Sources of Consensus and Variegation in Cultural Affective Meanings

Abstract

Societal cultures are grounded in characteristic and broadly shared meanings for particular identity labels, which encode social knowledge about the esteem, respect, and treatment that various types of people deserve. Although our cultural sentiments are predominantly shared with others, they also reflect our unique individual experiences. The present research examines the proposition that variegation in cultural affective meanings can be explained, in part, by sociodemographic characteristics, social position, and formative experiences in family and romantic relationships. Respondents from two universities of distinct racial and socioeconomic composition were found to have substantial consensus in their sentiments for social groups but to differ in these sentiments to a degree commonly found in cross-cultural comparisons. Where identity meanings diverge, race is an important predictor of differences in cultural sentiments, along with parents’ education and marital status, and disruption versus stability in parental and romantic attachments.