Monthly Archives: April 2022

Societies Favorable to Intercultural Marriages

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In the modern world of increased social mobility and mass migration, many countries have become very multicultural. Subsequently, new mixed cultures with blended communities have been developed in many regions.

Some workplaces, public spaces, and residential areas have become spots where regular intercultural contacts occur. International trade, transnational cooperation, and the development of multicultural projects have also caused more regular inter-cultural contacts and interactions.

The Mere Exposure Effect and Interpersonal Attraction

The mere exposure effect and the familiarity effect may lead to greater interpersonal attraction in intercultural relations.

First, the “mere exposure effect” means “the more you see, the more you like.” We tend to love those we repeatedly see for a while and interact with them in a neutral or positive way. Negative experiences of interactions often produce an adverse effect, thus counteracting the positivity of the mere exposure effect. (See more in How does mere exposure induce love attraction?)

The Mere Exposure Effect and Interpersonal Familiarity

The mere exposure effect also creates an impression of familiarity. The others, whom we see on a regular basis, look more familiar and trustworthy to us. When we meet others who look and behave differently, people tend to be nervous and worried. This evolutionary tendency is what produces in-group positive bias, out-group negative bias, and intergroup tension. (See more in Love attraction to familiar others).

The Effects of Mere Exposure on Familiarity in Intercultural Relationships

Different cultures appear to us as in-groups and out-groups. For us, our culture is perceived as an ingroup, and people look and behave familiar to us because we see them regularly and adapt our perception frame. Therefore, we tend to like and trust them. On the other hand, another culture is perceived as an outgroup, and people look and behave strangely to us because we have never seen them before or have seen them rarely. Therefore, we tend to feel suspicious and apprehensive.

What can happen in culturally blended communities? People of different cultures see each other on a regular basis. We have become accustomed to seeing “others” who look and behave differently. The more we see them, the less strange they appear to us and the less they differ from us. We begin to feel they are basically the same good and trustworthy people as we are. If not, it may not be a matter of culture but rather of an individual’s personality.

Thus, when we meet people from other cultures routinely and in positive interactions, their looks and behaviors gradually become more recognizable and familiar. And due to the “familiarity effect”, we begin to love them more. So, the more often we see those of another culture, the more they look familiar. The more we perceive them as familiar, the more we like them.

The Opportunities Breed Possibilities for Intercultural Marriages

When applied to intercultural contacts and relationships, these mere exposure and familiarity effects can increase the likelihood of intercultural love, dating, and marriage. Considering these social psychological effects, we can think that once men and women of different races and ethnicities have more opportunities to see each other and interact in a positive way, they will perceive more familiarity in each other and, consequently, like and even love each other more. The matter of love, as in within-cultural relationships rather than cultural distinctions, will play a role in their attraction and possible love. Having regular opportunities for intercultural perception and interaction can trigger the simple exposure and familiarity effects. Intercultural and interpersonal attraction and love will follow accordingly.

Studies have shown that this possibility is real in friendships and romantic relationships. Physical and interactional proximity serve as the strongest predictors of interracial friendship and dating. The availability of interracial and interethnic contacts determines the likelihood that students of different races and ethnicities develop friendships. In the same way, greater opportunities for interracial contact predict a greater occurrence of interracial romantic relationships (e.g., Hallinan & Smith, 1985; Fujino, 1997).

However, different proportions of cultural majority and minority groups and belonging to majority or minority groups in a community have different effects on the likelihood of friendship and romantic relationships. In addition, different racial and ethnic groups have different wiliness and a chance to get into such intercultural relationships. Overall, Latinos and Asians are most likely to marry outside their ethnicity and race.

The Multicultural Society of the USA and Increasing Rates of Intercultural Marriages

In the USA, western states, and especially Hawaii, represent excellent examples of mingled multicultural communities favorable to intercultural relationships. The cultural mixing in these regions creates multicultural communities conducive to inter-cultural friendships, romances, and marriages.

The Pew Research Center conducted research in 2012 that showed that Hawaii and the Western United States had the highest rate of interracial marriages nationwide. According to that study, the US was a broadly diverse, multicultural country that continued to break down racial barriers and boundaries. Furthermore, the trend toward a high rate of interracial marriages was growing. In 2012, about 15% of all new marriages in the United States were interracial. In 2015, the number grew by up to 17%. The increasing numbers of Latino and Asian immigrants, as well as the growing public acceptance of such intercultural relationships among young people, were the major causes of the high and rising rates of interculturalism and polyculturalism (See more in The increasing trend of intercultural marriages in America).

The Western United States and Hawaii had the most pronounced increases in the number of intercultural marriages. In comparison to the national average, approximately 20% of newlyweds in the western United States were men and women of different races or ethnicities. In California, more than 23% of new marriages were inter-racial or inter-ethnic, a higher rate than in other western neighboring states. However, Hawaii had the highest rate of 40 percent interracial marriage in the country (Hawaii leads nation with 40 percent interracial marriage rate, by Rebecca Trounson, Feb. 16, 2012).

