Effects of boundary-permeated self and patriotism on social participation in the Beijing Olympic Games

Introduction

As a mega-event (Roche, 2000), the Beijing Olympic Games (BOG) has evoked extensive attention and involvement among the Chinese people. According to Li, Gui, and Shen (2008), during the BOG, the number of Chinese people watching TV programs on the games was approximately 842 million, which accounted for 68.8% of total TV viewers in China. The spokeswoman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Giselle Davies, expressed surprise for the high number of people watching the Games. The number of volunteers taking part in the preparation and accomplishment of BOG reached 1.7 million, which exceeded the 10% of the total population in Beijing. Among them, there were 100 000 volunteers providing services at competition venues, 400 000 volunteers providing services in the city, and over 1 000 000 volunteers providing other general supporting services. In Beijing, the percentage of people who wanted to participate as volunteers increased from 3% in 2001—when Beijing had just been selected to host the Games—to 14% in 2008 (Li, 2008).

In theory, there are two kinds of social participation: authoritative or requested participation, and civil participation. Authoritative participation, which is based mainly on request or coercion, is common in hierarchical or autocratic societies (Dumont, 1980). Civil participation, which is based mainly on a citizen's private motivation and civic responsibility, is common in civil or individualistic societies (Janoski, 1998). However, neither of the two types of participation fit the sociopolitical situation of contemporary China. Rather, a third kind of participation, government-motivated participation, is proposed. It is based mainly on the interdependence between the government's requests and ordinary people's voluntary involvement, and is characterizing the relationship between the people and the government in Chinese society (Sun, Jin, He, & Bi, 1999).

Reviewing the history of social mobilization in China shows that most movements involve ‘government-motivated participation’. Ordinary people's support and involvement in the BOG was just one of the latest examples. During the period when Beijing was preparing for the application to host the Games and after the city had been selected to host the Games in 2008, the government was involved in organizing voluntary services from citizens and used the media to publicize the necessity of volunteers. The government also required that organizations (government units and private companies alike) in Beijing contribute to the success of Games and treated related measures (i.e. protecting the environment, cleaning the city, controlling the traffic etc.) as political tasks. Ordinary people's motivation for being actively involved in the Games as volunteers is a main topic in the present article. We focus on the relationship between private benefits or individual motivation and contrast this with the request from the government to join the Olympic movement and take part in the BOG. We suggest that the boundary-permeated self peculiar to Chinese people plays an important role in this process and explain how the often said contradiction between individualism and collectivism is handled by the Chinese people.

Boundary-permeated self

Concerning the self-construal, Markus and Kitayama (1991) have put forward a theory to distinguish independent self and interdependent self—individuals with independent self seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the personal self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes, whereas individuals with interdependent self insist on the fundamental relatedness to others. Furthermore, Markus and Kitayama pointed out that the independent self is mostly available to Western people; whereas the interdependent self is mostly available to Eastern people. When analyzing these two concepts further, we found that the boundary of the independent self is closed, and this closed boundary separates the person from others, whereas the boundary of the interdependent self is opened to some degree, and this opened boundary can contain others into the self, so that this boundary is permeable.

When differentiating between self-contained individualism and ensembled individualism, Sampson (1988) has also discussed the self boundary. He pointed out that for people with self-contained individualism, the boundary is firm, and the self-concept is excluding; for people with ensembled individualism, the boundary is fluid, and the self-concept is including. Although both Markus and Kitayama and Sampson touched on the permeability of self boundary, they did not link the characteristic of self boundary with the structure and culture of different societies (e.g. Chinese society).

In a cross-cultural study, it was found that Chinese society strongly emphasizes hierarchy (Schwartz, 2009). Meanwhile, Chinese society also strongly emphasizes the moral implication of social behaviour. Chinese social anthropologist Fei Xiaotong put forward the concept of ‘the differential mode of associations’ (Fei, 1992) to reveal the basic feature of Chinese social structure. Hence, the distinction of social status and social distance and the direction of morality evaluation would embed in the Chinese self-concept. The concept of ‘the differential mode of associations’ inspires us to construct Chinese self-construal. This self-construal has two main characteristics. The first is that the self has a structure of concentric circles, with the individual self located at the centre of the circles, and netted within layers of relationships. The second is the permeability of the boundary (Yang, 2001), which is illustrated by the dashed circles in Figure 1.

