Intergroup Ideologies Research Articles

Acculturation and linguistic ideology in the context of global student mobility: a cross-cultural ethnography of anglophone international students in China

ABSTRACT This cross-cultural ethnography explored the global student mobility patterns of international students from English-speaking countries in China and asked research questions about (a) their motivational factors and acculturation expectations before arrival; (b) linguistic factors influencing their acculturative stressors in the host group community’s culture and its academic, social, and public systems after arrival; and (c) their reflections on intergroup ideologies with the host community after graduation, based on looking ahead. This study collected data through fieldwork by observing and interacting with approximately 80 individuals from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in university towns in East China during the academic years from 2012 to 2023. In turn, 17 individuals who graduated before 2021 were selected as the final sample to conduct in-depth interviews. The study placed the concepts of acculturation expectations and intergroup ideologies at the nexus of linguistic hegemony, symbolic power, and social space. The overarching findings showed that despite positive motivations to visit China, language barriers led participants to express confusion, culture shock, anxiety, and perceived discrimination in their academic, social, and public domains. However, some participants who remained in China after graduation expressed their authentic voices regarding changes in attitude toward the host community culture and their heritage language. Therefore, this study focused on a different dimension of acculturation and linguistic ideology by examining how a linguistically and culturally dominant cohort faced acculturative challenges and negotiated to cope with their stressors in power dynamics.

Fragile Heterosexuality: Do Sexual Minorities also Perceive Heterosexuality as Fragile?

Previous evidence shows that heterosexual people perceive heterosexual status to be more fragile than homosexual status. However, research has not yet investigated whether sexual minorities have similar, or diverging, perceptions of the fragility of sexual orientation. With a sample that included 89 heterosexual and 80 sexual minority participants, we investigated the fragility of heterosexuality using a between-participants design in which participants indicated their agreement with gender neutral statements about the fragility of either heterosexual or homosexual status. Contrary to our expectations we found evidence of Fragile Heterosexuality perceptions regardless of participants’ sexual orientation. Additionally, we explored the potential moderating effects of social-dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism and prejudice against gay/lesbian people on this Fragile Heterosexuality effect. For sexual minority participants, high levels of social dominance orientation moderated (i.e., increased) the perceived fragility of heterosexual identity relative to homosexual identity. No other inter-group ideology was a significant moderator. These findings highlight that heterosexuality is perceived as more fragile by both heterosexual and sexual minority individuals. Implications and possible avenues for future research are discussed.

The Between-Person and Within-Person Effects of Intergroup Contact on Outgroup Attitudes: A Multi-Context Examination

The extensive literature on the contact hypothesis reports a positive association between intergroup contact and outgroup attitudes, yet it remains unknown whether this association reflects within-person (i.e., situational changes within individuals) or between-person (i.e., stable differences between individuals) effects. To investigate this question, we applied (random-intercept) cross-lagged panel models in two studies featuring different samples, measurements, and contexts. We found longitudinal contact–attitude associations in cross-lagged panel models, which cannot differentiate within-person and between-person effects. In random-intercept cross-lagged panel models, we identified between-person effects but not within-person effects. These results conflict with the contact hypothesis, which assumes that contact leads to intra-individual attitude change. We further investigated whether between-person effects represent spurious correlations caused by potential confounders (demographic characteristics, personality, and intergroup ideologies), but found that this was not the case. Our findings highlight the need to further investigate within-person effects and potential explanations of between-person differences in contact and attitudes.

