contact, and mediated exposure as predictors of ATLG and acceptance of homosexuals. The study replicates and extends research done previously and addresses temporal shifts in values and views. Findings indicate that the relatively small positive change in ATLG from 2005 to 2010 was mainly due to values and demographic factors. The addition of several new predictive variables increased the variance explained for why people hold certain ATLG and their acceptance. Conformity to norms, intrinsic religiosity, Western orientation, interpersonal contact, and mediated exposure were significantly associated with both ATLG and acceptance of homosexuals. Perception of homosexuality as a choice was significantly associated with ATLG but not with acceptance of homosexuals. Asian orientation and extrinsic religiosity showed no significant association with either dependent variable. The findings are discussed in the context of a multicultural Asian society and future directions for research.

We examined how immigrants' acculturation style (multiculturalism versus assimilation) affects the host society's willingness to help immigrants. The results from this experiment supported our expectations in showing that multiculturalism triggered less immigrant helping than assimilation, but only among high national identifiers. In addition, immigrants pursuing multiculturalism were perceived as less warm than those pursuing assimilation, and perceived warmth mediated the interaction effect of identification and acculturation style on helping. Whereas help could improve immigrants' integration into the host society and reduce the degree to which the latter views immigrants as threatening, these results ironically demonstrate that immigrants who are viewed as most threatening receive the least amount of help.

The purpose of the current study is to examine the cross-level three-way interactions among individual trait positive affect (PA), group trait PA, and group PA diversity on individual work outcomes. Drawing on situation strength theory, we hypothesized that the relationship of individual trait PA with work outcomes depends on the strength of a group's affective contexts including group trait PA and PA diversity. The hierarchical linear modelling results for 261 employees in 42 South Korean organizational teams showed that individuals' trait PA was positively associated with their team commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The findings also demonstrated that individual trait PA had the strongest relationship with team commitment when group trait PA was low and PA diversity was high simultaneously. In addition, the relationship between individual trait PA and OCB was found to be stronger for affectively diverse groups than for homogeneous groups.

Although somatization is common across cultures, its meanings may differ as culture shapes emotional experience. Thus, instead of treating somatization as a form of psychopathology, it is more useful to conceptualize it as an idiom of distress, and how complaints of somatic symptoms are related to social relationships, patterns of emotional expression and symptom attribution in a cultural context. This study seeks to explore whether ambivalence over emotional expression and causal attribution would shed light on the meanings of somatization among Asian adolescents. Three hundred secondary school adolescents in Singapore participated in this study. The main results show that emotional ambivalence, biomedical and Traditional Chinese Medicinal causal beliefs, and magical attribution contributed to additional variance in somatic symptoms over and above the variance explained by emotional distress. These findings are discussed from both psychological and cultural perspectives.

Researchers have suggested that self-efficacy can predict and prevent depression, while negative coping strategies, as typified by rumination, can lead to depression. The authors examined the relationship between self-efficacy, rumination, and depression in Japanese nursing students. The result of a structural equation model showed that rumination, but not self-efficacy, predicted depression. The result of simultaneous multiple group analysis indicated that there was homogeneity within the same path diagram between genders. The result implied that stress management should focus on controlling the degree of rumination rather than self-efficacy in order to efficiently maintain the mental health of Japanese nursing students.

While Islamist forms of terrorism have received a great deal of attention from scholars, insider accounts by indigenous scholars are still under-represented. This Special Issue of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology brings together three articles on religious terrorism and sacred violence in Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic state. They bring together qualitative methods, including interviews with terrorist members of KOMPAK and Jemaah Islamiyah (including the Bali Bombers), with quantitative methods using structural equation modelling to explain a national representative sample's attitudes towards sacred violence. The articles converge towards an indigenous theory of Islamist terrorism for Indonesia involving three steps: (i) existential threat (triggered by violence inflicted on Muslims, nationally or internationally, and perceptions of the impurity of the secular Indonesian government), (ii) self-categorization of the world into infidels and believers (thus arguing that the current situation is a state of war where violence against non-combatants is justified), and (iii) jihadi ideology as the trigger for turning existential threat into religious violence. It is the interpretation of scripture offered by trusted leaders, often reinforced by oaths of obedience, rather than scripture itself that fuels the indigenous psychology of violent (lesser) jihad presented here.

This study aims to understand the fundamental concepts and reasons behind the emergence of religious terror activities in Indonesia, providing an ‘insider’ rather than an ‘outsider’ view. Data were collected from a total of 40 religious terror activists in Indonesia using a set of focused group discussions and interviews. The reasons they provided for their terror activities were as follows: (1) Indonesia is seen as being in a state of war (thus justifying a defensive attack); (2) Suicide bombing is believed to be noble; (3) The West (as a whole) is targeted as it is considered the invader of Muslim countries and a representative of evil; the Indonesian government is viewed as its corrupt ally.

Leaders figure significantly in radicalization processes that can ultimately lead to terrorism. This article attempts to explain radicalization as a process of interaction between leaders and their followers. We argue that the process of radicalization includes five stages: pre-radicalization, self-identification, indoctrination, commitment, and jihad ideologization. In the case of the Bali bombers, the process was strengthened by external environmental conditions that enabled leaders to gain broad support from the community. In our analysis we rely on a combination of interviews with convicted terrorists and previously unexamined documentary evidence.

