When do people accept cultural diversity?: Affect as determinant

Two experiments examined the influence of affect on the acceptance of cultural diversity. In Experiment 1, the salience of affective reactions towards Turkish immigrants was manipulated by asking German participants to think about their negative feelings towards Turks in general or towards a subgroup of Turks. It was found that the salience of negative affective reactions led to a decreased acceptance when affective reactions were generalized to the whole group, but not when they were attributed to a subgroup. Experiment 2 investigated the moderating role of perceived homogeneity with regards to the impact of affective reactions attributed to a subgroup of Muslim immigrants in Germany. As predicted, the salience of a negative aspect of a subgroup strengthened self-reported and implicitly measured negative attitudes when the perceived homogeneity of the immigrant group was high, but not when it was low.     

The roles of culture and fairness in maintaining relationships: A comparison of romantic partners from Malaysia,Singapore, and the United States

The present study concerns how culture connects to perceptions of equity and relational maintenance behavior in the United States (US), Malaysia, and Singapore. In doing so, this study extends findings that employed cultural modernization theory (CMT) and equity theory to explain cultural and individual variations in relational maintenance behavior. Sex differences were also examined. Three countries were selected for their proximity in Traditional (vs. Rational) Values and divergence in Survival (vs. Self Expression) Values, according to the World Values Survey (WVS) cultural map. Consistent with CMT assumptions, participants in the United States and Malaysia (i.e., countries that espouse self expression values) reported greater use of relational maintenance strategies than did those in Singapore (i.e., a country endorsing survival values). As hypothesized, curvilinear associations between equity and relational maintenance strategies were found for the US participants only. This finding concurs with CMT-grounded assumptions and facts that romantic partners in Western (vs. Eastern), high-income societies (e.g., the US) seek equitable relationships. Sex differences also emerged but only for the US participants.     

Ethnic categorization of immigrants: The role of prejudice, perceived acculturation strategies and group size

People usually perceive immigrants from different national origins as similar to each other, and thus as belonging to a limited number of ethnic out-groups [Sporer, S. L. (2001a). Recognizing faces of other ethnic groups: An integration of theories. Psychology, Public and Law, 7, 36–97, Sporer, S. L. (2001b). The cross-race effect: Beyond recognition of faces in the laboratory. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 7, 170–200.]. In this study, we examine how host nationals (i.e., Italians) categorize immigrants and how prejudice and perceived acculturation strategies influence this process. In our research, photographs of male faces of members of 16 immigrant groups were shown to the participants (N=305). They were asked to identify the national origin of each person on the photographs. In line with the expected over-inclusion into more numerous and more devalued out-groups, the researchers found that (a) participants who perceived Albanians or Moroccans to be the most numerous, were most likely to categorize immigrants as belonging to these groups; and (b) this over-inclusion effect was most pronounced when participants were prejudiced toward these groups and when they perceived them as wanting to maintain their cultures of origin.     

Religious Fundamentalism and Intercultural Communication: The Relationships Among Ethnocentrism,Intercultural Communication Apprehension,Religious Fundamentalism,Homonegativity, and Tolerance for Religious Disagreements

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationships among ethnocentrism, intercultural communication apprehension, religious fundamentalism, homonegativity, and tolerance for religious disagreements. This study found a positive relationship between religious fundamentalism with ethnocentrism and homonegativity. The study further found a negative relationship between tolerance for religious disagreement with ethnocentrism and religious fundamentalism. Lastly, homonegativity, ethnocentrism, and tolerance for religious disagreement were shown to account for approximately 17.5% of the variance in an individual's intercultural communication apprehension. However, religious fundamentalism was not shown to be related to intercultural communication apprehension.     

Challenging evaluation to the cross-cultural test: Program evaluation in cross-cultural settings

The author cites the recent emergence of two new fields in education: evaluation and international education. Each has developed unique methodologies in its area of most concern. Evaluators judge the process and output of national programs; international educators plan for programs overseas. Although the author believes such developments should be complementary, the professions have remained relatively isolated from one another in two distinct regards: as practitioners in a single field, and in the manner in which they train students. Drawing upon personal experience, the author illustrates how current evaluation methods fail to provide adequate guidance in cross-cultural settings. The author further identifies issues, poses questions, and calls for increased cooperation between fields of evaluation and international education as well as across the social science disciplines.     

Images of life in America: The impact of American T.V. in Israel

The present study sets out to uncover young Israelis' perceptions of the American reality using the postulates and methodology of the cultivation analysis approach to mass communication. The comparison of the perceptions of “light” and “heavy” T.V. viewers with measures of the actual reality reveals that heavy viewers demonstrate a strong and consistent tendency to paint a rosier picture of life in the U.S., in terms of wealth and standard of living, even when other factors (age, gender, residence and ethnic group) are held constant. The findings of this study have methodological implications concerning the study of media effects as well as theoretical implications regarding the ongoing debate on “media imperialism.”     