Consanguineous Marriages for Cultural Homogeneity Preservation

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Throughout the history of human civilizations, endogamy—the custom of marriages within communities of tribes, clans, extended families, and kin—has been common in many societies. These were consanguineous marriages between men and women who were closely related to each other.

These types of marriages were largely due to some historical, socio-economic, and cultural factors. They were practiced among the nobility, like kings, queens, and tsars. Commoners practiced consanguineous marriages for different reasons. Many families preferred their children to be married this way due to the advantages it offered in social and financial status. In these kinds of cultural settings, it is easier to maintain familial assets, structures, and alliances (Akrami et al., 2009; Hamamy, 2012; Shawky et al., 2011). 

What Are Consanguinity Marriages?

In consanguineous marriages, the man and woman marry each other within a circle of extended family and kin. Generally, in these cases, a potential partner is descended from the same ancestor as another person and belongs to the same kinship. They are the family members who are first cousins, first cousins once removed, and second cousins. Marriages between double first cousins are practiced among Arabs, and uncle-niece marriages are practiced in South India (Hamamy, 2012).

These are rarely cases of incest. Nevertheless, the substantial genetic similarities between spouses often cause the risk of inbreeding. Consanguinity in mating is a cause of a high rate of birth defects, stillbirths, abnormalities, and health complications in offspring (Heidari et al., 2016; Fareed & Afzal, 2014; Maghsoudlou et al., 2015).

Consanguineous Marriages in Modern Times

Nowadays, such consanguineous traditions in marriage have greatly declined in many modern societies. However, these marital relationships are still prevalent in some countries and communities across the world. According to some estimates, in the early 2000s, about 20% of the human population of the world still lived in communities practicing endogamy. And around 8.5% of children were born from consanguineous marriages (Akrami et al., 2009; Obeidat et al., 2010).

Consanguineous marriages are socially and culturally preferred among some communities across South India, West Asia, the Middle East region, and North Africa. They represent around 20–50% of all marriages in those societies. In these consanguine relationships, couples married to first cousins account for about one-third of all marriages (Bittles 2011; Hamamy, 2012; Heidari et al., 2014; El-Hazmi, Al-Swailem, Warsy, Al-Swailem, Sulaimani, & Al-Meshari, 1995; Tadmouri et al. 2009).

These cultural traditions of consanguinity have been enduring among emigrants from these cultural regions who now live in North America, Europe, and Australia. In their communities, the initiation of such relationships is also common.

These practices are more prevalent in rural areas where people are less educated. So, they are not aware of the inbreeding consequences for their offspring. Living in rural areas, they have low socio-economic status, low social mobility, and a large family size. They commonly marry at a younger age. Another reason is that these conditions cut down on the number of potential mates who could be good mating partners (Heidari et al., 2014; Masood et al., 2011; Sedehi et al., 2012; Tadmouri et al., 2009).

An Example of Consanguineous Marriages in Muslim Societies

In Muslim societies, cultural attitudes toward relationship initiation and marriage arrangements are very conservative. So, endogamous and consanguineous marital relationships are still relatively widespread. One such example is Saudi Arabian Muslim society.

Initiation of a marital relationship begins through matchmaking, in which personal kinship connections and consanguinity are preferred. Consanguinity arrangements are culturally highly important (Al-Dawood, Abokhodair, & Yarosh, 2017; El-Hazmi, Al-Swailem, Warsy, Al-Swailem, Sulaimani, & Al-Meshari, 1995).

Consanguineous Marriages Oppose Intercultural Relationships

Consanguineous marriages in the past have traditionally served the purposes of social and cultural preservation. In the cases of traditional conservative societies, they still work the same way despite the changing social contexts. The modern world is becoming more multicultural and intercultural in many regards, including intercultural marriages. The old tradition of consanguineous marriages continues to persist even when conditions have changed, like in modern America.

There is an increasing trend of intercultural marriages in America and many other societies become conducive to intercultural marriages.

Intercultural Relationships for Status Exchange

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Intercultural relationships are becoming more widespread in modern multicultural societies. Several theories of interracial romantic and marital relationships have been developed in sociology and social psychology. Among those are the theories of status-caste exchange, opportunity theory, ethnic identity, and interpersonal development.

In-group Versus Out-group Impediments to Intercultural Relationships and Marriages

The divisions between in-groups and out-groups have been pervasive throughout human history. Cultural communities frequently favor their own group and its members while remaining vigilant and wary of other cultural groups. They liked those who were familiar and did not trust those who were unfamiliar. They were predisposed to seeing those from their own cultural in-group with positive bias and those from other cultural “out-groups” with negative bias. These cultural stereotypes precipitated such preferences for prospective partners of the same race, ethnicity, and language over “others” who were unfamiliar. (See other posts about How does mere exposure induce love attraction? and What are cultural stereotypes?).

Consequently, they preferred to marry those of their own cultural group (in-group) and were reluctant to get into relationships with those “others.” Such long-standing traditions were preserved by extended families. They preferred the marriages of their children to those from their cultural group (race, ethnicity, religion). They frequently preferred consanguinity marriages between kin relatives.

Homogamy is a widespread tendency in romantic and marital relationships (see another post on homogamy and love). It is a definite corollary of in-group biases.

