Relational Compartmentalization: How Culture Keeps Our Social Worlds Apart

to examine this phenomenon at the level of individual behavior through a cultural-psychological lens. Across two studies, we investigated relational compartmentalization using a mixed-methods approach and complementary measures: a novel behavioral paradigm and egocentric social network analysis. We found evidence that, compared to Euro-Americans, Chinese and Asian American participants exhibited a greater tendency to compartmentalize their social networks, mediated by self-consistency and relational mobility, but not by contextualism. In cultural contexts characterized by greater self-concept variability and lower relational fluidity, individuals are more likely to organize their social networks into discrete, self-contained, non-overlapping groups. These findings advance the understanding of cultural models of social networks, highlighting the roles of culturally salient psychological and socioecological characteristics in shaping networking behavior.