ACCURACY AND CONFIDENCE ON THE INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION TASK: A JAPANESE-AMERICAN COMPARISON

Yuichi Iizuka, Miles L. Patterson, and James C. Matchen

ABSTRACT: This study compared the accuracy and confidence of Japanese and American participants on the Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT-15). The IPT contains 15 brief, real-life scenes on videotape for which there are objectively correct answers about relationships and deception. A total of 344 participants were run in a 2 (Japanese vs. American participants) 2 (Audiovisual vs. Visual-Only presentation) 2 (Sex of participant) design. Support was found for the hypothesized greater accuracy of Americans over Japanese, but a Culture Presentation Modality interaction qualified the main effect of culture. Specifically, Japanese and American participants had virtually identical scores on the IPT-15 in the Visual-Only condition, but Americans scores increased while Japanese scores decreased in the Audiovisual condition. Analyses of the confidence measures indicated that American participants were much more confident than the Japanese participants, but this difference was larger in the Audiovisual condition than in the Visual-Only condition. In addition, the prediction that women would be more accurate on the IPT, but still report lower confidence than men, was also supported. Finally, Japanese participants with moderate proficiency in spoken English were more accurate on the IPT than those with low English proficiency. The likely processes underlying these differences and the possible directions for future research are discussed. KEY WORDS: confidence; culture; person perception.

How we form impressions of other people has long been an important issue in social psychology. Early attribution theories assumed that perceivers were information processors who assimilated input and logically applied rules of inference (e.g., Heider, 1958; Jones & Davis, 1965). Thus, according to this perspective, the deliberate and controlled judgments made
Yuichi Iizuka, Shimane Nursing College. Miles L. Patterson and James C. Matchen, University of Missouri St. Louis. The first and second authors contributed equally to the completion of this project. Address correspondence regarding to Yuichi Iizuka, Shimane Nursing College, 151 Nishihayashigi-cho, Izumo, Shimane 693-8550, Japan; e-mail: iizukashimane-nc.ac.jp; or to Miles L. Patterson, Department of Psychology, University of Missouri St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63121-4499; e-mail: miles pattersonumsl.edu.
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 26(3), Fall 2002 2002 Human Sciences Press, Inc.

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by perceivers were time consuming and effortful. In recent years, however, a growing body of research indicates that a wide range of judgments are typically automatic in nature and outside of awareness (Bargh, 1994; Bargh & Chartrand, 1999; Smith, 1990; Zebrowitz & Collins, 1997). In fact, accurate judgments of others are possible after seeing slices of behavior lasting only a few seconds (Ambady, Bernieri, & Richeson, 2000; Ambady & Rosenthal, 1992). If such rapid judgments typically do determine the course of person perception, this is possible only because there is adequate, reliable information about individuals in their appearance and nonverbal behavior. Although there are different ways of studying person perception accuracy from appearance and nonverbal behavior, one particularly useful method is the Interpersonal Perception Task (Costanzo & Archer, 1989). The original Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT) consists of 30 videotaped scenes about which participants have to answer interpretive questions, such as, who won the tennis match the two men are talking about or what is the relationship between the two people in the scene. Because these are real life scenes, there are objectively correct answers about the people in the scenes. Transparent verbal clues are edited out of the scenes so that perceivers have to rely primarily on the nonverbal and vocal cues of the people in the scenes. In recent years, a number of studies have examined factors that affect accuracy and confidence on the IPT. As might be expected, an audiovisual presentation of the IPT resulted in higher accuracy than a visual-only presentation (Patterson & Stockbridge, 1998; Smith, Archer, & Costanzo, 1991). Nevertheless, because participants in the visual-only condition had higher than chance levels of accuracy, appearance and behavioral cues still provided valid information about the people in the scenes. Several studies have examined sex differences in accuracy and confidence on the IPT. The results of two studies indicated that women were significantly more accurate than men (Costanzo & Archer, 1989; Smith, Archer, & Costanzo, 1991). Nevertheless, men reported significantly higher levels of confidence in their answers. In two more recent studies, however, no differences were found in accuracy between men and women on the IPT (Patterson, Foster, & Bellmer, 2001; Patterson & Stockbridge, 1998).