Why, despite various social and psychological barriers, have men and women been married across cultural groups?

Status Exchange Motivation in Intercultural Relationships Marriages

Throughout history, various cultural groups have frequently had different social and economic statuses. Some of them were more privileged than others. Some tribes, families, communities, societies, and countries were wealthier than others or had other social advantages. For example, some countries are more economically developed or more civilized than others. Consequently, people enjoyed these benefits. Even within countries, different social and cultural groups are more honored and fortunate than others. The Indian caste system is one of these examples.

Because of such social differentiation, marriage with someone of a higher status has been advantageous. Therefore, the status-exchange motivation is among the strongest reasons for marrying up a man or woman from a wealthy family, tribe, or ethnic group. Generally speaking, people of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to seek out marital relationships with others of higher status to make up for their low status (Rosenfeld, 2005; Sassler & Joyner, 2011; Schoen & Wooldredge, 1989).

The social status exchange model of intermarriage was and is still a reality in societies with high social inequality.

Examples of Status Exchange Intermarriages

Studies have provided evidence to support the contention that the status-caste exchange motivation works in many intermarriages. These cases are frequent in Black-White relationships. In other combinations of races and ethnicities, such as Asians, Latinos, and others, these cases are less frequent (e.g., Gullickson & Fu, 2010; Kalmijn, 2010).

Status-caste exchanges in intercultural marriages can be driven by pragmatic motivation. However, an alternative explanation is possible: passionate and romantic idealization can erase cultural differences in the eyes of beholders. The latter can be true at the initial stage of romantic relationships, when men and women believe that “love wins.” Contemporary romantic movies from Hollywood depict many romantic stories, like fairy tales. They inspire many girls—gender stereotypes persist—to marry a prince.

Fairy tales across cultures commonly depict girls’ dreams of encountering a charming prince to love and marry. The girls are typically kind and beautiful, but poor, while the prince is brave, handsome, and rich. The first two qualities of both definitely predispose them to fall in love with each other—the romantic model of love, yet the third qualities of both predispose them to the status-caste exchange model of love. Such a cultural model of love in fairy tales inspired many girls in the past. Modern Hollywood movies continue to inspire these phantasies. The reality of love, however, does not frequently work this way.

(Karandashev, 2022).

Doubts in Social Exchange Motivation

Some studies, however, express doubts about the validity of such social exchange explanations. The findings for minority groups in the United States, such as Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians, are inconclusive. Different interpretations of Black–White intermarriage are possible. Inequality between the Black and White racial groups, as well as gender differences, can be factors that interact with one another. Some analyses call into question the status-caste exchange theory (Rosenfeld, 2005).

Passionate idealization and true, genuine, and heartfelt love can play an important role in such presumably social exchange in romantic and marital relationships. Maybe Hollywood movies tell us the reality, not only beautiful dreams and illusions.

Socio-economic Equality and Social Status Exchange in Relationships

The social status exchange model of intercultural marriages will likely be on the decline in modern societies. The rise in social, economic, and educational equality in many modern societies is likely to make status-exchange motivation less important for people who marry from different cultures.

Intercultural Marriage Statistics in America

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Due to increased mobility and immigration in recent decades, many countries have become more multicultural than ever before. Such migration has created new mixed and blended cultural communities in many regions. Intercultural encounters on a daily basis are becoming common in workplaces and public areas. Consequently, intercultural romantic relationships and intercultural marriage statistics.

When people regularly meet people of other cultures, their appearance and behavior may look more familiar. The more they see others and the more they look familiar, the more they like them. The mere exposure effect makes others familiar, and cultural differences do not preclude interpersonal attraction and love.

Intercultural Dating in America

Men and women now have more opportunities to encounter prospective romantic partners from other cultures than they did in the past. Along with increased intercultural encounters, the likelihood of intercultural dating and marriage also increases. The legal issues impeding interracial and interethnic marriages have also been changed for the better. Therefore, the rate of intercultural romantic relationships has been substantially increasing in recent decades.

Intermarriages in America

Surprisingly, for a democratic country, marriage between different racial groups was banned as unconstitutional in the United States for a long time. Interracial marriages became legal in the United States only in the 1960s. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned miscegenation laws in the US in 1967. The subsequent expansion of interethnic romantic relationships in the following few decades was substantial.

The Modern Increase in Intercultural Marriage Statistics in America

Since 1967, interethnic marriages have increased in number, crossing borders and erasing boundaries. The rate of intercultural marriages has been steadily growing.

In 1967, when intermarriages became legal, only 3% of all marriages were between partners of a different race or ethnicity.

In 1980, the number of intermarriages was already at 7%.

In 2008, around 14.6% of new marriages were between partners of different races or ethnicities.

In 2015, the number of interracial and interethnic marriages reached 17%.

Basically, this means that while in 1980 there were about 230,000 newlyweds married to someone of a different race or ethnicity, in 2015 there were already more than 670,000 intermarried newlyweds.

Intercultural Couples in Committed Cohabiting Relationships

Besides the fact that interracial and interethnic relationships are common among newlyweds, they are also common among many cohabiting partners. Young men and women may continue to feel social pressure against interethnic marriage, so they may consider living together in committed cohabiting relationships. 

