Why do majority members prefer immigrants who adopt the host culture? The role of perceived identification with the host nation

• Published in: International journal of intercultural relations 2016-11, Vol.55, p.44-54
• Main Authors: Roblain, Antoine, Azzi, Assaad, Licata, Laurent
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acculturation; Attitudes; Attitudes towards immigrants; Attribution; Competence; Cultural adoption; Cultural groups; Culture; Identification; Immigrants; Integration; Manipulation; Noncitizens; Perceptions; Positive thought; Research design; Social perception; Studies; Threats
• ISSN: 0147-1767; 1873-7552
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2016.08.001

Research has shown that members of the national majority group generally consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable. However, so far, this positive effect of perceived host culture adoption on attitudes toward immigrants has not been explained. We argue that majority members infer national identification of immigrants from their cultural adoption. Moreover, we predict that this inference should decrease majority members’ feeling of ingroup threat, therefore also improving their attitudes toward immigrants. We conducted two experimental studies. In Study 1, majority members who were presented an immigrant group that adopted the host culture held more positive attitudes than those who were presented one that disregarded it. In line with our hypothesis, this effect was fully mediated by perceived identification of the immigrants with the host nation, itself decreasing perception of ingroup threat. Study 2 reproduced the same experimental design, but used descriptions of individual immigrants’ acculturation strategies, and the immigrant group’s status – valued vs. devalued origin – was also manipulated. In addition, Study 2 focused on dimensions of the “Big Two” of social perception. Results replicated the mediational effect of perceived identification on attribution of both warmth and competence traits. The status manipulation had no significant effect and did not interact with cultural adoption. These two studies provide robust evidence that perception of host nation identification explains the effects of perceived cultural adoption on attitudes towards immigrants.