Culture and Judgment Accuracy Although there is no research that explicitly examines the effect of culture on IPT accuracy, there is extensive work on culture and other kinds of

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social judgments. For example, the role of culture has been especially important in research on facial expression and emotion. Although there is clearly some similarity in the way that people from different cultures identify facial expressions of basic emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust), the extent of communality is a matter of considerable debate (see Ekman, 1994; Izard, 1994; Russell, 1994, 1995). Even though this issue might be framed as one of accuracy in the judgment of emotional expressions, the methodology commonly used in this research identifying emotions from highly expressive still photographsis not representative of what typically happens in making social judgments. That is, in social settings, we make judgments of people from a sample of their behavior over a slice of time. Unfortunately, there seems to be relatively little research examining cultural differences in judgment accuracy based on such samples of social behavior. There are some cross-cultural data on the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (PONS), a videotape test of sensitivity to nonverbal behavior contained in the face, body, and tone of voice (Rosenthal, Hall, Archer, DiMatteo, & Rogers, 1979). The scenes on the PONS, averaging approximately two seconds each, consisted of a twenty -four year old Caucasian female from the northeastern United States enacting a wide range of scenes depicting specific emotions and social situations. Comparisons among participants from the United States and from twenty other nations indicated that cultures rated as most similar to that of the United States were more accurate in their judgments than were those that were less similar, r .70 (Rosenthal et al., 1979). In another study, Greek and American participants viewed videotaped interactions and judged the interactants level of rapport (Bernieri & Gillis, 1995). The results showed that the average correlation between interactants self-reported rapport and observers judgments was approximately r .20 for both Greek and American participants (Bernieri & Gillis, 1995). Although both Greeks and Americans apparently focused on some behaviors that were valid indicators of rapport in the interactions, they also relied on other behaviors, such as smiling and expressiveness, that were not valid indicators of rapport. In a study of deception, American and Jordanian participants judged the truthfulness of videotaped statements made by both American and Jordanian targets. Although Americans and Jordanians were slightly better than chance in discriminating the truth from lies in targets from their own cultures (approximately 55% accuracy), both groups were at chance levels in discriminating the truth from lies in targets from the other culture (Bond, Omar, Mahmoud, & Bonser, 1990). Thus, withinculture detection was better than cross-culture detection.

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The Present Study Because there are no published accounts of using the IPT on groups outside of the United States, we were interested in testing people in a nonWestern culture where English was not commonly spoken. We were also interested in further examining the effect of participants sex on both accuracy and confidence in another culture. In particular, we examined the accuracy and confidence of Japanese and American participants who viewed the IPT either with or without the accompanying audio track. That is, there were two presentation modes: Audiovisual and Visual-Only. In this study, the IPT-15 (Costanzo & Archer, 1993), a shortened version of the original IPT-30, was used. Because the Japanese participants saw interactions involving North Americans speaking English, it was not clear how much they could understand and correctly interpret. Although the languages and the cultures are different, it is also obvious that many Japanese have some exposure to American culture through television. In addition, there may be some universal patterns of interactive behavior that transcend cultural differences. Nevertheless, it was likely that the Japanese would be at a disadvantage in judging the scenes. Thus, our first hypothesis was that American participants would have higher accuracy and confidence on the IPT. The accuracy prediction is also consistent with the research on the PONS across a variety of different cultures (Rosenthal et al., 1979) and with the Bond et al. (1990) results showing better deception detection within than across cultures. Second, on the basis of results from two studies showing higher levels of accuracy on the IPT in the audiovisual mode than in the visualonly mode (Patterson & Stockbridge, 1998; Smith, Archer, & Costanzo, 1991), we hypothesized that both American and Japanese participants would be more accurate in the Audiovisual condition than in the VisualOnly condition. Although both the Americans and Japanese were predicted to be more accurate in the Audiovisual condition than in the Visual-Only condition, we also expected a larger effect of presentation modality for the American participants than for the Japanese participants because the individuals in the IPT spoke English and most of the Japanese participants were not very proficient in spoken English. Thus, the third hypothesis, a Culture Presentation Modality interaction effect, was based on the assumption that the American participants in the Audiovisual condition would benefit from both content and vocal information (e.g., loudness, tone of voice, and intonation), whereas the Japanese were likely to benefit only from the vocal cues. On the basis of earlier studies on the IPT (Costanzo & Archer, 1989; Patterson, Foster, & Bellmer, 2001; Smith, Archer, & Cos-