Stereotype attribution in two ethnic groups

The cross-cultural generality of previously observed stereotype attribution processes was investigated. European and Maori New Zealanders, similar in age but differing in occupational status from previous American samples, rated stimulus persons varying along three dimensions: Ethnicity (European, Maori, Samoan); Origin (Urban-Rural); and Occupation/Education (manager, skilled tradesman, laborer). Response traits were 26 adjectives found in previous research to comprise ethnic stereotypes. Factor analysis of these 26 traits showed that 5 factors were plausible in each sample, although the factor structures in the two samples were not identical. Separate between- subjects ANOV As in each sample showed that stimulus occupation accounted for most of the systematic variance in the attribution of the trait factors. This was interpreted as evidence for possible occupational stereotyping. Methodological and theoretical issues relevant to this conclusion were discussed, including the likelihood that different processes may characterize attribution in different cultures and situations.     

The impact of cultural,ethnic, and national variables on attitudes towards the disabled in Israel: A review

Studies in Israel relating to attitudes of various ethnic, cultural and religious groups towards the disabled were reviewed. The results indicate that although there were differences in attitudes towards the disabled, these differences appear to be a function of interaction effects between many other variables and not necessarily only related to ethnic, cultural, and religious affiliation.     

Black power ideology rhetoric and reality in a student sample

In America the ethic of individual achievement has always been balanced by complementary norms of group action. Blacks, however, have been handicapped by a lack of the in-group loyalty required for a united struggle against racial oppression. Black power ideology was conceived as a sociotherapy to increase the level of black group cohesion. This study was designed to provide much needed data on the success of the “therapy.” A survey of 611 black high school students and 93 black college students yielded little evidence that verbally professed endorsement of black power ideology was translated into action. In an experiment. 323 black high school students manifested a consistent tendency to be less helpful to scientists identified as black than to unidentified scientists, regardless of the students' claimed level of black power orientation.     

Racial similarity as a moderator variable in the perception of leader behavior and control

This study compared leader behavior ratings of black and white Army infantry squad members serving in squads led either by black or white leaders. One black and one white squad member, chosen at random from each of 34 racially mixed squads, rated their leader's Consideration and Initiation of Structure behaviors (Stogdill, 1963), and their leader's behavior relevant to French and Raven's (1959) five bases of social power. In general, it was found that members who were of the same race as their leader rated him as significantly less likely to use punishment-related behaviors than did members who were of a different race than their leader. However, same-race members did not rate their leader's considerate or structuring behavior differently than did different-race members. The overall pattern of findings were discussed in terms of the leaders' implicit reliance on their punishment power to obtain compliance from different-race subordinates.     

Kiowa forty-nine singing: A communication perspective

Kiowa Forty-Nine singing is a social activity in which important aspects of Kiowa culture are performed and revealed through traditional communicative activities. The purpose of this study was to examine forty-nining as it serves to reveal cultural patterns of interaction. Rooted in ethnomethodology, this field research combined personal interviews and content analysis. The data first provided a general characterization of forty-nining; subsequent analysis produced distinguishable, but interrelated, sets of rules which regulate the nature and structure of forty-nines. Patterns identified in the fortynines can be extended to other intratribal interaction, as well as to intercultural communication. Better conception of these interactive patterns may foster better understanding of Kiowa intercultural relations.     

Sources of bias in performance evaluation: Two experiments

Attribution and stereotyping theories predicted that poor-performing black workers would receive lower evaluations than corresponding Whites, while good performance would have the reverse effect. “Dress and lifestyle” was also predicted to influence performance evaluation. Male business students, evaluating bogus employees differing in race, dress, and behaviorally described performance, provided weak support for the second hypothesis. A second experiment investigated the possibility that perceived social class, rather than race, was the relevant variable in the operation of a stereotype confirmation—contrast process. Individual differences in stereotyping were also measured. No support for the specific hypothesized process was found, but results supported the potential relevance of attribution theory to a configural performance-evaluation model. Results were also discussed in terms of worker-perceived discrimination.     

Stereotypes of the Japanese manager in Singapore

Semantic profiles of the Japanese manager were obtained from a questionnaire study of Japanese and Singaporean managers in the Singapore subsidiaries of Japanese companies, to establish an autostereotype and a high-contact heterostereotype. Questionnaires were also administered to Singaporean, British and American managers in the Singapore subsidiaries of British and American companies, to establish low-contact heterostereotypes of the Japanese manager. Discriminant analysis was used to map the stereotypes in perceptual space. No significant differences were found between the low-contact heterostereotypes of the Japanese manager held by the British, American and Singaporeans, but very significant (α < 0.1%) and interpretable differences were found between the low-contact and high-contact heterostereotypes, and between each of these and the autostereotype. The differences between the stereotypes are discussed, and the implications for multinational organizations are considered.