Many factors have been used to explain sacred violence. Regardless of the abundance of theories, two issues have emerged: lack of national-level evidence and lack of attention to the justification factor for the violence. We argue that belief in violent jihad serves as justification for sacred violence, and conducted two studies to address the issues. The first study provides narratives on violence justification. The second quantitatively tests the mediating role of belief in violent jihad on sacred violence. It was found that only violent jihad, but not religiosity, fundamentalism, support for Islamic law, or perceptions of unfairness predicted sacred violence.

The three articles in this special section of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology illuminate several aspects of the psychology of Islamist Indonesian terrorists. This analysis partitions these into the contents (the what) of the terrorists' belief system, the motivational underpinnings (the why) of these beliefs, and the social process (the how), whereby motivational concerns are translated into ideological beliefs that, under conditions of utter commitment to ideological dictates, foster violent action. This discussion addresses the universal process of radicalization exemplified in the Indonesian case, and the unique ways in which it is manifested in this particular context.

We critically examine the three papers on terrorism and jihad in Indonesia contained in this issue. First, we argue that thorough discussion and definition of key terms (including religious violence and jihad) would have led to a much stronger framework for understanding the voices of the activists and their supporters. Second, the authors could have engaged more systematically with the international literature on intergroup relations and conflict to discuss how psychological and social processes of radicalization are similar or different in the Indonesian context. Third, we highlight methodological and ethical shortcomings in the three papers that call into question a number of the conclusions drawn by the authors. We outline future research questions and provide suggestions to strengthen this important line of research.

This review highlights studies examining cultural differences in the mode of thought. The theoretical framework of studies from a cross-cultural perspective suggests that views of self, social norms, communication practices, and modes of thought are interconnected. The independent view of self, dominant in Western cultures, promotes low-contextual communication and corresponds to an analytic and logical mode of thought. On the other hand, the interdependent view of self, dominant in East Asian cultures, promotes high-contextual communication and corresponds to a holistic and dialectical mode of thought. The expected cultural variations of the mode of thought have been supported by empirical findings regarding causal attribution, attention, reasoning, categorization, and comprehension of utterances. Moreover, it has become clear that cultural knowledge of ideas and beliefs, which are activated by linguistic symbols and icons, guides the corresponding psychological tendencies including analytic and holistic modes of thought. Furthermore, studies of cultural neuroscience have shown cultural differences in behavioural as well as neural responses. A growing body of research supports cultural differences in the mode of thought; however, there is still much room for this research area to progress. Future directions suggesting further investigations in relation to socialization, cultural products, and gene–culture interaction are discussed.

This study used the ‘Settoku Nattoku Game’ (SNG) to examine the effect of general trust on the formation of new relationships after social exclusion. The SNG is a game in which half of the players (the Persuaders) must try to convince the other half (the Persuaded) that a statement is true during an initial session (S1). The two groups then switch roles in a second session (S2). Following the SNG protocol, our dependent variable was the number of people sought out as interaction partners during S2. The frequency of being selected as an interaction partner by others during S1 (i.e. having experienced social exclusion or inclusion) significantly affected the number of interaction partners selected during S2. Those who were excluded during S1 engaged in fewer interactions with others during S2. However, this negative effect of social exclusion on subsequent interactions was moderated by general trust. After social exclusion, people low in general trust interacted less with others during S2 as compared to those who were included, but there was no such relationship for people high in general trust. On the contrary, socially excluded individuals high in general trust actively sought to build new relationships with those whom they did not interact with during S1. The relationship between general trust and interactions with others after a social exclusion experience is further discussed.

We argue that the current concept of interdependent self-construal as ‘harmony seeking’ has overlooked a strategic aspect of interdependence, which we term ‘rejection avoidance’. Using newly constructed scales of interdependent self-construal, one for harmony seeking and one for rejection avoidance, we find that Japanese respondents showed lower independence and higher rejection avoidance than Americans, while no cultural difference was found in harmony seeking. These findings explain why past efforts to demonstrate cultural differences in interdependent self-construal using self-report measures exclusively focusing on the harmony seeking aspect have failed.

The study examined the relationships between out-group perception, perceived intergroup conflict, emotions, and concern for out-group victims in the context of the Japanese earthquake of 2011. Six hundred and eighty-six participants in China completed a questionnaire immediately after the earthquake. Results showed that the image of Japan and historical conflicts between the two nations significantly predicted intergroup emotions. A positive image of Japan enhanced Chinese respondents' perceived competence of the Japanese people, which, however, appeared to mitigate concern for the victims. Positive emotions increased participants' concern for Japanese victims. Implications of the research findings are discussed with reference to research on intergroup relations and help following disasters.

This essay addresses the question of how best to do culturally sensitive research on social processes. This research aims to assess models for individual outcomes that hold across cultural groups but are moderated by cultural factors. Such research requires that social scientists identify and metricize cultural factors, like socialization goals, that have a face-valid connection to these social processes. Relevant indigenous constructs need to be operationalized and included in our models to ensure their widest possible applicability. I argue that well-being is a pan-culturally relevant and important outcome of scientific interest in any cultural context. Conflating its study with that of happiness is confusing, however, since happiness is a separate individual outcome and but one component of a satisfying life. Other components of the good life, like doing one's duty, may be introduced and incorporated into a general equation with other such concepts to assess their validity in predicting well-being. Culturally salient concepts of indigenous origin may thereby be introduced into a multicultural scientific discourse and the distinctiveness of any particular cultural system for its members depicted by the profile of beta weights attached to the constructs in the pan-cultural equation predicting well-being.