Multiculturalism, Culture Mixing, and Prejudice: Effects of Priming Chinese Diversity Models Among Hong Kong University Students.

Frank Tian-Fang Ye,Emma E Buchtel

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.691858

Abstract

In two studies, we investigated how Hong Kong university students reacted to descriptions of China as multicultural vs. assimilatory, examining effects on emotions, prejudice toward Mainland Chinese, attitudes toward Hong Kong/China culture mixing, and cultural identities. Study 1 compared a multicultural priming condition to a control condition and found that the multiculturalism prime significantly reduced desire to socially distance from Mainland Chinese. Study 2 compared multiculturalism, assimilation, or control primes’ effects, and found that the multiculturalism prime, through increased positive emotions, indirectly reduced social distancing from Mainland Chinese and disgust toward culture mixing, and increased Chinese ethnic identity and multicultural identity styles; the assimilation prime had the opposite indirect effects through increasing negative emotions. Results show new evidence of the importance of emotion in how non-immigrant regional groups, who are both minority and majority culture members, react to different diversity models. Multicultural frames increased positive emotions, with downstream positive effects on both intergroup attitudes and integrated identities.

Highlights

Since its 1997 handover from Britain to the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong’s has had increasing integration and interactions with Mainland China
We find that reading about different social models, mediated through emotional reactions to them, can affect Hong Kong locals’ desire to socially distance from Mainland Chinese people, disgust toward cultural mixing with Mainland China, and adoption of integrative multicultural identity management strategies
We propose that priming societal models that relate to outgroups could elicit emotional responses; especially among a young university student population, multicultural primes might lead to more positive emotions than assimilation primes, which could serve as the underlying processes that explain their effects on attitudes toward outgroups

Summary

Introduction

Since its 1997 handover from Britain to the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong’s has had increasing integration and interactions with Mainland China. As Hong Kong becomes more integrated into the economic and political systems of Mainland China, hostility and bias toward Mainland Chinese in the city have grown (Hong et al, 2006; Lam et al, 2006; Chou, 2012; Ma, 2015; Ng et al, 2017). Focusing on Hong Kong local residents, the main objective of the current research is to evaluate how different social models describing how Hong Kong is part of China—either focusing on multiculturalism or on assimilation— can affect attitudes and feelings related to Mainland China. We find that reading about different social models, mediated through emotional reactions to them, can affect Hong Kong locals’ desire to socially distance from Mainland Chinese people, disgust toward cultural mixing with Mainland China, and adoption of integrative multicultural identity management strategies

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion