Abstract
Is cultural knowledge unique to a culture and inaccessible to other cultures, or is it a tool that can be recruited by individuals outside of that culture when the situation renders it relevant? As one test of this idea, we explored whether the applicability and benefits of a lay belief that originated from Chinese collective wisdom extends beyond cultural boundaries: negotiating with fate. Negotiating with fate postulates that fate imposes boundaries within which people can shape their outcomes through their actions. This belief contrasts fatalism, which has been traditionally interpreted as believing that fate dictates people’s life outcomes and renders their actions largely irrelevant. We found that the belief in negotiating with fate (but not fatalism) was strengthened when individuals recalled instances in which they were constrained, compared to when individuals recalled instances in which they were free to choose (Experiments 1 and 2). Subsequent studies found that after recalling a constraining event, exposure to the belief in negotiating with fate (but not exposure to fatalism) decreased repetitive thoughts (Experiment 3), increased the conviction that personal actions contributed to the event (Experiment 4), increased acceptance and positive reinterpretation of the event (Experiment 5), and increased how meaningful the event was (Experiment 6). Thus, when faced with constraints, acknowledging fate does not necessarily lead people to believe that their actions are irrelevant. Instead, when individuals face constraining circumstances in which potential courses of actions are clearly limited, they are more likely to believe that they are able to negotiate with fate, and this belief can help them move forward from negative outcomes. We found that the belief in negotiating with fate, although originating from Chinese folk culture, is spontaneously activated when people experience constraints even in a non-Chinese culture, and helps people cope with those constraints.
Highlights
The Oxford dictionary defines a fated event as “something that happens outside of a person’s control, regarded as pre-determined by a supernatural power.” This conceptualization of fate, referred to as fatalism, assumes that fate has the ultimate authority over individuals’ lives and renders personal actions irrelevant
Proverbs reflected three fate beliefs: (1) personal control; (2) fatalism; and (3) negotiating with fate
The results showed that activating negotiating with fate helped people identify ways in which they could have potentially changed a recalled situation through their actions, compared to activating personal control or fatalism
Summary
The Oxford dictionary defines a fated event as “something that happens outside of a person’s control, regarded as pre-determined by a supernatural power.” This conceptualization of fate, referred to as fatalism, assumes that fate has the ultimate authority over individuals’ lives and renders personal actions irrelevant. The Oxford dictionary defines a fated event as “something that happens outside of a person’s control, regarded as pre-determined by a supernatural power.” This conceptualization of fate, referred to as fatalism, assumes that fate has the ultimate authority over individuals’ lives and renders personal actions irrelevant. In other words, according to this belief, fate imposes constraints within which individuals must work (e.g., socio-cultural environments, socio-economic status, uncontrollable life events), but how individuals exercise agency within the boundaries of the constraints determines individuals’ life course. From this perspective, negotiating with fate prescribes specific roles for fate and personal control. We used an American idiom to illustrate the idea of negotiable fate, but a cross-cultural comparison revealed that Chinese proverbs are much more likely than American proverbs to capture the belief in negotiating with fate
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