Abstract

According to recent research, abnormal behavior appears normal to the extent it is understood. Cultural differences in frameworks for making sense of abnormality suggest there may be variations in this “reasoning fallacy.” In light of evidence that people from Western cultures psychologize abnormality to a greater extent than people from East Asian cultures, the effect of understanding on perceptions of abnormality was predicted to differ across cultures. Results of a cross-cultural questionnaire study indicated that understanding made behavior seem normal to European Australians (n = 51), consistent with the reasoning fallacy. For Singaporeans (n = 51), however, understanding did not influence the extent to which behavior was normalized and made abnormal behavior more stigmatizing. Cultural variations in the effect of understanding were attributed to the differential salience of deviance frameworks, which are grounded in culturally specific conceptions of the person.