Self-construal refers to how individuals define the self as independent from others or interdependent with others, and has been shown to affect several domain of social cognition, affect and behavior. Indeed, interdependent self construal seems to promote pro-social behavior, possibly by increasing similarity in self-other processing and it is associated with increased concern with collective outcomes. Here, we aim to explore how self-construal shape perception and behavior in interpersonal and collective (societal) contexts. At the interpersonal level, we aim to investigate whether: 1) the tendency to define the self as independent might result in lower propensity to trust others; 2) this relationship may be moderated by the experience of self-other merging resulting from a novel procedure (IMS) able to blur the distinction between self and other; and 3) manipulating self construal may causally affect this relationship. At the societal level, we aim to test whether measured and induced Interdependent self-construal could promote tax compliance through three potential mediators: tax morale, trust, and self-regulation.
By combining the expertise of social psychologists and neuroscientists skilled to the study of economic psychology, social decision making, plasticity of self and other representations, we believe the present project may contribute to the progress of the state of the art in several ways. First, counteracting the detrimental effect of independent self construal on interpersonal trust by means of simple experimental manipulation (IMS) might provide a groundbreaking methodology to affect and improve social relationship. Then, by showing the effect of situationally induced interdependent self on trust and tax compliance (and the factors mediating these effects), it will be possible to develop and test applied strategies in all the contexts in which interpersonal trust and willingness to contribute to a collective good is needed.