163 YUICHI IIZUKA, MILES L. PATTERSON, JAMES C. MATCHEN

tanzo, 1991) the fourth hypothesis predicted that, across cultures, women would have higher accuracy, but lower rated confidence, on the IPT. Finally, because we recruited Japanese participants with varying ability in spoken English, we hypothesized that those with greater English proficiency would have higher accuracy scores and greater rated confidence in their judgments. Method Design and Participants The study employed a 2 (Japanese and American participants) 2 (Audiovisual vs. Visual only presentation) 2 (Sex of participant) factorial design. A total of 344 students participated in the study. The 229 Japanese participants (116 females and 113 males) were recruited from several different junior colleges and universities in Okayama, Hiroshima, and Shimane in Japan. After eight participants were dropped due to incomplete responses, the remaining 221 Japanese participants included 113 females and 108 males. An attempt was made to recruit approximately equal numbers of Japanese participants with low-level ability and moderate-level ability in conversational English, as determined by their instructors. The Japanese participants were tested in their classrooms in groups ranging from 10 20 in number. The American participants (75 females and 40 males) were recruited from psychology classes at a midwestern urban university. Participants were run in small groups of seven or fewer in number and received extra credit points in their courses for being in the experiment. Procedure General. Participants were told that they would be seeing a videotape containing 15 different, brief scenes and their task was to make judgments about the people in the scenes. No additional description was given in the Audiovisual condition. In the Visual-Only condition, participants were told that they were going to see the video without sound. The Japanese participants were instructed in Japanese and told that the people in the video would be speaking English. Interpersonal perception task. The IPT-15 is a 20-minute videotape that shows 15 naturalistic scenes, with one to four individuals in each scene. The scenes last from 28 to 122 seconds in length and, for each

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scene, there is an objectively correct answer to a question about the people in the scene. For example, one scene shows a short interaction between two people and then the viewer is asked to judge which of the two people is the boss. The scenes were edited so that they contained no obvious verbal information for answering the questions about the scenes. Five different types of scenes are sampled, including kinship, intimacy, deception, competition, and status, with three scenes in each area. Participants chose from two or three alternatives for each scene on a standardized answer sheet. For the Japanese participants, the answer sheet was in Japanese. In an earlier study on over 240 American participants, Cronbachs alpha for the IPT-15 was only .14 (Patterson, Foster, & Bellmer, 2001). For the Japanese sample in the present study, Cronbachs alpha was only .17. Nevertheless, Hall and Carter (1999) noted that, in spite of the low internal consistency on the IPT, there is good evidence for the validity of the IPT (e.g., Ambady, Hallahan, & Rosenthal, 1995; Costanzo & Archer, 1989; Patterson & Stockbridge, 1998). In fact, Costanzo and Archer (1989) suggested that the internal consistency was relatively low because the IPT sampled a diverse range of scenes. Post-IPT measures. After completing the IPT, participants were asked to respond on a separate form in their native language to the following items: (1) how many questions out of 15 do you think you answered correctly?; (2) rated difficulty of the IPT; and (3) rated overall confidence in their answers.1 The last two ratings were all completed on 11-point rating scales. Japanese participants also rated their proficiency in spoken English on an 11-point rating scale as a manipulation check on their instructors classification of English proficiency. In fact, participants classified as having moderate proficiency (M 4.86) rated their English ability as significantly greater (t (219) 10.29, p .001, r .57) than did participants classified as having low proficiency (M 2.40). After all of the ratings were completed, the Japanese participants were given an opportunity to write down any additional reactions to the study. Results Japanese-American Comparisons IPT accuracy. The average number correct for all participants was 8.49 items, which was significantly higher than the chance level of 6.33 items, t (335 19.70, p .001). A 2 (Culture) 2 (Presentation Modality) 2

