predicted preference for the beauty product. A hierarchical regression with CULTURE & BEAUTY 19 participants’ average scores on the interdependence items (mean-centred) nested within countries as the independent variable and attitude towards the beauty product as the dependent variable showed a significant positive relationship (B = .36, SE = .090, t(196) = 3.97, p < .001). A similar hierarchical regression with willingness to pay as the dependent variable also revealed a significant positive relationship (B = .042, SE = .015, t(196) = 2.79, p < .01). Discussion These results provide strong evidence for our hypothesis (H1). First, the results show that participants from China, with a stronger interdependent self-construal, exhibited a more positive attitude towards the beauty-enhancing product, as compared to those from Canada, with lower interdependent self-construal. The results also suggest that Chinese participants were willing to pay more for the product compared to those from Canada. Secondly, we provide initial evidence that individual differences in interdependence demonstrate the same positive relationship with the preference for beauty products. This therefore provided converging evidence that self-construal is an important driving factor influencing consumers’ consumption of beauty products. In the next study, we explore the underlying psychological mechanism driving the observed effect as well as generalize our findings to a different context. STUDY 2 The previous study provided strong evidence for the hypothesis that an interdependent self-construal predicts a greater preference for beauty products. Study 2 was designed to accomplish multiple objectives. First, in this study, we aimed to delve deeper into the phenomenon and examine the underlying psychological process. We predicted that an CULTURE & BEAUTY 20 interdependent self-construal would be positively related to the desire to conform to societal norms (H2a). This desire, in the domain of beauty, would lead to heightened perceived difference between the current and the ideal beauty standards of the individual, i.e., appearance related self-discrepancy. This, in turn, would result in greater use of appearance enhancing tools (H2b). Secondly, as the previous study was conducted in two different countries, it may be argued that country level differences in beauty consumption may be an artefact of lack of face and body positivity programs in emerging economies such as India and China, compared to Western countries. Thus, we conducted this study in a single country, USA, to eliminate such potential confounds of exposure to body and face positivity awareness communications. Further, by conducting this study in a single country, we build on the findings of the previous study to show that even in a Western society, interdependence drives preference for appearance enhancing products. Finally, in this study, we aimed to test our hypothesis in a different context. In the current age of handheld mobile devices, technology enabled appearance-enhancing tools, such as smartphone apps and filters that offer a quick fix to digitally edit photos. The functionality includes, but is not limited to, creating a flawless complexion without blemishes or marks, feature enhancement for bigger, brighter eyes, sharper nose, angular jawline, removing dark circles, whitening teeth and even changing eye color with contact lenses (Voo 2013). Given the pervasive presence of Internet and smartphones in the lives of consumers today, it is only expected that these technologies be used in the pursuit of beauty. Hence, we decided to explore the impact of self-construal on the adoption and usage of such image-enhancing apps. Dependent measure and cross-national pilot study Although our aim was to conduct this study in a single country to ensure other crossnational differences do not affect the results, given the use of unconventional appearance CULTURE & BEAUTY 21 enhancing tool (image enhancing apps) as the dependent variable, we decided to conduct a cross-national pilot study to test if Easterners indicated greater usage of image enhancing apps compared to Westerners. Forty-two female participants from India (Mage = 27.90 years) and 39 female participants from the United States (Mage = 27.34 years) completed the study on Amazon Mechanical Turk. We presented participants with a short paragraph that stated that social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter present several opportunities to share their pictures (or “selfies”) with friends, family, and the wider audience. It also included a brief description of image correcting apps and their typical usage. Next, we asked participants to respond to a 7-item, 7-point scale (g = .89; 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) measuring their attitude towards