What are we learning in cultural psychology classes? A preliminary study focusing on the intergroup ideology

What are we learning in cultural psychology classes? A preliminary study focusing on the intergroup ideology

Social dominance and anti‐immigrant prejudice: A cross‐national and prospective test of the mediating role of assimilation, multiculturalism, colour blindness, and interculturalism

AbstractDecades of research have shown that social dominance orientation (SDO) is one of the most important predictors of anti‐immigrant attitudes. However, the mechanisms through which SDO can explain prejudice have been studied insufficiently. Using rich and diverse samples from France and from the province of Québec in Canada, the present research provides a cross‐national (N = 1,852) and prospective (N = 534) analysis of a theoretical model in which the dimensions of SDO are indirectly predicting anti‐immigrant prejudice via the intergroup ideologies of assimilation, multiculturalism, colour blindness and interculturalism. Results showed that interculturalism, a hierarchy‐attenuating ideology was found to be a robust mechanism to explain the subtle effects of SDO‐E on anti‐immigrant prejudice whereas assimilation, a hierarchy‐enhancing ideology was playing a more important role to explain direct and blatant effects of SDO‐D on prejudice. The two most studied diversity approaches, multiculturalism and colour blindness, were largely redundant once interculturalism was considered. This pattern occurred in both France and Québec hence, favouring the context‐independent pathway.

The Measurement of Racial Colorblindness.

Although there is consensus that the intergroup ideology of multiculturalism is negatively related to prejudice and that assimilation is positively related to prejudice, research regarding the relationship of racial colorblindness to prejudice has produced mixed results. We investigated whether these mixed results might stem from colorblindness being a multifaceted construct despite typically being treated as unidimensional. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of items from existing measures revealed three factors-equality orientation, color evasion, and rejection of racial categorization-from which we created the Multidimensional Assessment of Racial Colorblindness (MARC). Four studies provided evidence for the reliability and construct validity of the MARC and found that its subscales were often differentially related to other variables, including prejudice. We also compared the MARC to another measure of colorblindness, the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS). We discuss the implications of racial colorblindness as a multifaceted construct.

Avoiding Covid-19 risk information in the United States: The role of attitudes, norms, affect, social dominance orientations, and perceived trustworthiness of scientists.

This study seeks guidance from the planned risk information avoidance model to explore drivers of risk information avoidance in the context of COVID‐19. Data were collected early during the pandemic. Among our most notable results is that participants who are more oriented toward social dominance and are more skeptical of scientists’ credibility have (1) more supportive attitudes toward risk information avoidance and (2) feel social pressure to avoid risk information. The findings of this study highlight how the role of skepticism in science and intergroup ideologies, such as social dominance, can have important implications for how people learn about health‐related information, even in times of heightened crisis.

Exploring associations between intergroup contact, ideology, and support for new restrictive cannabis policies and penalties in Canada.

Exploring associations between intergroup contact, ideology, and support for new restrictive cannabis policies and penalties in Canada.

Majority members’ acculturation: How proximal-acculturation relates to expectations of immigrants and intergroup ideologies over time

How do English majority members’ national culture maintenance and immigrant culture adoption (i.e., globalisation-based proximal-acculturation) predict their acculturation expectations (i.e., how they think immigrants should acculturate) and intergroup ideologies (i.e., how they think society should manage diversity)? Cross-sectional results ( N = 220) supported hypothesised relationships using a variable- and person-centred approach: welcoming expectations/ideologies related positively to immigrant culture adoption (or an integration/assimilation strategy) and negatively to national culture maintenance (or a separation strategy), whilst the reverse was true for unwelcoming expectations/ideologies. Notably, colourblindness showed only weak correlations with/differences across acculturation orientations/strategies. In longitudinal analyses, adopting immigrants’ cultures increased the intergroup ideologies polyculturalism and multiculturalism whilst reducing support for assimilation over time, whereas national culture maintenance had the opposite effect. Meanwhile, the expectation integration-transformation was especially related to higher odds of following an integration rather than separation strategy over time. Overall, results advance the psychological study of multiculturalism, providing first longitudinal insights on majority members’ acculturation.

