Cross-Cultural Misinterpretations in Social Information Processing within British-Chinese Context

Abstract

Cross-cultural communication refers to people from different cultural backgrounds interacting with each other for
informative purpose . Based on this understanding,this essay explores the misunderstanding types and mechanisms of formation
in British-Chinese context .Furthermore, this essay takes social information processing theory as analytical lens, discusses two
influential factors and their roles played in generating misunderstandings: cognitive biases and regional cultures. The degree of
influence of regional culture on social information processing leads to different cognitive biases, and the types of misunderstanding
are divided into two extremes: positive misunderstandings and serious offenses; Innocuous misunderstandings are intermediate
between positive misunderstandings and serious offenses, playing a transitional role between the poles.