Therefore, the frequency of interracial cohabitation can be even higher than that of marriage. For instance, in 2015, about 6% of cohabiting partners were in such informal relationships. Among those, 18% of these partners were of different races or ethnicities.

Overall, one can estimate that the total number of intermarried people in the US who lived together in 2015 was around 11 million. That accounts for around 10% of all married people. For comparison, in 1980, there were about 3 million, or 3% of married people, who had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity.

Thus, we see that, currently, a higher number of young men and women in America are willing and ready to have intercultural relationships and marry someone of a different race or ethnicity.

Public Attitudes Toward Intercultural Marriage in the USA

Two major factors have driven these dramatic changes in the number of intercultural marriages. First, the changes occurred because of the weakening of longstanding negative cultural attitudes against intermarriage. Second, the changes happened because of a multi-decade surge of immigration from Latin America and Asia.

The public media has also changed the depiction of interethnic relationships. Public sentiment has slowly become more accepting of interracial relationships. Public openness toward interracial relationships increases gradually but steadily.

The tendencies in interethnic dating attitudes are shifting toward greater approval and engagement in interethnic relationships, especially with young adult and adolescent populations. Scholars argue that there are individual and societal benefits to engaging in and maintaining close relationships with members of different ethnicities (e.g., Jacobson & Johnson, 2006; Jones, 2011; Knox et al., 2000; Troy, Lewis-Smith, & Laurenceau, 2006).

What Is Cultural Identity?

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An individual’s identity is fundamentally composed of personal, social, and cultural identities as well as more specific ones like sexual or gender identity. They all explain how people perceive themselves, but they characterize different traits of individual identity. The cultural identity of a person is closely intertwined with his or her other selves, such as personal and social identities.

Cultural Identity of a Person

Cultural identity is a person’s awareness of what cultural group she or he belongs to. Nationality, ethnic group, religious faith, or social class are all examples of cultural identities. This identity is a personal characteristic that is both individual and social in nature. It is up to a person to decide with which cultural group he or she has a special cultural affinity.

What Does “Cultural Identity” Include?

Cultural identity includes a category label, knowledge, and social connections with cultural group.

A person’s cultural category label is how a person identifies with a specific cultural membership. This is how the person calls himself or herself. These labels are national, ethnic, religious, and other group membership identifiers.

Cultural knowledge is what a person understands about their own cultural characteristics. This is how much the person knows about his or her culture and what culturally specific values, norms, practices, and people’s characteristics they know.

Social cultural connections are the relationships that a person has with kin, family, close friends, neighbors, coworkers, and other members of their cultural community. Through such cultural immersion, the person acquires cultural beliefs and traditions.

Varieties of Cultural Identity

The cultural identity of a person can include their nationality: Greek, Italian, Spanish, German, British, Canadian, American, Japanese, or Chinese. But being born in a country or in a family of parents of a certain nationality does not define the identity of a person. Identity is how a person is aware of himself or herself and what nationality he or she personally identifies with.

Regional and local specifics can also define how a person is aware of his or her cultural identity. A friend of mine, for instance, once told me that he identifies himself as Bavarian as well as European. Yet he does not feel himself to be a German. It is up to him to decide which identity he considers his personal self.

The cultural identity of a person can also reflect the ethnic group that person belongs to, such as Indigenous peoples of America, Dutch Americans, German Americans, Hispanic Americans, and others in the USA; Han Chinese, Zhuang people, Uyghurs, and others in China. Each of these ethnic groups has its own cultural specificities. Once again, it is important for the identity of a person to recognize himself or herself in terms of such attribution.

Religious faith is often linked to a cultural group that people identify with. For some, being Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, or Muslim is an essential part of who they are and their identity.

The lower, middle, and upper socioeconomic classes are also considered different cultures. People can feel this social attribution as a part of their cultural identity (Karandashev, 2021).

These can also be cultural generations according to age, such as the silent generation, the baby boomer generation, the millennials, the gen X, or the gen Z. According to the times they grew up in and the social contexts that affected their enculturation, they have lived in different historical cultures.

The Dynamics of Identity

Cultural identity is often in flux. Various historical, social, and cultural experiences can change the identity of a person. This, for example, often occurs during acculturation in a new society into which a person has immigrated. These changes vary from one person to another. A cultural identity is a dynamic notion within a person. Some people undergo more identity changes than others.

Intercultural communication frequently engages cultural stereotypes about people of other cultures. They can facilitate or impede our adequate understanding of other individuals.

What Are Personal Identity and Social Identity?

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Personal, social, and cultural identities, along with more specific kinds like sexual or gender identity, are essential constituencies of an individual’s identity. All these are about how people are aware of themselves, but they differ in the attributes that represent each of these identities.

Personal and Social Constituents of Individual Identity

Personal identity and social identity can have various contributions to our individual identity. Some people consider their personal qualities to be the most defining part of their identity, while others view their social identities as the most important part of their identity. People in different cultures also differ in this regard.

For example, in individualistic Western societies, such as the US, with high values of autonomy, individuals feel independent from any social group. Therefore, many people believe that their individual selves primarily define their identity. On the other hand, in collectivistic Eastern societies, such as Japan, with high values of connection, individuals feel interdependent with “their social group.” Therefore, many people believe that their social selves largely define their identity.

What Is Personal Identity?

The term “identity” commonly refers to the personal identity of a human individual. Identity is an individual’s understanding, self-identification, and being of who or what she or he is.

“Personal identity” is a set of beliefs, roles, traits, and other characteristics that a person believes describe himself or herself. This kind of identity refers to what kind of individual qualities a person has: whether the person is small or big, tall or short, what age they are, whether the person is emotional or rational, outgoing and extraverted or reserved and introverted, energetic or not. Personal identity can refer to self-conception and self-esteem, even though the latter may be closely related to social identity.

Personal identity refers to an individual’s “self” and how she or he is aware of it. Personal identity can also refer to his or her sexual and gender identities. However, someone may argue that gender is a social construction.

Personal awareness and self-attribution of what group the person belongs to refer to his or her social identity. Personal and social identities are intertwined with each other.

What Is the Social Identity of a Person?

Social identity is the self-perception, self-awareness, self-attribution, and self-conception of a person in relation to various social attributes and characteristics. Among those are the social roles that a person fulfills, such as mother, father, daughter, son, student, teacher, professional, worker, merchant, and customer.

People tend to divide the social world around them into “us” and “them”. That is called “social categorization,” when we put others and ourselves into social groups.

Social categorization of ourselves is an important part of our social cognition. Based on such social categorization, we socially identify ourselves with one or another group, as well as with other social groups. Then, we compare “our group,” since it is a part of our social identity, with “the other group.” Such a comparison can either humiliate or boost our self-esteem as social individuals. We are better than they are. We are stronger and smarter. The strength and intelligence of a group add extra support to our own individual qualities.

Social identity theory defines “social identity” as a person’s sense of who they are regarding group membership. The groups they belong to give people a sense of their social identity. For a person, belonging to groups such as family, friends, classmates, sports teams, and social clubs that she or he belongs to is valuable for their self-esteem.

See more about this in What are cultural stereotypes?

What Are Cultural Stereotypes?

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The article explains how social categorization, intergroup comparison, group identification, and outgroup bias shape cultural stereotypes.

Social Identity Theory

Social identity theory is a good explanatory framework for many things in our social cognitions, relationships, and behaviors. The concepts of social categorization, social identification, and social comparison of in-group and out-group also explain the formation of social and cultural stereotypes.(Brown, 2000; Hogg, 2016; McLeod, 2019, October 24; Tajfel, 1982, 2001, Turner, Brown, & Tajfel, 1979); Tajfel & Turner, 1979/2004).

Social Categorization, Group identification, and Intergroup comparison

First, we categorize the things around us. Human perception tends to categorize objects to understand them. In the same way, humans categorize people and other social things to understand them. This is called “social categorization.”

We apply such social categories as male and female, boys and girls, the social and gender roles of a child, the social roles of a parent, a student, or a businessman because they help us understand the social world around us. We learn that people can be of different genders and sexual orientations. People can be from the high, middle, or low socioeconomic classes. They can be liberals and conservatives, Christians and Muslims, Germans, Americans, and British. Then, we assign them to these categories to predict what to expect from them. This is the source of our cognitive schemas and stereotypes. This is how we grasp social, political, and gender roles.

Second, we socially identify ourselves as members of social categories and groups that we believe we then belong to. And then, we adopt the appropriate social identity of the group we have categorized ourselves as fitting into. This is called “social identification.”

If one categorizes herself as a girl, it is likely that she adopts the corresponding gender identity and behaves like a woman, conforming to the gender norms and roles of womanhood. For her, it is emotionally important to identify with this group, and her self-esteem becomes bound up with its membership.

Third, if we categorize ourselves as belonging to a social group and identify with that group, then we begin to compare “our group” with “other groups.” This is called “social comparison.” We tend to favorably compare our group to other groups. This allows us to maintain our self-esteem.

In-groups Versus Out-groups

Social categorization tends to serve not only objective social cognition but also subjective self-identification. Therefore, people distinguish social groups in reference to themselves as either in-group (us) or out-group (them). And they are biased in their social perceptions.

First, they tend to see others in their own group as more similar to each other than they are. They are also predisposed to seeing others in the group to which they belong (in-group) as different from others (out-group).

Second, they are prone to seeing positive qualities in those from their in-group and negative qualities in those from their out-group. They are subjective and biased because such favoritism toward their own group enhances their self-image.

Social Categorization and Stereotypes

Stereotyping is the cognitive process of social categorization. It is natural for people to put things together into groups based on their similarities and differences. It is natural for people to stereotype others. Stereotyping is a normal tendency of social cognition when it is flexible and capable of adjustment.

A negative effect of stereotyping appears when social categorization turns into shaping an oversimplified and rigid image of a social group and a particular type of person. In this case, people tend to amplify the similarities between people belonging to the same group and the differences between those belonging to different social groups.

When members of one group identify as opponents of another, they must assert their status in order to maintain their self-esteem. Antagonism and contestation with other groups are related to their competing identities.

