Fusion of “You and Me”: Cultural Mixing Promotes Intergroup Psychological Compatibility

Abstract

Previous research has mainly examined individuals’ attitudes to cultural mixing per se, and rarely examined the attitudes to the outgroup involved in cultural mixing. Exposure to ingroup–outgroup cultural mixing may be an indirect intergroup contact, which can promote individuals’ psychological compatibility toward the corresponding cultural outgroup. We measured Chinese Yi undergraduates’ experience of Yi-Tibetan cultural mixing in Study 1 and found it was significantly correlated with psychological compatibility toward Tibetans. We then used a between-subjects design and experimentally manipulated Yi participants’ exposure to cultural mixing to verify the causal effect of exposure to Yi-Dai cultural mixing on psychological compatibility toward Dai (the Yi and Dai are two of the 55 ethnic minorities in China from different provinces and have their own unique culture; Study 2) and the mediating role of perceived connection (Studies 3 and 4). These findings suggest that exposure to cultural mixing facilitates intergroup psychological compatibility, and this beneficial effect is mediated by perceived connection.