165 YUICHI IIZUKA, MILES L. PATTERSON, JAMES C. MATCHEN

(Sex of Participant) factorial ANOVA was computed on participants scores on the IPT. A significant effect of Culture, F (1, 328) 16.65, p .001, r .22, provided support for the first hypothesis, with Americans (M 9.11) scoring higher than Japanese (M 8.17). The effect of Presentation Modality was not statistically significant, F (1, 328) 2.63, p .15, r .09 and although the difference between the Audiovisual (M 8.45) and Visual-Only (M 8.54) conditions was small, it was opposite the predicted direction. Next, the Culture Presentation Modality effect, F (1, 328) 21.51, p .001, r .25, did qualify the main effect of Culture, but not in the manner predicted by the third hypothesis. Specifically, tests of simple main effects indicated that American participants were significantly more accurate in the Audiovisual condition (M 9.78) than in the Visual-Only condition (M 8.52, t (113) 3.41, p .001, whereas Japanese participants were significantly less accurate in the Audiovisual condition (M 7.84) than in the Visual-Only condition (M 8.54), t (219) 2.77, p .01). Thus, contrary to our expectation, the Japanese participants were more accurate in the Visual-Only condition than in the Audiovisual condition. Support for the first part of the fourth hypothesis was manifested in a significant effect of Sex of Participant, F (1, 328) 6.00, p .02, r .13, with women (M 8.84) scoring higher than men (M 8.05). There were no other main or interaction effects of any of the factors on IPT accuracy. Confidence measures. First, correlations were computed between the post-IPT measures. The estimated number correct correlated positively with rated confidence, r (330) .70, and negatively with the rated difficulty of the IPT, r (330) .49. Rated confidence correlated negatively with rated difficulty, r (334) .51. Because these ratings were moderately to highly correlated, they were combined to form a single composite measure of confidence. Specifically, the individual measures were standardized and the mean of the three Z scores, with the difficulty rating negatively weighted, formed the new composite measure of confidence, with coefficient alpha .79. A 2 (Culture) 2 (Presentation Modality) 2 (Sex of Participant) ANOVA was computed on the confidence composite. First, there was a significant effect of Culture, F (1, 324) 68.56, p .001, r . 42, with Americans (M .48) more confident than the Japanese (M .24). Next, there was a significant effect of Sex of Participant, F (1, 324) 7.57, p .01, r .15, with men (M .07) more confident than women (M .06). Finally, there was a Presentation Modality Culture interaction effect, F (1, 324) 11.12 p .001, r .18. Specifically, on the confidence composite, American (M .57) superiority over the Japa-

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nese (M .43) in the Audiovisual condition was greater than the American (M .39) superiority over the Japanese (M .03) in the VisualOnly condition. Accuracy-confidence correlations. In the combined sample, accuracy was significantly correlated only with the estimated number correct (r .16) and with rated difficulty (r .17). Table 1 shows the correlations between the number correct on the IPT and the various individual and composite confidence measures. Although the correlations were, in general, relatively small, a number of them were significant. First, the Japanese participants (r .15) were marginally better at predicting their scores (z 1.63, p .06) than the American participants (r .05) were. Next, when the accuracy-confidence correlations were computed separately for male and female participants, the general pattern showed that estimated number correct, rated difficulty, and the composite confidence measures correlated significantly with accuracy. Finally, a comparison between the Audiovisual and Visual-Only conditions, showed that, in three of the four confidence measures, accuracy-confidence correlations were significant for participants in the Audiovisual condition, but not in the VisualOnly condition. The pattern of correlations between the two conditions was consistent, with some of the differences between the Audiovisual and Visual-Only accuracy-confidence correlations approaching significance (.91 z 1.63, .37 ps .06). Thus, confidence was a somewhat better predictor of accuracy in the Audiovisual condition in the VisualOnly condition. Japanese Sample IPT accuracy. Because the Japanese participants were classified in terms of their facility with spoken English, we also analyzed their data separately to determine whether their overall pattern of results was moderated by English proficiency. A 2 (Low vs. Moderate English Proficiency) 2 (Sex of Participant) 2 (Presentation Modality) ANOVA on IPT accuracy showed a significant main effect of English Proficiency F (1, 213) 21.94, p .001, r .31). Thus, moderate proficiency participants (M 8.71) were more accurate than low proficiency participants (M 7.59), providing support for the final hypothesis. A significant effect of Sex of Participant (F (1, 213) 10.89, p .001, r .22) was reflected in women (M 8.55) scoring better than men (M 7.76), a difference that was also present in the combined analysis. There was also a significant effect of Presentation Modality (F (1, 213) 7.48, p .01, r .18), with

