Psychological Reactions to Foreign Cultures: Effects of Simultaneous Activation of Cultures

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Globalization has increased the frequency and intensity of exposure to other cultures. The research proposed here seeks to identify the social cognitive principles that explain and predict variations in people's psychological reactions when they are exposed to foreign culture. Exposure to foreign cultures may produce a broad range of psychological impacts, from inciting exclusionary, nationalist sentiments to inspiring novel, creative ideas. In the proposed research, the psychological impacts of foreign cultural exposure will be studied in a laboratory setting. Six experiments using an innovative paradigm will examine the psychological effects of simultaneous activation of cultures. In this paradigm, iconic priming is used to activate representations of two cultures simultaneously. It is hypothesized that stereotype-consistent information about a culture will be encoded elaborately and remembered well and that previously encoded information will be assimilated into the cultural stereotypes. In addition, the researcher proposes to test several other hypotheses including the self-categorization hypothesis, the cultural learning hypothesis, and the serial reproduction hypothesis. By focusing on the social cognitive consequences of simultaneous activation of culture, findings from this work will promote a new behavioral science perspective on current debates arising over the psychological impacts of intercultural contacts in the context of globalization.