Cognitive and Motivational Foundations Underlying Acculturation Expectations: Applications of Ethnic Group Position Model

Although dominant cultural groups as a rule have the main impact on the mutual acculturation process, they receive much less attention in the literature. This article, firstly, challenges the common implicit position that dominant cultural groups do not have variety in their acculturation expectations regarding different non-dominant cultural groups, and, secondly, proposes Ethnic Group Position Model (EGPM) to explain and predict acculturation expectations regarding a particular non-dominant cultural group in society. The empirical study tests the relationship of structural variables of the group position by the new model (status, interdependence, similarity) and acculturation expectations while taking into account the relevant individual difference variables (the degree of agreement and endorsement for authoritarian attitudes and intergroup ideologies), thus covering the cognitive and motivational foundations underlying acculturation expectations. The participants in the survey were 377 Russian representatives of the dominant cultural group in Russia, who filled out a questionnaire containing questions about acculturation expectations (e.g., integration, assimilation, separation), evaluation of ethnic groups according to the feelings thermometer, perceived group positions, and also about an endorsement of authoritarian attitudes (right-wing authoritarianism and social domination orientation) and intergroup ideologies (e.g., assimilationism, multiculturalism, interculturalism). The results showed that Russians did vary their acculturation expectations towards different cultural groups according to the EGPM, even when controlling for their individual differences in ethnic bias. The conclusions emphasize that the cultural groups’ images are steam from ordinary observations of their life outcomes or circumstances, primarily in terms of vertical inequality (prestige and respect), i.e. perceived status (e.g., education, professional prestige, connection with crime), which largely shapes intercultural relations and in particular acculturation expectations.