TABLE 1 Correlations Between Accuracy and Confidence Measures as Function of Condition Japanese (N 221) Estimated correct Confidence Difficulty Confidence composite
*p .05; **p .01.

American (N 115) .05 .06 .07 .01

Males (N 148) .18* .09 .21** .19*

Females (N 184) .17* .09 .14 .17*

Audiovisual (N 172) .23** .10 .24** .23**

Visual (N 164) .07 .00 .06 .06

.15* .03 .10 .11

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participants in the Visual Only condition (M 8.48) having more correct than participants in the Audiovisual condition (M 7.83). The Presentation Modality effect for the Japanese participants was, of course, one half of the Culture Presentation Modality interaction for the combined sample. That is, the American participants had more correct in the Audiovisual condition than in the Visual-Only condition, but the opposite pattern was found for the Japanese participants. There was also an unexpected English Ability Sex of Participant Presentation Modality interaction effect (F (1, 213) 4.20, p .05, r .14). In general, the excess of female superiority found in the moderate compared to the low English proficiency participants in the Visual-Only condition was offset by a decrease in the female superiority found in the moderate compared to the low proficiency participants in the Audiovisual condition. The cell means are shown in Table 2. Confidence measures. For the Japanese sample, the same composite measure of confidence, based on the mean of the standardized scores of the estimated number correct, rated confidence, and rated difficulty (negatively weighted) were used in the analysis. A 2 (English Proficiency) 2 (Presentation Modality) 2 (Sex of Participant) ANOVA was computed on the composite scores. First, there was a significant effect of Sex of Participant, F (1, 213) 6.10, p .02, r .17, with men (M .10) more confident than women (M .09). Next, there was also a significant effect of Presentation Modality, F (1, 213) 15.20, p .001, r .26, with a higher level of confidence in the Visual-Only condition (M .22) than in the Audiovisual condition (M .19). There was also a Sex of Participant Presentation Modality interaction, F (1, 213) 5.17, p .05, TABLE 2 Mean IPT Accuracy of Japanese Participants as a Function of English Proficiency, Sex, and Presentation Modality Low English proficiency Modality Visual only Audiovisual Combined Male 8.04 6.26 7.15 Female 8.05 8.03 8.04 Moderate English proficiency Male 8.52 8.21 8.33 Female 9.30 8.80 9.09

169 YUICHI IIZUKA, MILES L. PATTERSON, JAMES C. MATCHEN

r .15. In particular, the superiority of males confidence in the VisualOnly (M .46) condition compared to the Audiovisual (M .19) condition was greater than the superiority of females confidence in the VisualOnly (M .01) condition compared to the Audiovisual (M .19). There was also an unexpected English Proficiency Presentation Modality Sex of Participant interaction, F (1, 213) 5.72, p . 05, r .16). Finally, in the open-ended comments that followed the completion of the ratings, approximately 25% of the Japanese participants in the Audiovisual condition mentioned the difficulty of understanding the spoken English in the IPT scenes. Reference was also made to the spoken English being too fast or to frustration in trying to understand the speakers.