Cultural Stereotypes

Cultural stereotypes are just another kind of social stereotype. We categorize people in the same way, referring to the cultural groups they belong to. That is called a “cultural stereotype.”

Plenty of social labels can be perceived as cultural. These are Whites, Blacks, and Asians. These are Christians and Muslims. These are Palestinians and Jews. These are the Albanians and Serbs. One of these can be our “in-group,” while another can be our “out-group” for us.

The in-group is our “own culture,” while the out-group is “their culture.” Ours is certainly better than theirs. Our culture is noble and civilized, while theirs is savage and barbaric. Our great religion versus their primitive superstitions.

The in-group versus out-group distinction is a source of ethnocentrism, which seems difficult to overcome because it is entrenched in human social nature and the basics of social cognition.

Social and cultural stereotypes are at the root of intercultural prejudices and clashes. Prejudiced stereotypes between cultures can cause racism, discrimination, and other detrimental cultural clashes, such as between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, and between the Serbs and Bosnians in the former Yugoslavia (McKeown, Haji, Ferguson, eds., 2016).

Who Is a Multicultural Person?

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The article describes studies showing how multicultural communities and cultural mixing foster the formation of a multicultural mind and a multicultural person.

Intercultural Encounters and Cultural Mixing

Inter-cultural connections and cultural mixing in multicultural countries, states, and residential areas are conducive to the development of multicultural minds and personalities. These can be multi-national, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-faith neighborhood communities. People of different cultural groups live together and interact on a regular basis. The more they see each other, the more they like each other, unless some aversive circumstances appear.

Modern urban and metropolitan neighborhoods and the cultural borderlands (communities living near national borders) are often culturally mixed and multicultural. In such residential and workplace areas, the rate of intercultural encounters and relationships is often high. People of different races, nationalities, ethnicities, and faiths meet each other, date, marry, and raise their multicultural children.

Multicultural Communities that Are Conducive to Polycultural Development

In some residential or workplace communities, several cultures are concurrently circulated in the social lives of people. These conditions tacitly shape the culture of polyculturalism. Such polyculturalism implies that “individuals take influence from multiple cultures” (Morris, Chiu, & Liu, 2015, p. 631). The people in those communities naturally develop their polycultural personalities.

The culturally mixed and multicultural circumstances of living and working allow people to become bicultural and even multicultural. They develop their cultural competencies. Their minds and personalities become open and capable of perceiving and acting beyond cultural borders. They see in each other a person, not a member of a cultural group (race, ethnicity, or nationality).

What Does the Metaphor “Melting Pot” Mean?

The metaphor of the “melting pot” is widely used in the USA in reference to America’s status as a country of immigrants where all cultures merge. Although it has not always been and is not everywhere perfectly this way, nevertheless, this idea has always been an American cultural value and inspiration. The metaphor of the “melting pot” means that the cultural differences in the United States melt and blend together, like metals being melted down to become an alloy.

The Western states of the USA, and especially Hawaii, are excellent examples of such multicultural societies with many multicultural minds. Multicultural encounters in the lives of people living there are common. They do not pay much attention to the social and cultural attributes of others around them. They treat each other just as humans with their individual differences and personalities, rather than as members of social and cultural groups.

Who Are the Multicultural Minds?

Multicultural people are those who have good knowledge and understanding of two or more cultures. They have internalized two or more cultures in their self-awareness. These people identify themselves with two or more cultures. They can’t tell if they’re Americans, Mexicans, or Japanese. These people are somebody else. They are Mexican-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Arab-Americans, Chinese-Canadians, or Turkish-Germans. They have an identity mix of two or more cultures.

Due to the multicultural construction of their minds, such individuals are capable of functioning effectively in more than one culture. They know more than one language and develop multicultural competencies. They can think in ways that reflect multiple cultures.

There is strong evidence that being bicultural and having bicultural integration can have positive consequences for personal development. Multicultural individuals often develop multifaceted and complex emotions, cognitions, and personalities (Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005; Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martinez, 2000; Phinney & Alipuria, 2006; see for review, Karandashev, 2021).

Characteristics of a Multicultural Person

A multicultural personality is a set of attitudes, traits, and behaviors that predispose a person to adapt well to culturally different contexts, communicate effectively, and act adequately. Multicultural individuals are secure in their multiple identities, such as gender, race, ethnicity, and religion. They are intellectually curious regarding novel cultures, cognitively flexible, emotionally stable, culturally empathic, committed to social justice, and feel centered about spirituality. The traits of a multicultural personality are open-mindedness, social initiative, flexibility, emotional stability, and cultural empathy (Ponterotto et al., 2011; Van Der Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000).

Being open-minded

Being open-minded means having open and unprejudiced attitudes toward different cultural groups. Multicultural people are open-minded regarding cultural diversity. They do not care much about nationality, race, ethnicity, or religious faith. These people care more about what kind of person another individual is, what qualities she or he has, and what he or she is capable of. They do not have or, at least, suppress their explicit cultural stereotypes and prejudices. And anyway, they do not exhibit them.

