The Influence of Cultural Individualism-Collectivism, Self Construals, and Individual Values on Communication Styles Across Cultures

TLDR

Individualism‑collectivism directly and indirectly (via self‑construals and values) shapes communication styles. The study hypothesizes that cultural individualism‑collectivism, self‑construals, and values independently influence low‑ and high‑context communication styles. Results show that independent self‑construals and individualistic values mediate the effect of cultural individualism‑collectivism on low‑context communication, while interdependent self‑construals and collectivistic values mediate its effect on high‑context communication, and overall individual‑level factors are stronger predictors than cultural individualism‑collectivism.

Abstract

Individualism-collectivism has a direct effect on communication styles and an indirect effect that is mediated through self construals and values. It was hypothesized that cultural individualism-collectivism, self construals, and values would have separate effects on individuals’use of low- and high-context communication styles. As predicted, the results of this study suggest that independent self construals and individualistic values mediate the influence of cultural individualism-collectivism on the use of low-context communication, and interdependent self construals and collectivistic values mediate the influence of cultural individualism-collectivism on the use of high-context communication. The patterns for cultural individualism-collectivism were not as clear-cut. The findings suggest that individual level factors (i.e., self construals and values) are better predictors of low- and high-context communication styles across cultures than cultural individualism-collectivism.