Impression management in survey responding: Easier for collectivists or individualists?

Three experiments indicate that collectivistic people (or those who come from Eastern cultures) have an easier time giving appropriate answers on surveys than do individualists (or those who come from Western cultures). This means that it is easier to disrupt the efforts of individualists to give appropriate responses. The research highlights how cultural factors influence survey response processes, and that individualists and collectivists engage in impression management through different psychological mechanisms. This has implications for marketing, advertising, and consumer choice.