Social initiative

Social initiative is a person’s trait expressed in the tendency to take initiative and approach social situations actively. Due to this disposition, multicultural people interact easily with people of other cultures. They are capable of making friends with other cultural groups.

Flexibility

Flexibility is a person’s ability to adjust their behavior to new and unknown situations. Such a person can change their communication and behavior according to a new cultural context. Multicultural individuals perceive new and unknown situations with flexibility. They consider them challenges rather than threats. They change their behavioral patterns in response to unexpected and limited situations that happen in another cultural context.

Emotional stability

Emotional stability is a personality trait of multicultural individuals that allows them to remain calm in stressful situations. Such emotional states are possible when a person encounters culturally different contexts and behaviors, when things do not go the way they do in one’s own culture. Because of this, a person may experience tension, social detachment, fear, frustration, and interpersonal conflict. Therefore, the disposition of emotional stability is useful for interaction with people from other cultures. It helps to cope well with such feelings of emotional discomfort and distress.

Cultural empathy

Cultural empathy is a personality trait of multicultural people that gives them the ability to emotionally understand and relate to the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of others whose cultural background is different from their own. Multicultural individuals function effectively with people of other cultures because they have an adequate understanding of those cultures. Cultural empathy is an important capacity that allows us to “read” other cultures.

What is multicultural in culturally diverse societies?

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In multicultural societies, people can be in various connections, interactions, and relationships with each other and with other cultural groups. They can coexist in peace or in tension, subordinate cultural groups or respect cultural equality.

Cultures and people in multicultural communities can either recognize the existence of cultural diversity or deny it. They can tolerate cultural differences or accept them as natural and welcoming. Cultural attitudes towards others’ cultural differences and expressions can be respectful or not. They can be appreciative of what different cultures contribute to a community or not.

Two forms of multiculturalism ideologies

Multiculturalism in societies and people can have different psychological attitudes and ideologies. One position admits multiculturalism as simply acknowledging the presence of different cultural groups living in a society. People may like others of a different culture or not, consider them equal to their own group or not. Thus, attitudes toward another cultural group can be positive or negative, benevolent or malevolent, and represent an attitude from a dominant position to a minority or an equality position.

An alternative position acknowledges multiculturalism as the positive and benevolent attitudes towards people of other cultures, which not only admit, but also respect and accept these cultural differences. Such a multicultural society and multicultural people accept the people of other cultures as they are, without the limitations that cultural stereotypes impose. In these multicultural attitudes, attribution to personality prevails over attribution to culture. For example, a person is loud and talkative not because he or she is American, but because he is extroverted and excited.

Such multicultural attitudes also tend to abandon the notions of a (dominant) majority culture and a (subordinate) minority culture. This progressive multiculturalism discards the notions of “majority” and “minority.” Every culture is equal, regardless of its prevalence in a society.

This approach minimizes hot public discussions and formal collections of diversity-specific personal information. Is it really important to ask what your race and ethnicity are, whether you are Hispanic or non-Hispanic? Is it really important to ask about sexual orientation? What if a person does not know who they are or does not want to reveal their identity? What if a person is not willing to come out? I don’t think that institutional and governmental agencies should care about all this.

Scientific committees on ethics often prohibit asking some sensitive questions, such as sexual orientation. Why do social institutions dare to do this? We should respect such personal and confidential information without bringing it into public view. It is not a matter of society to intrude into a personal life. It is not appropriate to sneak into men’s and women’s beds, asking what and with whom they have sex. We must distinguish between the freedom to be and the necessity to reveal.

Multiculturalism and polyculturalism

The liberal form of multiculturalism comes up with the idea of “polycultural multiculturalism,” which is different from “traditional multiculturalism.”

What is multicultural and what is polycultural? The concepts of multiculturalism and polyculturalism are frequently treated as synonymous. Both “multi” and “poly” literally mean many, and they seem similar in their meanings.

The lay theories of multiculturalism and polyculturalism have been associated with quite similar intergroup cultural attitudes and behaviors. Yet, some believe they are different (e.g., Bernardo et al., 2016; Haslam, 2016; Osborn et al., 2020).

The proponents of the polyculturalism ideology assert that multiculturalism considers cultures as static phenomena and practices, emphasizing their differences and coexistence. It is believed that multiculturalism still admits stereotypical cultural attitudes and prejudice. The ideology of multiculturalism can prompt people to perceive cultural diversity as a threat to their ingroup’s status and power. As a result, these attitudes can increase conservative social views (Osborn et al., 2020).

Different from this, these scholars claim that polyculturalism acknowledges cultures as dynamic, interactive, interconnected phenomena and practices that are always in flux. The cultural ideology of polyculturalism focuses on connections and interactions among different racial or ethnic groups. Polycultural attitudes are associated with personal appreciation for and comfort with diversity. People with such attitudes express their willingness to have intergroup contact. They have egalitarian beliefs and positive attitudes towards liberal immigration. They endorse affirmative action policies (Rosenthal & Levy, 2012).

Advocates of polyculturalism oppose this concept to the notion of multiculturalism. They argue that the latter emphasizes differences, divisions, and separations among various cultures.

