Reducing Negative Attitudes Toward Immigrants in Russia and Taiwan: Possible Beneficial Effects of Naïve Dialecticism and an Incremental Worldview.

I-Ching Lee,Tatyana Permyakova,Marina Sheveleva

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.572386

I-Ching Lee, Tatyana Permyakova + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.572386

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Abstract

Greater mobility in human societies has resulted in more interactions and contact with immigrants. In the current research, we investigated how viewing the world as flexible, changing, and paradoxical (i.e., naïve dialecticism and an incremental theory) may predict one’s authoritarian beliefs and in turn predict one’s attitudes toward immigrants. To test the generalizability of our findings, we recruit comparable samples (i.e., college students) from two societies that are largely different (Russia and Taiwan). Great cultural similarities were observed. Naïve dialecticism and an incremental theory appeared as two distinctive constructs. People who were higher on naïve dialecticism and an incremental over entity theory had lower support for authoritarian beliefs (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation) and, in turn, had more favorable attitudes toward immigrants. Some cultural differences were also observed. Taiwanese participants’ negative attitudes toward immigrants were entirely ideology-based, whereas Russian participants’ negative attitudes toward immigrants were partly based on presumably personal experiences. Pan-cultural and culturally specific mechanisms in predicting attitudes toward immigrants were further discussed and explored.

Highlights

Culture provides an interpretive framework for individuals to make sense of the world, such as through cultural values, social norms, and lay beliefs
The above findings suggest that naïve dialecticism and the implicit theory of the worldview are distinctive constructs
The evidence that naïve dialecticism and the implicit theory of the worldview are conceptually distinctive could be corroborated in the gender comparison

Summary

Introduction

Culture provides an interpretive framework for individuals to make sense of the world, such as through cultural values, social norms, and lay beliefs. We investigate two broad types of lay beliefs (i.e., naïve dialecticism, Peng and Nisbett, 1999; SpencerRodgers et al, 2010, and entity vs incremental theories, Dweck et al, 1995) and how they may have impacts on people’s attitudes toward immigrants. Naïve dialecticism is commonly observed among East Asians (Peng and Nisbett, 1999; SpencerRodgers et al, 2010). Information Respondents were asked to indicate their age, gender, citizenship, education, and place of birth, as well as whether they have close relatives who do not have Russian/Taiwanese citizenship or constantly living abroad (yes or no)

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