What Do Words Say about Us: Cultural Differences in Person Descriptions and Inferences

What Do Words Say about Us: Cultural Differences in Person Descriptions and Inferences | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article What Do Words Say about Us: Cultural Differences in Person Descriptions and Inferences Eun Ju Son, Cherie Zhou, Baorui Chang, Xinqiang Wang, Alicia Mora, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9305810/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The present research investigates cultural variations in how individuals perceive and infer others in relationships. Across three studies, we compared Chinese and Euro-Canadian participants’ descriptions and judgements of close friends and acquaintances. In Study 1, when describing others, Chinese participants used more semantically dissimilar descriptions for close friends than for acquaintances, whereas Euro-Canadians showed no difference across the targets. In Studies 2 and 3, participants judged whether the description of a given person was written by a close friend or an acquaintance. Chinese participants were more likely to infer relational closeness from dissimilar descriptions, whereas Euro-Canadians were more likely to infer closeness from similar descriptions. These findings suggest that culture plays a significant role in how people describe and perceive relationships, highlighting the importance of considering cultural context in understanding interpersonal relationships and social perception. Person Perception Social Inference Cultural Difference Social Relationship Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files studymaterialsstudy13.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 15 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 04 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 01 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 30 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 17 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 13 Apr, 2026 Editor invited by journal 10 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 08 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 08 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9305810","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":627953666,"identity":"8a86ed85-445e-49dd-bcf3-2b597208877c","order_by":0,"name":"Eun Ju Son","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Queen's University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Eun","middleName":"Ju","lastName":"Son","suffix":""},{"id":627953667,"identity":"19fbdbc9-2573-4a31-9a66-1b3d709cfb17","order_by":1,"name":"Cherie Zhou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Queen's 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