General comment

This conceptual distinction between multiculturalism and polyculturalism is important in several respects. However, because both words mean “many cultures,” they are often used interchangeably in literature.

To me personally, “multiculturalism” sounds like a general term, while “polyculturalism” is rather a specific form of multiculturalism. This is why “multicultural” and “multiculturalism” are words widely used in literature. I think it would be better to oppose “polyculturalism” to some other specific form of multiculturalism.

Polyculturalism, as a general term, can also come in specific forms like biculturalism, triculturalism, and more.

Other articles of interest:

Cultures fuse and connect, so we should embrace polyculturalism (by Nick Haslam, 2017).

What is multiculturalism?

What is the multicultural diversity of countries?

What Is Multicultural Identity?

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In daily life, people frequently need to answer questions about their race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, gender, and age. To those who ask, it looks like a simple question. However, it is less simple for people to answer. Many people have a multicultural identity.

Contemporary understandings of personal, social, and cultural identity appear more complex now than before. In some countries, regions, and neighborhoods, social mixing and cross-cultural relationships happen more often than in other places.

Some modern urban communities have various ethnic and national cultural groups that regularly and routinely contact each other. Some metropolitan residential areas are quite multicultural. Cultural mixing occurs in the same way in communities living near national borders—the cultural borderland. The rate of intercultural relationships in such regions can be high. Men and women of different ethnicities, nationalities, and races marry and have children.

The Challenges of Multicultural Identity for Intercultural Children

For children of such intercultural marriages, it may be challenging to identify themselves with one or another cultural group, such as ethnicity, race, or nationality. Who are they? Similar challenges are experienced by immigrants attempting to integrate into their new culture.

For these children, it may be challenging to identify themselves with one or another cultural identity because they have a mixed identity of two cultures. They have a bicultural identity, which is a kind of multicultural identity.

Bicultural Identity

Bicultural identity is the cultural identity of a person in which she or he combines the cultural features of two different cultures. These can be a mixture of French and German or Mexican and European-American.

For example, the bicultural identity of an immigrant can include the attributes of both ethnic identities acquired from the culture of their origin and the culture where they live now. The same bicultural identity can be experienced by the children of intercultural marriages.

Bicultural Identity Integration

When the personal cultural identities of two different cultures are incorporated, these two parts of bicultural identity can be separated from each other or incorporated into one. Cultural boundaries within a bicultural person can be distinct or blurred.

Here are some examples of how multicultural people who currently live in pluralistic U.S. society yet still have close connections with Korea experience their cultural identity.

Examples of Bicultural Identity Integration

First example:

Jean Kohl, a 9-year-old daughter of a German father and a Korean mother, was born and raised in the United States. Her parents, fluent speakers of German and Korean respectively, adopted English as the primary language at home. “I am an American,” proclaimed she, but she often ended her proclamation with an addendum that she was also German and Korean. For several summers she traveled to visit her maternal or paternal grandparents in Korea or Germany, during which she was exposed to her parents native cultures and languages. The German, Korean and U. S. heritage blended in her cultural repertoire. For Jean, where does the “American” cultural border end and other cultural borders begin?

(Chang, 1999)

Second example:

Carrie Baumstein, a 20-year-old woman, was born in Korea and adopted by a Messianic Jewish-American couple when she was 2 years old. She has lived in the States ever since. She was not exposed to much Korean culture and language when she was growing up, but was instead surrounded by her parents Jewish tradition. Despite her primary identity with the Jewish culture, she was often reminded by her relatives and neighbors of her Korean or Asian linkage. She was in an identity search for Asianness when she was attending a small Christian college on the East Coast. For Carrie, where do the cultural borders lie between the Korean and the American and between the Messianic Jew and the Christian?

(Chang, 1999)

Third example:

Peter Lee, a 15-year-old, was born in the States to immigrant parents from Korea. His parents own and operate a dry cleaning shop in a suburb of Philadelphia. Their English is functional for the business but they prefer speaking Korean on all other occasions. Peters family attends a Korean church regularly, which usually serves as a cultural community as much as a religious one. Peters Korean is so limited that he usually speaks English, although his parents speak Korean to him. He is definitely an American in his mind and heart, perhaps a Korean-American occasionally. But his preference of Korean-American peers to others is a curious phenomenon. Where lies the cultural border that divides the Korean and the “American” for Peter?

(Chang, 1999)

Fourth example:

Elaine Sook-Ja Cho, 50 years old, immigrated to the States 30 years ago to marry a Korean bachelor 10 years her senior. Her husband came to the States as a student and found employment upon completion of his study. Elaine was a housewife for 20 years before undertaking a small grocery business. She speaks “Konglish” (a mixture of Korean sentence structure and English words) but she seems to be at ease speaking English. She is Korean in her heart but “Americanized” in her own words and by her life style. For Sook-Ja how far does the Korean cultural border stretch to meet the “American” culture?

(Chang, 1999)

What Does It Mean to Have a Multicultural Identity?

Thus, these men and women experience their multicultural identities in various ways. They cross cultural borders daily. They turn out to be culturally Korean in the morning, German during lunch, “American” in the afternoon, and Korean once again in the evening. Amazing transformations within their cultural identities.