Underestimated Appreciation in Reaching Out: the Impact of Motivation Types

This research aims to replicate and extend a prior study—conducted with U.S. and U.K. participants—that found initiators of proactive contact systematically underestimate responders’ appreciation, by examining the phenomenon in a Chinese cultural context. Guided by the finding that collectivistic cultures (e.g., China) prioritize situational over dispositional attribution (Morris & Peng, 1994), we hypothesize cultural differences in the effect: Chinese individuals may attend more to the initiator’s motivation (communal vs. exchange) and associated relationship expectations when receiving proactive contact, which could modulate appreciation. Addressing the original study’s unstandardized control of relationship closeness and limited treatment of temporal distance, we use the IOS scale to quantify weak ties and include temporal distance as a covariate. Employing a 2 (role: initiator vs. responder) × 2 (motivation: communal vs. exchange) between-subjects design with 150 Chinese participants (recruited via Credamo), we expect a significant interaction effect: the appreciation underestimation effect will be stronger under communal motivation (initiators’ expected appreciation < responders’ actual appreciation) and weaker under exchange motivation, with temporal distance exerting no interfering effect on the core relationship.