In different situations, the individual can contain others, such as his/her family, friends, neighbours and, ultimately, the nation and even the world, as Figure 1 shows. As an agent, when his/her self boundary is expanded to the family level, the family is contained inside his/her self boundary; when expanded to the national level, the nation is contained inside the self boundary. This boundary-permeated self-construal could expand or contract depending on the context (e.g. social influence), and the individual's motivation, as shown in Figure 2. In the structure of these concentric circles, the more the self-construal is expanded to an outer layer, the more the self is in the ‘public’ realm. In reverse, the more the self-construal is contracted to an inner layer, the more the self is in the ‘private’ realm. Because of the dynamic expansion and contraction in different circumstances, one can easily flow from the public into the private or vice-versa, thereby rendering a fuzzy (low clarity) boundary between the public and the private. As such, the boundary clarity between the public and the private is linked to the permeability of the self boundary. In situations that activate patriotism, participants' self-construal is arguably expanded to the national level; the nation is contained within the self and becomes part of the ‘me’ appraisal. Individuals do not feel themselves outside the nation but perceive their selves as part of the nation and the nation as part of themselves. In other words, the individual self and the nation are united into one psychological entity.

Indeed, Confucius teaching in Chinese culture points out that the more expansive the self is, the more superior the individual is in morality. For example, Confucius elites seek personal development through ‘Self Cultivation, Family Harmony, State Governing, and World Peace’. That is, they are motivated to include the family, the nation and the world into their selves.

In short, the boundary-permeated self construal mainly focuses on the boundary clarity, which is distinct from the independent versus the interdependent self-construal. While the independent versus the interdependent self-construal only addresses the extent of including significant others into self-definition, the boundary-permeated self construal addresses the dynamic of inclusion and exclusion, and the hierarchical structure of inclusion.

Social participation based on the boundary-permeated self

The social participation based on the boundary-permeated self is different from the social participation based on the rigid boundary of self in civil societies. The former requires combining the motivation and requests of the government with personal motivation. In order to obtain the general public's support in the BOG, the government used mass media information and other means of persuasion to motivate volunteering. In fact, Li et al. (this issue of the Journal) found that Beijing participants' patriotism level was higher during the Olympic Games than 3 months after. By increasing people's patriotism and enhancing the feeling of being a Chinese person who loves the Motherland, Chinese people with a high permeable boundary would realize that being involved in the BOG is a national, as well as a personal, duty. In other words, for these individuals, responding positively to the government's call and participating with enthusiasm in the BOG would benefit themselves, the society and those in power. However, it is also possible that some of the Chinese people with a high permeable boundary did not respond to the government's mobilization tactics and remained low in their patriotic sentiment. As a result, these individuals would not be actively involved in the BOG. In sum, it was expected that participants with a high permeable boundary would participate more if their patriotic sentiment was activated, in comparison to those whose patriotic sentiment was not activated.

For respondents with a low permeable boundary, participating and supporting the BOG, an important national event, may be seen as a way to fulfil personal motivation and civic responsibility and thus would not be affected by patriotism. That is, regardless of their level of patriotism, respondents with a low permeable boundary will display a moderate to high level of participation in the BOG.

To summarize, we hypothesized that respondents' permeability of self boundary would moderate their level of patriotism and participation in the BOG. Especially for individuals with a high permeable boundary, the extent of participation before and during the BOG would depend on their level of patriotic sentiment such that the higher the patriotism, the greater the participation. For individuals with a low permeable boundary, the level of patriotism would not affect their participation in the BOG.

In the present study, we focused on three involvement indicators as outcome variables: one is related to behaviour, the other two to attitudes. To assess behavioural involvement, we surveyed the extent to which the respondents engaged in voluntary activities related to the BOG. To assess attitudes, we included a measure of ‘national focus’ (focusing on the national image and the benefit which China could gain from the Games), and a measure of ‘individual focus’ (focusing on the personal interest and the benefit which each individual could gain from the Games). We included the ‘national focus’ and the ‘individual focus’ in order to differentiate respondents' orientations in participating. Specifically, to the extent that national interests were the foci, we hypothesized that the predictions we made above would hold only for the behavioural involvement and ‘national focus’ attitudes, but not for ‘individual focus’ attitudes. Individuals who took advantage of the BOG for personal gains may be those who blended the public with the private (i.e. those who have a high self-construal permeability).

Method

Results

Examining the moderation effects of the boundary-permeated self

To examine the moderation effects of the boundary-permeated self, we conducted a regression analysis on each of the involvement variables (BOG individual focus, BOG national focus and BOG participation) using the mean-centred patriotism, the mean-centred boundary-permeated self, and their interaction as predictors. In step 1 of the regression analysis, patriotism and the boundary-permeated self were entered. In step 2, their interaction was entered. As can be seen in Table 3, in step 1, the analysis revealed a significant patriotism main effect for BOG national focus (β = 0.37, t = 14.22, p < 0.001) and BOG participation (β = 0.22, t = 4.85, p < 0.001), indicating that the more patriotic the participants, the higher their BOG national focus and BOG participation. The analysis also revealed a significant boundary-permeated self main effect (β = 0.06, t = 2.67, p < 0.01), indicating that the higher the boundary-permeated self of the participants, the more they concentrated on BOG individual focus.

