Threatened Humanity in a Tight World: Cultural Tightness Results in Self-Objectification

Self-objectification refers perceiving oneself as instrument-like and lacking mental states. In the present research, we examined whether cultural tightness, which entails strong social norms and punishments for deviant behaviors, is an antecedent to self-objectification. Our hypotheses were confirmed by four studies, including quasi-experiments and fully-controlled experiments (N = 2,693).