Discussion The results of the present experiment provided mixed support for the predicted effects of culture, presentation modality, and sex of participant on accuracy and confidence in social judgments. First, the significant main effect of Culture on IPT accuracy was clearly qualified by a Culture Presentation Modality interaction effect. Specifically, although American and Japanese participants had comparable scores in the Visual-Only condition, Americans scores increased and Japanese scores decreased with the addition of sound in the Audiovisual condition. The main effect of Culture on the confidence measures was also qualified by a Culture Presentation Modality interaction effect. Although American participants were significantly more confident than the Japanese participants, this difference was much larger in the Audiovisual condition than in the Visual-Only condition. Next, consistent with the hypothesis on sex differences, women were significantly more accurate on the IPT than men were, but were less confident about their answers than the men were. The separate analysis of the Japanese sample provided an opportunity to examine the effect of facility with spoken English on IPT accuracy and confidence. In general, participants with moderate English proficiency were more accurate on the IPT. Although Japanese participants were more confident in the Visual-Only condition than in the Audiovisual condition, there were no main or interaction effects of English proficiency on confidence. Culture and Presentation Modality The most surprising result of the present study was the specific pattern of the Culture Presentation Modality effect on IPT accuracy. Our basic

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predictions were that (1) American participants would be more accurate than the Japanese; (2) accuracy would be higher for both Americans and Japanese in the Audiovisual condition than in the Visual-Only condition; but (3) the difference between the Americans and the Japanese would be greater in the Audiovisual condition. The rationale underlying these predictions was that American participants should have an advantage because they were making judgments about other Americans in the IPT scenes and their obvious facility with spoken English would be an added factor in the Audiovisual condition. Nevertheless, we also expected the Japanese participants to improve in the Audiovisual condition because, even if they did not understand the spoken English, they could still benefit from the vocal cues. In fact, Japanese and American participants had virtually identical average scores on the IPT in the Visual-Only condition, more than two items above a chance level of accuracy. This was the case even though the fifteen IPT scenes included Americans either living in California or going to college there. Perhaps the most obvious explanation for the equivalent scores in the Visual-Only condition is that there are behavior patterns present in the IPT that transcend the broad cultural differences between the U.S. and Japan. Of course, most Japanese participants also have exposure to American social behavior through television. Still another explanation might be that, because Japan is a high-context culture in which information is commonly communicated indirectly, the Japanese are generally more sensitive to nonverbal cues than Americans are (Hall, 1976). Thus, any disadvantage of the Japanese in not having as much familiarity with American patterns might be offset by their greater habitual sensitivity to nonverbal messages. The other half of the Culture Presentation Modality effect was also surprising. Although American participants scored higher in the Audiovisual than in the Visual-Only condition, consistent with previous studies (Patterson & Stockbridge, 1998; Smith, Archer, & Costanzo, 1991), Japanese participants scored lower in the Audiovisual condition than in the Visual-Only condition. Furthermore, the Japanese participants in the Audiovisual condition were less confident than those in the Visual-Only condition. In addition, a number of participants in the Audiovisual condition reported difficulty and frustration in trying to follow the spoken English. It is likely that this experience precipitated cognitive overload and decreased accuracy of judgments (Gilbert, Pelham, & Krull, 1988). To the extent that social judgments, especially those based on nonverbal behavior, are relatively automatic and outside of awareness (Bargh, 1994, Brewer, 1988), then it is unlikely that the negative effect of cognitive overload is due to an