Cognitive and Motivational Foundations Underlying Acculturation Expectations: Applications of Ethnic Group Position Model

Although dominant cultural groups as a rule have the main impact on the mutual acculturation process, they receive much less attention in the literature. This article, firstly, challenges the common implicit position that dominant cultural groups do not have variety in their acculturation expectations regarding different non-dominant cultural groups, and, secondly, proposes Ethnic Group Position Model (EGPM) to explain and predict acculturation expectations regarding a particular non-dominant cultural group in society. The empirical study tests the relationship of structural variables of the group position by the new model (status, interdependence, similarity) and acculturation expectations while taking into account the relevant individual difference variables (the degree of agreement and endorsement for authoritarian attitudes and intergroup ideologies), thus covering the cognitive and motivational foundations underlying acculturation expectations. The participants in the survey were 377 Russian representatives of the dominant cultural group in Russia, who filled out a questionnaire containing questions about acculturation expectations (e.g., integration, assimilation, separation), evaluation of ethnic groups according to the feelings thermometer, perceived group positions, and also about an endorsement of authoritarian attitudes (right-wing authoritarianism and social domination orientation) and intergroup ideologies (e.g., assimilationism, multiculturalism, interculturalism). The results showed that Russians did vary their acculturation expectations towards different cultural groups according to the EGPM, even when controlling for their individual differences in ethnic bias. The conclusions emphasize that the cultural groups images are steam from ordinary observations of their life outcomes or circumstances, primarily in terms of vertical inequality (prestige and respect), i.e. perceived status (e.g., education, professional prestige, connection with crime), which largely shapes intercultural relations and in particular acculturation expectations.

Supplemental Material for Exploring Associations Between Intergroup Contact, Ideology, and Support for New Restrictive Cannabis Policies and Penalties in Canada

Supplemental Material for Exploring Associations Between Intergroup Contact, Ideology, and Support for New Restrictive Cannabis Policies and Penalties in Canada

Таксономия межгрупповых идеологий

This paper provides an analysis and a general taxonomy of intergroup ideologies, and presents a list of their indicators. This taxonomy is related to the eight ideologies that were originally outlined in the early works. These ideologies were created on the basis of three dimensions of intercultural relations: cultural maintenance; social participation; and relative power. The taxonomy of intergroup ideologies proposed here follows these three dimensions, which are related to two issues: (i) attitudes towards cultural diversity; and (ii) forms of inclusion of ethnocultural groups in the larger society (including the issue about the hierarchy among groups). It is possible to assess how these issues are solved using four indicators: (1) celebrating differences, (2) status of groups, (3) opportunity for social interaction, and (4) way to ensure the unity of society. Orientations to these indicators make it possible to understand what kind of intergroup ideologies covering intercultural attitudes and intergroup relations exist in countries and describe them.

Does polyculturalism explain the relationship between personality, thinking style, and prejudice in Australia?

ABSTRACT Objective: Polyculturalism, a relatively new intergroup ideology conceptualises culture as dynamic by emphasising intergroup connections. Previous research has linked polyculturalism to less negative attitudes towards different racial and ethnic groups. However, the underpinnings of this relationship is not well understood. It was predicted that openness to experience, agreeableness, and cognitive flexibility (alternative and control) would be associated with lower racial and ethnic prejudice and that polyculturalism would mediate these relationships. Method: The sample consisted of 391 undergraduate students and community members who completed a polyculturalism measure, openness to experience and agreeableness scales of the Big Five Aspect Scale, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, and the Australian Racism, Acceptance, and Culture-Ethnocentrism Scale. Results: Path analysis indicated openness to experience, agreeableness, and cognitive flexibility (alternative) were each associated with less generalised racial and ethnic prejudice, and that polyculturalism mediated the relationship between openness to experience and prejudice and cognitive flexibility- alternative and prejudice. Conclusion: Polyculturalism may be an important avenue for understanding and reducing racial and ethnic prejudice in a racially and ethnically diverse Australia. Key Points What is already known about this topic: The traits of openness to experience and agreeableness, and cognitive flexibility are associated with less negative racial and ethnic attitudes. Polyculturalism is a lay diversity ideology where culture is viewed as a dynamic andevolving system that does not provide the basis for differentiating between groups. Instead of focusing on differences between cultural groups, connections between groups through interactions are emphasised. Polyculturalism is associated with less negative attitudes towards different racial and ethnic groups among other pro-diversity attitudes. What this topic adds: This study adds to the limited research into the role of lay diversity ideologies in explaining the relationship between personality and intergroup attitudes. Openness to experience, agreeableness, and cognitive flexibility (alternative) were each associated with less generalised racial and ethnic prejudice. Polyculturalism mediated the relationship between openness to experience and racial and ethnic prejudice, and the relationship between cognitive flexibility (alternative) and racial and ethnic prejudice. The Racism Acceptance and Cultural-Ethnocentrism Scale (RACES) is a psychometrically sound measure developed for the Australian context. It is a suitable tool for measuring the effectiveness of interventions for promoting more positive intergroup attitudes.

