Relational Mobility is Associated with Generalized Trust but not Intimacy: A Survey of Individuals from the U.S. and Japan

Relational mobility, the degree of opportunity to form new relationships in a particular environment, explains cultural differences in interpersonal behavior. Theoretically, relational mobility is thought to be related to the contrasting tendencies in social networks: expansion of relationships (i.e., trust) and commitment to existing relationships (i.e., intimacy). This study reexamined whether perceived relational mobility is associated with the formation and maintenance of social networks. We conducted a cross-cultural survey and investigated the correlations between generalized trust, intimacy with friends, self-disclosure, and the number of social networks with the data of 297 American and 292 Japanese people. Consistent with previous studies, this study found that Americans are more likely than Japanese to trust strangers, feel intimate with and disclose themselves to their closest friends, and have more relationships. Relational mobility explained the cultural difference in generalized trust but not in intimacy with friends when controlling for individual characteristics, such as personality traits. Generalized trust was associated with a greater number of people to seek advice from, and a greater number of advice networks was correlated with higher levels of subjective well-being. The results suggest that relational mobility is associated with psychology related to expanding networks, rather than strengthening existing relationships.