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inability to weigh the information and draw an appropriate conclusion. Rather, the cognitive overload may have prevented the adequate registering of the incoming information. In other words, if these social judgments are primarily automatic, then errors are more likely to occur when attention, not reflection, is interrupted. In hindsight, it is clear that simply presenting the English audio track to Japanese participants was not equivalent to adding vocal or paralinguistic cues to the Visual-Only condition. An alternative might be to employ a content filtering device that makes speech unintelligible by eliminating a range of vocal frequencies in the audio track. A final issue that merits mention is the apparent difference between the Japanese and American participants ability to estimate their judgment accuracy. Specifically, the difference between the accuracy-estimated score correlations for the Japanese (r .16, p .05) and Americans (r .05) approached significance. That is, across participants, the Japanese showed some sensitivity in their estimates of accuracy, whereas the Americans did not. Sex Differences The hypothesized sex differences in accuracy and confidence were supported in the combined analysis on both cultures. In general, women were more accurate on the IPT, but showed less confidence in their judgments than men did, consistent with the results of earlier studies on the IPT (Costanzo & Archer, 1989; Smith, Archer, & Costanzo, 1991). In fact, there is an extensive literature documenting womens greater nonverbal sensitivity in making judgments of others. Hall (1985) reported that, in over 80% of the 120 studies she reviewed, women were more accurate than men in their judgments. What might account for womens greater sensitivity in judging others? One explanation has been described as the oppression hypothesis. That is, because women in most societies have traditionally had less power than men, it is adaptive to develop skill in judging other people. Another possibility is that women are more likely than men to possess traits of empathy or femininity that, in turn, facilitate more accurate judgments. Hall (1985) concluded, however, that there was little research supporting either of these explanations. An alternative explanation, grounded in biology, is that, over the course of evolution, natural selection has favored the offspring of more sensitive women. In other words, mothers who were more sensitive in reading subtle changes in their children were more likely to have offspring who survived, later reproduced, and passed on a similar

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tendency. Of course, even if there is an evolutionary basis for womens greater accuracy in social judgments, social or cultural expectancies can also reinforce this difference. Thus, young girls in many cultures are typically taught to be more considerate, cooperative, and sensitive than young boys are. Japanese women, like American women, estimated that they had fewer items correct and reported less confidence, even though they actually had higher scores than men. Nevertheless, a study by Iizuka (1998) found that Japanese women judged themselves better at accurately perceiving others than Japanese men did. In the Iizuka (1998) study, participants rated fortysix items dealing with specific examples (e.g., I can usually tell when someone is hostile from the tone of the persons voice) on a seven-point scale of agreement-disagreement. Although Iizuka did not measure the accuracy of actual social judgments, his results suggest that Japanese women (and men) correctly identify their relative skill in social perception. How do we resolve this apparent inconsistency between Iizukas results and the pattern of womens lower confidence in the present study? It is possible that asking participants to make their own performance evaluation after completing the IPT is very different from asking them about their typical ability in making social judgments. In the former case, females may be less likely to take credit for a success than males are because modesty about ones performance is consistent with a female sex role. On the other hand, when females report (as in the Iizuka study) that they are sensitive in reading other people, this is also consistent with sex role expectancies.

Conclusions The present study demonstrated that even a culturally specific test of interpersonal sensitivity, like the IPT, can be usefully employed across cultures. It was not surprising that Americans were generally more accurate than the Japanese on the IPT, but it was particularly interesting that their scores were almost exactly equal in the Visual-Only condition. In contrast, in the Audiovisual condition, the English audio track was apparently confusing or distracting for the Japanese participants, especially for those with less facility in spoken English. Although Japanese and American females were more accurate than their male counterparts, they reported less confidence in their answers than males did. Because the results reported here are based on convenience samples tested in the two cultures, it is possible, of course, that other characteristics of the samples might contribute to these differences. Nevertheless, there

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are a number of different questions that might be pursued at this point. For example, would Japanese who are highly skilled in spoken English perform better in the Audiovisual condition than the Japanese participants in the present study? If the vocal channel could be isolated from the audio track, would the presence of speech characteristics such as intonation, pace, and pause improve performance relative to the Visual-Only condition? How would people from other non-English speaking cultures score on the IPT, especially in the Visual-Only condition? Would those from high-context cultures be more accurate on the IPT than those from low-context cultures? The use of videotaped samples of real-life interactions provides a more ecologically valid means of studying cultural differences in social judgments than simply relying on descriptive vignettes or still photographs of facial expressions. Eventually, videotape tests similar to the IPT could be developed in countries outside of the United States to broaden the means by which we examine similarities and differences across culture in the accuracy of social judgments.

Note
1. The post-IPT measures differed slightly between the Japanese and American participants. Japanese participants also rated how much they thought about their answers and how good they were at judging other people. American participants also rated how much effort they put into the task. Because only one significant effect was found on preliminary withinculture analyses across these three ratings, these measures were not included in the final analyses.

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