Ideologies of Intergroup Relations in Pedagogical Discourse: Representation of Cultures and Intercultural Interaction in the Educational Books for Migrant Children

ABSTRACT Viewing a textbook as a tool of construction of framework for interpretation of social environment, we focus on the content of Russian school books for children of migrants. Within the framework of the theories of intergroup ideologies and Stereotype content model, we evaluate the character of representation of different cultures and their representatives in various social contexts The results show that the receiving population occupies “high warmth and high efficacy”, while migrants occupy “high warmth and low efficacy” quadrant, and a difference in the representation of migrants: children are included in communication with the receiving population, whereas adults are isolated.

Stressing similarities or ignoring differences? Shedding light into different forms of color-evasive ideology with pre- and in-service teachers

The color-evasive ideology (commonly termed “colorblindness”) proposes that ethnic and cultural group memberships should be deemphasized. Yet there is a conceptual confusion around the meaning and measurement of color-evasiveness, and this construct is not used consistently in the international as well as German literature. Our purpose is to investigate whether two underlying forms of the color-evasive ideology (i.e., stressing similarities and ignoring differences) are two distinct, albeit related, constructs. We tested this hypothesis by applying these two forms of the color-evasive ideology to teachers’ cultural diversity beliefs. In two cross-sectional field studies conducted with pre-service teachers (Study 1, n = 210), and in-service teachers (Study 2, n = 99), questionnaire items on the stressing similarities ideology and items on the ignoring differences ideology loaded on two separate factors, providing a better fit to the data than the one-factor model. Mean scores on these two types of color-evasive ideology also differed substantially, indicating that participants across the two studies mainly endorsed the stressing similarities perspective. The stressing similarities and ignoring differences ideologies related differently to other intergroup ideologies (i.e., multiculturalism and polyculturalism), and showed different patterns to psychosocial functioning in culturally diverse classrooms (i.e., cultural diversity-related stress).

Views on Cultural Diversity as well as Authoritarian and Ethnocentric Attitudes of Russians

The article considers the relationship of different views on ethnocultural diversity (intergroup ideologies) and authoritarian and ethnocentric attitudes of Russians. This is an important issue because, having the status of a culturally dominant group, it is the ethnic Russians who largely determine the mutual character of intercultural relations in Russia. In this regard, an empirical study was carried out aimed at (1) testing the relationship of intergroup ideologies (assimilationism, colorblindness, multiculturalism, polyculturalism) with other attitudes relevant to intercultural relations (ethnocentrism, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation) and (2) testing their sociofunctional orientation. A cross-sectional one-sample correlation design using data from the socio-psychological survey was applied. According to the results of the study on a sample of 225 ethnic Russians, it was found that: (1) assimilationism was positively associated with intergroup ethnocentrism; (2) colorblindness was negatively associated with intragroup and intergroup ethnocentrism, authoritarian aggression, conventionalism as well as dominance and anti-egalitarianism; (3) multiculturalism was positively associated with intragroup ethnocentrism and conventionalism; and (4) polyculturalism was negatively associated with intergroup ethnocentrism. In addition, it was proposed to distinguish four dimensions of the considered attitudes for a general description of intercultural relations in Russia: (1) protective group motivation aimed at collective security and cohesion (intragroup ethnocentrism and right-wing authoritarianism); (2) social domination orientation (dominance and anti-egalitarianism); (3) cultural dominance orientation and superiority (intergroup ethnocentrism, assimilationism and rejection of colorblindness); and (4) acceptance of cultural diversity (multiculturalism and polyculturalism). The results were discussed in terms of the importance of taking into account the historical development of intercultural relations in Russia.

