Cross-cultural Differences in Couples’ Sharing of Good News

Research suggests that partners’ reactions to the sharing of good news, or capitalization, is important for the romantic relationship. For example, perceiving partners as responding in an active-constructive manner enhances relationship quality and longevity; perceiving passive-constructive, active-destructive, and passive-destructive responses is related to worse relational outcomes (Gable, Gonzaga & Strachman, 2006). Moreover, perceived partner responsiveness (PPR), which captures listeners’ appreciation and understanding, is revealed to mediate the relation between perceived active-constructive responses and relationship outcomes (Gable, Reis, Impett & Asher, 2004).

While active-constructive responding has been suggested as the only positive variant of capitalization responses, past studies have examined predominantly US samples, with few studies investigating cross-cultural variations. In fact, when compared to European Americans, Easterners’ preference for indirect communication (Yum, 1988) may increase desirability for passive-constructive responses and differentially impact the romantic relationship. Thus, we sought to examine the cultural invariance of the capitalization model based on a sample of European Americans, South Asians and East Asians (total N = 455).

Results showed that active-constructive responses were associated with greater relationship satisfaction across cultures, through the mediation of greater PPR, F(8,325) = 17.60, p < .001. However, when we substituted the predictor with perceived passive-constructive capitalization, culture was found to be a moderator, such that PPR was a negative mediator in the European American sample, a positive mediator in South Asians, but revealed no difference in the East Asian sample, F(8, 325) = 3.55, p < .001. Our findings highlight passive-constructive responses to be beneficial depending on the cultural context.