Category Archives: What is it?

scholarly ground explanations for the concepts related to love

How Is Cultural Evolution Different from Social Evolution?

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Throughout the centuries, the interaction of biological, ecological, social, economic, and cultural factors has determined the evolution of human mental processes, behaviors, and social practices. Therefore, evolutionary approaches are currently popular not only in the biological sciences but also in the social sciences. Social scientists delve into research on cultural evolution that explains many biological and social phenomena that have appeared throughout human history and in contemporary cultural contexts (see for review, Karandashev, 2022).

What Is an Evolutionary Perspective?

For the comprehension of many events and facts in life, behavior, and society, the evolutionary approach, as a scientific framework of thinking and inquiry, is progressive, productive, and logical. According to general evolutionary theory, evolution is the process by which organisms, individuals, societal groups, ideas, cultural phenomena, artifacts, and societal institutions change over time. These changes occur due to changes in the physical, biological, and social environments and help people adapt, survive, and thrive.

Evolutionary processes in humans and societies happen at different levels, such as the level of individual life, the level of species, the level of local cultural groups, and the level of larger social groups. Because of mutations, organisms, species, social groups, and individuals possess a wide range of qualities, attributes, traits, and features. Some organisms, species, social groups, and individuals have better-suited qualities and are well-suited for their environment. Therefore, they are more likely to “survive,” “reproduce,” and pass on their qualities to a future generation (Karandashev, 2021).

What Is Behavioral Evolution?

The basic needs of humans are the same or similar. However, they live in different local biological and social conditions, which provide them with different ecological, economic, and social affordances to meet these needs. Therefore, they adjust and adapt accordingly. These are the sources of their biological and cultural evolution.

Due to various geographical, economic, and cultural circumstances, different societies and local communities can afford individuals to exhibit certain personality traits, behaviors, and social relations. For example, collectivistic and individualistic societies provide different sets of affordances for people. They differ in the ways in which they shape the personalities and behaviors of people.

Collectivistic societies are characterized by interdependent and often hierarchical social organizations. They have low geographic, social, and relationship mobility. Collectivistic societies’ social norms promote interdependent models of self in people while discouraging the open expression of emotions.

Individualistic societies are characterized by independence in social organization that is often egalitarian. They have relatively high geographic, social, and relationship mobility. Individualistic societies encourage people to develop independent models of themselves and to express their emotions openly (Karandashev, 2021).

What Is Social Evolution?

Social and cultural evolution are changes in social and human life that are based on the same evolutionary process and principles.

According to the evolutionary processes of social selection, societies acquire and transmit some social institutions, actions, and changes more easily than others. Such social transmission transforms and alters them. Organizations of social groups, human cooperation, and competition evolve over time because of the social and economic development of societies (Karandashev, 2021).

For example, social evolution favors human cooperation. From an evolutionary perspective, people who have lived more cooperatively are better suited to their environment. And over time, this capability has been passed down from one generation to the next, changing the way people live and work. The more cooperative type of personality evolved across generations. The evolution of people’s ability to work together also explains the social organization of communities and larger societies throughout history.

As a result, humans are more cooperative than other primates, and this makes a big difference (Tomasello, 2011).

What Cultural Evolution?

Cultural evolution explains how cultural knowledge, ideas, meanings, values, norms, and practices transmit and evolve over time according to the principles of variation, differential fitness, and inheritance (in similar ways as in biological species). Cultural evolution occurs when the environment supports certain social ideas, cultural values, social norms, behaviors, and personality traits over others.

The cultural evolution of languages, social organizations, human cooperation and competition, and cultural traditions and norms present such examples (e.g., Whiten, Hinde, Stringer, & Laland, eds., 2012; Mace, 2000; Mace & Holden, 2005, see for review, Karandashev, 2021). Some principles of genetic evolution, however, are not relevant to cultural evolution (Mesoudi, 2016; Mesoudi, Whiten, & Laland, 2006).

Islamic Arranged Marriages

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Islamic arranged marriages have been a traditional type of marriage in Muslim countries for centuries. They are still widespread in the Muslim world and among Muslim emigrants in many other countries.

What Is an Marriage?

An arranged marriage is one in which parents or other senior members of the extended family select a potential mate for their daughter or son. Community elders and professional matchmakers might also be involved in finding a suitable spouse. The groom and bride have little opportunity to express their preferences as to whom they want to marry. Parents and other members of the extended family also decide on the proper time and plan the wedding events and rituals according to cultural traditions.

Both the groom and the bride usually consent to all these arrangements out of respect for this cultural tradition. They both rely on others in the planning of their wedding. They may have some degree of freedom to express their wishes about whom they want to marry. However, this preference must be in accordance with family wisdom. Cultural traditions of arranged marriages have been typical across many collectivistic societies throughout the centuries.