Fitting in: How the intergroup context shapes minority acculturation and achievement

ABSTRACT Children of immigrants are at risk of underachieving in school with long-lasting consequences for future life-chances. Our research contextualises the achievement gap by examining minority acculturation experiences in daily intergroup contact across different intergroup contexts. Acculturation researchers often find an adaptive advantage for minority youth with an integration-orientation (combining both cultures). But findings from Europe are inconclusive. Looking beyond individual differences in acculturation-orientations, this review shifts focus to the intergroup context of minority acculturation and achievement. We discuss longitudinal, multi-group, multi-level and experimental evidence of the up- and downsides of integration for minority inclusion and success in European societies. Our studies show that both (1) intergroup contact experiences and (2) intergroup ideologies affect achievement – either directly or through the interplay of (3) acculturation-norms, defined as shared views on acculturation in social groups, with individual acculturation-orientations. The findings suggest how schools can reduce achievement gaps through improving intergroup relations.

Ideology Matters: College Students’ Emotional Reactions to the Killing of Trayvon Martin

Building on previous theory and research, we explored the associations among race, intergroup ideologies and emotional reactions to the killing of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman among 298 Black and White college students. We also examined the indirect effect of ethnocultural empathy on the links between race, intergroup ideologies, and emotional responding. Using latent class analysis, we identified three latent intergroup ideological classes: Racial Hierarchy-Enhancing Ideology, Universal Hierarchy-Enhancing Ideology (i.e., above sample mean color-blind racial ideology and or social dominance orientation) and Critical Reflection Attenuating Ideology (i.e., above sample mean critical consciousness). Membership in the Critical Reflection Attenuating Ideology group was associated with greater prosocial emotional responding as compared to the two hierarchy-enhancing latent groups. Finally, ethnocultural empathy had an indirect effect on the links between race, latent intergroup ideological classes, and emotional responding.

Multicultural and colorblind, investigating intergroup ideologies and relevant relations in mainland China

During the past decades, studies of acculturation and ideology have received great attention in social psychology, especially among western countries. But few such investigations have been conducted in Asia. In this study, we measured personal and normative support of three intergroup ideologies in the context of mainland China, and explored their mediating roles between social dominance orientation and prejudice. Surveys were conducted among 158 Chinese university students in Hangzhou, China. Results of the present study showed that the dominant societal ideology among Chinese respondents was multiculturalism, rather than assimilation or colorblindness. Moreover, based on the proposition that support for different ideologies was likely to have different effects in different countries, mediation model of personal support for ideologies was examined in the current context. As revealed, when the social norms were salient, personal support for multiculturalism mediated the relationship between social dominance orientation and prejudice, while personal support for assimilation or colorblindness did not. The present study provided additional evidence to the previous theory, implications and suggestions were further discussed.

Threat and Prejudice against Syrian Refugees in Canada: Assessing the Moderating Effects of Multiculturalism, Interculturalism, and Assimilation

A survey experiment (N=529) was used to test the moderating effects of intergroup ideologies (assimilation, multiculturalism, and interculturalism) on the relationship between social dominance orientation (SDO) and expressions of prejudice under conditions of intergroup threat. Moderated multiple regression analyses suggest a multicultural integration frame moderates the relationship between SDO and feelings toward Syrian refugees in Canada when the target outgroup is portrayed as a source of intergroup threat. This moderating effect was unique to the relationship between SDO and feelings toward Syrians and did not extend to other correlates of prejudice including beliefs in zero-sum group competition or a multicultural ideology, nor did it extend to more general measures of prejudice (i.e., attitudes toward immigrants or evaluations of intercultural contact). Findings suggest the prejudice-reducing effects of a multicultural integration narrative affect group evaluations and functions by targeting beliefs in social dominance, rather than zero-sum group competition or ideological support for cultural diversity. The results offer insights into the prejudice-reducing potential for two alternative integration narratives that are institutionalized in Canada.