Table 3. Predicting BOG national focus, BOG individual focus and BOG participation by the boundary-permeated self, patriotism and their interaction

Predictors	BOG individual focus (N = 945)			BOG national focus (N = 972)			BOG participation (N = 972)
	β	R 2	R 2 change	β	R 2	R 2 change	β	R 2	R 2 change
Step 1		0.009*			0.179***			0.024***
Patriotism	0.050			0.368***			0.216***
Boundary-permeated self	0.061**			−0.001			0.011
Step 2		0.009*	0.000		0.183***	0.004*		0.029***	0.005*
Patriotism × Boundary-permeated self	−0.015			0.057*			0.104**

• * p < 0.05;
• ** p < 0.01;
• *** p < 0.001.
• BOG, Beijing Olympic Games.

In Step 2, we tested our predicted interaction effect of patriotism and boundary-permeated self. Indeed, the Patriotism × Boundary-permeated self interactions on BOG national focus (β = 0.06, t = 2.11, p < 0.05) and BOG participation (β = 0.10, t = 2.25, p < 0.01) were significant, indicating that the boundary-permeated self moderated the relationship between patriotism and BOG national focus and BOG participation. There was not a significant interaction between Patriotism × Boundary-permeated self on BOG individual focus (β = −0.015, t = −0.42, p > 0.05), indicating that the boundary-permeated self did not moderate the relationship between patriotism and BOG individual focus.

To further interpret these findings, we conducted simple slope tests on BOG national focus and BOG participation when boundary-permeated self was centred at 1 standard deviation above and 1 standard deviation below the mean. As shown in Figure 3, for respondents with a high boundary-permeated self (high permeability of self boundary), their BOG national focus and BOG participation increased as their patriotism increased (β = 0.42, t = 12.03, p < 0.001; β = 0.31, t = 5.12, p < 0.001). For respondents with a low boundary-permeated self (low permeability of self boundary), their BOG national focus also increased as their patriotism increased (β = 0.29, t = 6.75, p < 0.001), whereas their BOG participation also increased as patriotism increased, but not significantly (β = 0.08, t = 1.06, ns.). In sum, supporting our hypothesis in general, boundary-permeated self moderated the relations between patriotism and BOG national focus and BOG participation such that the relations were stronger among individuals with a high permeability of self boundary than those with a low permeability of self boundary.

Discussion and conclusion

The results show that patriotism correlated positively with BOG national focus and BOG participation behaviour, but did not correlate with BOG individual focus. In addition, for respondents with a high permeability of self boundary, their BOG national focus and BOG participation behaviour became more positive as their patriotism increased; for respondents with a low permeability of self boundary, however, their BOG participation behaviour did not significantly increase as a function of patriotism, although their national focus did increase. Boundary-permeated self thus moderates the links between patriotism and BOG national focus and participation.

In the present article, we focus particularly on the meaning and content of the boundary-permeated self and its effects on national feelings. Its most remarkable characteristic is the ‘elasticity’, flexibility and permeability of the boundary of the self. According to Confucius teaching, the higher the permeability of self boundary, the more morally superior the individual. For individuals with a high permeability of self boundary, the boundary of the self may change depending on the context and the influence from significant others. When the boundary-permeated self expands to the national level, individuals like to be more patriotic, and become involved in national affairs in a more positive and supportive manner. When their national sentiments are not activated, individuals with a boundary-permeated self could return to a lower self level (e.g. the family level), and may no longer be concerned about national affairs.

People with a low permeability of self boundary seem to respond differently from those with a high permeability of self boundary. For individuals with a low permeability of self boundary, the boundary of the self is more fixed and invariable, and changes less across situations. When people with a low permeability of self boundary realize they have a responsibility to contribute to national affairs, they participate positively, regardless of their patriotic sentiments.

These findings have implications for the Chinese government's tactics in mobilizing the people. It may be useful to increase the patriotic sentiments of individuals with a high permeability of self boundary so that they are likely to support and contribute to national endeavours. However, cultivating civic responsibility may also be effective to rally support from people with a low permeability of self boundary.