Collectivistic traditions and modernization

This kind of marriage has been widespread in collectivistic societies because of the cultural value of relationship interdependence in families and other social groups. Arranged marriages are still practiced in some traditional collectivistic countries, in rural areas more frequently than in urban ones, and among lower-educated men and women more often than among more educated young people.

Collectivistic attitudes toward arranged marriage in traditional societies are quite positive and different from modern individualistic societies.

The current modernization of many traditional societies, however, makes some people doubt the suitability of this old cultural custom for a new generation of men and women.

Let us review such practices of arranged marriage in Muslim societies, in which collectivistic cultures have been traditionally very strong. Here are two of them: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The Islamic Arranged Marriages in Pakistan

The Muslim country of Pakistan is a typical example of a traditional society with high values of collectivism, power distance, and social inequality (Hofstede, 1998; 2001, 2016).

People of different socioeconomic classes are distinctly separated according to social strata. Societal and personal relationships are structured collectivistically and hierarchically. Members of society recognize and accept social status differences, power distance, and social hierarchy as necessary for the proper organization of society.

Interpersonal connections and relationships recognize both collectivistic values and the value of power differences. Gender inequality and patriarchal families and institutions are common, especially in rural areas.

Islamic arranged marriages have been traditionally highly prevalent in Pakistani culture. Even in an urban Muslim community in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, these kinds of marriages were common in 1961–1964 (Korson, 1968).

Relatives arrange their sons’ and daughters’ marriages, selecting a proper mate from a pool of eligible prospective partners in the community. Families from the lower social classes have a limited pool of potential candidates. So, they choose their boys’ and daughters’ spouses from the neighborhood community. Families from the upper social classes can afford to choose their potential marital partners from the larger regional population.

The Modern Cultural Evolution of Islamic Arranged Marriages

Islamic arranged marriages have been undergoing cultural evolution in recent years, along with the gradual changes in modern Pakistan and its social practices. The tradition is still popular in rural areas and among low-educated people. However, new trends toward freedom of marital choice and love marriages are evident. Educated women feel more empowered in their relationships now than ever before (Ahmed, 2022; Khurshid, 2020).

The Islamic Arranged Marriages in Saudi Arabia

The Muslim society of Saudi Arabia is another example of traditional culture. Collectivism, power distance, and social inequality are culturally acceptable values (Hofstede, 1998; 2001).

Arranged marriages in Saudi Arabian society are similar in many regards to those in other Muslim countries, yet the attitudes toward gender roles, relationships, and marriage are more conservative and culturally old-fashioned.

Personal kinship connections with a prospective mate are often preferred in Saudi Arabian arranged marriages (El-Hazmi et al., 1995). Such consanguinity implies that a potential spouse would be descended from the same ancestor and belong to the same kinship. Such closely related candidates can be first cousins, first cousins once removed, second cousins, third cousins, or more distantly related men and women. Thus, the consanguineous form of arranged marriage is quite common.

Generally, matchmaking and arranged marriages in Saudi Arabia are characterized by

  1. Gender segregation assumes that a woman and a stranger man are not allowed to meet without a “mahram” for the woman to be protected…
  2. “Bir al walidayn” implies family involvement and stipulates that a son or a daughter needs to involve their parents in the marriage process and obey their opinions,
  3. “Khotobah” entails the formal agreement between both families that is necessary for the relationship to proceed… (Al-Dawood, Abokhodair, & Yarosh, 2017, p. 1022).

Nowadays, men in Saudi Arabia may have a certain freedom to select a spouse. However, their choices are limited. A man knows little about a prospective bride. They can meet, but only if they are chaperoned. The more important thing for marriage is how relatives perceive the suitability of a possible match. (Al-Dawood, Abokhodair, & Yarosh, 2017). 

The transformation of cultural attitudes toward arranged marriage in Saudi Arabia has been slow in recent decades. They are still fairly conservative.

Collectivistic Values of Arranged Marriages

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The practices of arranged marriages have been common in many traditional collectivistic societies in the past. They are still performed in certain old-fashioned cultural communities in India, China, Muslin societies, and some other countries.

What Are Arranged Marriages?

Arranged marriage is an old, traditional way for men and women to meet for the purpose of marriage and marry each other in many collectivistic cultures. In this kind of matrimonial arrangement, the groom and bride have limited control over who and when they marry and how and when the ceremonies are organized. Instead, other family members, religious leaders, community elders, or professional matchmakers find a decent match for a man and a woman to become a good couple for life. These people, as well as the whole family, are responsible for the appropriate organization of the wedding in terms of the right time and proper rituals.

Practices of Arranged Marriages in Collectivistic Cultures

Collectivistic societies are characterized by the strong individual interdependence of members of families and other social groups. Such interdependence is highly valued and widely practiced in collectivistic cultures. Therefore, arranged marriages are very suitable for family formation in a cultural context where marriage is a matter that concerns the entire family. Being interdependent in a family, a man and a woman cannot afford to ignore its interests. Even though they may feel romantic attraction and experience love for someone, they recognize that an arranged marriage is a cultural norm that they need to abide by. Consequently, they agreed to such an arrangement.

