Why are politically active people avoided in countries with collectivistic cultures? A cross-cultural experiment in nine countries/regions

Although most democratic theories assume that political participation other than voting constitutes an essential input to the political process, little is known about the cultural universality of this assumption. Drawing on cultural psychology findings derived from the widely shared framework of collectivism vs. individualism, the present study tests the hypothesis that political demonstrators in collectivistic countries are socially avoided because they are perceived to be a threat to harmonious interpersonal relationships. A cross-national experiment indicated that political demonstrators are significantly avoided in collectivistic countries such as Japan and China, whereas this tendency was not observed in the Western democracies. Moderated-mediation analyses with a placebo test suggested that the social avoidance of political demonstrators in collectivistic countries is mediated by the perception that they are a threat to harmonious interpersonal relationships. The cross-cultural validity of democratic theory is discussed.