The concept of ‘boundary-permeated self’ has some similarities but is not identical to the concepts of ‘interdependent self’ (Markus & Kitayama, 1991) and ‘relational self’ (Andersen & Chen, 2002) put forward by social psychologists in recent years. Individuals with an interdependent self are characterized by close relationships to and integrated into significant others. The boundary-permeated self, however, is characterized by changes in the boundary of the self, illustrated by perforated concentric circles (Fig. 1). The boundary-permeated self does not only reflect the interdependence between individuals, it also predicates a hierarchical social structure of ‘the differential mode of associations’. Individuals with a boundary-permeated self include important others into the self, and form an expansive self under the principle of ‘respect those who should be respected and excluded those who should be disregarded’, according to the differential mode of associations. Under certain situations, the self could shrink its boundary and exclude important others from the self, hence a more contractive self is established. The boundary-permeated self can be regarded as a specific type of ‘relational self’ (Andersen & Chen, 2002). ‘Relational self’ emphasizes that individuals are linked together through the regulation of ‘relationship’. The boundary-permeated self explains the relationship in a hierarchical social structure and the implication of morality and obedience in such relationships. According to Confucius teaching, individuals with a boundary-permeated self can attain a high morality by expanding the boundary of the self to a high level of relations (e.g. nation). As a result, these individuals would treat national interests the same as their self-interests and thus would contribute to the nation in a selfless way. In sum, the boundary-permeated self illustrates the assumption put forward by Hsu (1985)—the Chinese self has the characteristic of being ‘situation-centred’. It can also shed light on issues concerning the self, collectivism, and individualism in cultural psychology (Brewer & Chen, 2007; Gudykunst et al., 1996; Kim, 1994; Kolstad & Horpestad, 2009; Oyserman, 2002).

Another contribution of the boundary-permeated self is to explore the psychological mechanism of government-motivated participation. As mentioned earlier, when the boundary-permeated self expands to the national level, individuals are be willing to become involved in national affairs. Our findings revealed that respondents with a high permeability of self boundary participated actively in BOG only when they were also highly patriotic, but not when they were low in patriotism. By contrast, respondents with a low permeability of self boundary still participated at a relatively high level even among those who were low in patriotism. These findings suggest that the government's effort in arousing patriotism (e.g. patriotic propaganda, messages with patriotic appeal) could have greater effects on individuals with a high permeability of self boundary than on individuals with a low permeability of self boundary.

Social participation among individuals with a high permeability of self boundary may depend more on government mobilization—the government can effectively mobilize ordinary people to participate in national affairs by arousing patriotic sentiment. As such, the ‘government-motivated participation’, typical for China, occurred before and during the ‘mega-event’ for the nation.

In addition, the present study also revealed that patriotism did not correlate significantly with individual focus. The regression analysis indicated that patriotism could not predict individual focus significantly, but that the boundary-permeated self could predict individual focus significantly and positively. Specifically, even when individuals with a high permeability of self boundary were enhanced to the national level during the BOG, they were still able to focus on the Games from the perspective of an individual self. Individuals with a low permeability of self boundary have stronger public consciousness and civic responsibility towards national affairs and, hence, focused less on the BOG from the perspective of the individual.

Interestingly, if we split the respondents using the mid-point (3.5) of the boundary-permeated self scale in the present study, 59.6% of the respondents scored below the mid-point and could be considered as holding a low permeability of self boundary primarily, whereas only 35.2% of the respondents scored above the mid-point and could be considered as holding a high permeability of self boundary primarily. First, this suggests that a low permeability of self boundary, which possibly resulted from Western cultural influence, was more prevalent than the traditional Chinese high permeability of self boundary. Second, among those with a high permeability of self boundary (those who scored above the mid-point), their endorsement of the high permeability of self boundary was not significantly correlated with patriotism (N = 342, r = 0.09, ns), suggesting that a high permeability of self boundary does not necessarily facilitate love for one's nation. By contrast, among those with a low permeability of self boundary (those who scored below the mid-point), their endorsement of the permeability of self boundary was correlated with patriotism (N = 579, r = −0.22, p < 0.001), such that the lower the permeability score, the higher their patriotism. This suggests that the low permeability of self boundary can also be associated with concerns and love toward one's country despite a clear division of the private and public boundary. These findings challenge Confucius' thoughts that love for one's country can only be achieved through expanding the self to the national level in a permeated self-construal framework.

The present research could progress into different future questions and directions. First, after the government's campaign on the Olympics ended, would the individuals' self shrink from the national level back to the individual level (at least for those who were high in permeated self)? Second, can the concept of the boundary-permeated self also be used to explain the process of trust (establishment, maintenance or interruption etc.) among the Chinese people? Concretely, would people with a lower boundary-permeated self show more generalized trust than those with a higher boundary-permeated self? These questions may be worth pursuing in future research.

End notes

1. Respondents were also given the option of choosing ‘7’ (‘not sure’) on the scale. Responses of ‘7’ (‘not sure’) were recoded as missing data.

2. Respondents were also given the option of choosing ‘5’ (‘not sure’, or ‘not applicable’) on the scale. Responses of ‘5’ (‘not sure’, or ‘not applicable’) were recoded as missing data.