Helping others in need is universally encouraged and appreciated. However, the conceptualization of social obligation underlying helping may differ considerably in different cultures. In three studies, we explored variations in perceived social obligations both between and within different Western and Confucian (East Asian) societies using hypothetical scenarios. Study 1 (N = 525) compared the United States, Japan, and China and found stronger effects of individual differences in social connections on perceived obligation toward strangers for U.S. participants than for Chinese and Japanese participants. Studies 2 (N = 260) and 3 (N = 398) examined preregistered hypotheses about perceived obligations toward wider-ranging targets in the United States and China, respectively, and found different patterns of favoritism in these two societies. Study 3 also found that Confucian role-requirement reasoning and expected reciprocity predicted Chinese participants’ perceived obligations toward familiar and unfamiliar targets, respectively.