| Abstract: | Intercultural interaction is seen as a situation in which the way others' behavior is categorized (that is, given meaning) is often inaccurate or inappropriate due to unfamiliar cues. These errors cause incorrect expectation, which other research has found to cause decreases in problem solving ability, adaptability, and health. A better understanding of this phenomena can be gained through an awareness of how information is believed to be organized in meaningful ways in human thought: information is classified (categorized) on the basis of similarity. Since people vary in their category “width,” an understanding of “category width” should give useful insight into intercultural inferences. A review of three studies in fact supports the validity of this categorization approach in making predictions about individual's reactions to people of other cultures at both the attitudinal and behavioral level. Overall, the concepts of categorization and category width are seen as unifying constructs which bring together not only a number of intercultural phenomena but also have implications for understanding and training individuals in an intercultural context. |