It should be noted that cultural traditions of arranged marriages have substantially varied across collectivistic societies throughout history (Karandashev, 2017).

How People in Collectivistic Cultures Feel About Arranged Marriages

People who were raised in a collectivistic culture feel differently than those who were raised in an individualistic culture regarding an arranged marriage because they have different conceptions of individuality and models of self. Therefore, they understand freedom of choice differently.

People in individualistic societies are more likely to have culturally normatively independent models of themselves, while people in collectivistic cultures are more likely to have interdependent self-in-relationship-with-other models of themselves. These differences determine different attitudes towards arranged marriages.

It should be noted that in Western individualistic cultures and Eastern collectivistic cultures, people’s attitudes toward arranged marriages differ. The example of arranged marriages in India well illustrates these practices in collectivistic societies.

The individualistic point of view presumes that an independent and free choice of who, when, and how to marry is of primacy. This is why people in individualistic cultures strongly oppose the idea of arranged marriage as violating individual autonomy. They believe that they must “follow their hearts” and that romantic passion is the best guide to marriage as a long-term union.

The collectivistic view assumes that the choice of who, when, and how to marry is interdependent with others’ interests. This is why people in collectivistic cultures naturally accept the idea of arranged marriage and abide by it. They believe that they must “follow the wisdom” and that romantic passion, though a bitter-sweet enjoyable feeling, is not the best guide to marriage as a long-term union.

What Are the Values of Romantic Love in Collectivistic cultures?

Romantic love, passionate attraction, and erotic allure are highly praised and finely elaborated in the arts and poems of many Eastern cultures. These artistic depictions of intense emotional experiences serve as great ideals, inspiring people to dream about love, its joy, happiness, and bitter-sweet suffering (Karandashev, 2017, 2019).

However, people of collectivistic Eastern wisdom do not dare admit all these beautiful idealistic experiences as the guide for their long-term marital relationships. The ideas of love and marriage are separated in their minds. That is different from the individualistic viewpoint, in which men and women believe that love will win marriage.

We should acknowledge, however, that due to increased relationship mobility, education, urbanization, and social modernization, the tendency towards Westernization of many Eastern cultures is evident. These changes are shifting the cultural norms and values in those collectivistic societies toward more individualistic norms and values. Consequently, attitudes toward arranged marriages are also changing.

Cultural Traditions of Arranged Marriages

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Throughout history, arranged marriages of various kinds have been common in many traditional societies of the Western and Eastern cultures, as well as in other parts of the world (Karandashev, 2017).

Why Did People Agree to Arranged marriages?

This sort of marriage arrangement has been largely related to several social and economic factors that people just needed to abide by. They needed to take into consideration the interests of their family, clan, tribe, and local community, which they belonged to. Individual preferences of men and women were subordinated to the obligations of their social relationships. People mostly had a collectivistic mentality. In many respects, they felt interdependent in their family and community relationships.

How Did Cultures Start to Abandon Arranged Marriages?

Over the last several centuries, many so-called Western countries, like western European countries and the United States, have evolved into individualistic cultures. Their societies largely abandoned the idea of arranged marriages for the sake of individual autonomy. People became individuals who were more independent in their family and community relationships.

In the 20th century, social and economic conditions in many countries modernized. During the last several decades, many other countries in the world have also been in transition from collectivistic to individualistic cultures (Karandashev, 2017). So, they gradually abandoned the old-fashioned forms of arranged marriage in favor of the freedom of individual preference and choice.

Many other societies in the world are still in very slow transition from their old traditional cultures of the collectivistic type. Therefore, in those countries, arranged marriages, or their remaining old-fashioned practices, are still widely spread. In isolated, remote, and rural residential areas, these customs are more persistent than in urban areas, where modernization processes take place more rapidly.

What Is an Arranged Marriage?

An arranged marriage is a form of marriage in which the groom and the bride do not decide who they marry. Other people, such as parents or other family members, select and arrange their marriage, with a limited opportunity for the groom or the bride to express their preferences and wishes. Other members of the extended family, community elders, religious leaders, or matchmakers may be involved in helping to find a prospective spouse for a young person. The groom and the bride consent to such a cultural tradition. They agree and trust others to arrange their marriage. They may have a certain degree of choice about whom and when to get married.

Collectivistic and individualistic cultures differ in their views on the conception of individuality and therefore understand freedom of choice differently.

The collectivistic perspective looks at the choice of spouse and marriage from the perspective of family interdependence. Marriage is a matter of responsibility that includes responsibility for the family’s needs rather than for oneself.

The individualistic perspective considers the choice of spouse and marriage from the perspective of individual independence. Men and women view marriage as a matter of individual choice rather than a responsibility for anyone. The freedom to choose a prospective partner has primacy.

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.

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?