Language and the Bicultural Self

TLDR

Chinese‑born students were randomly assigned to respond in Chinese or English, while Canadian‑born participants of European or Chinese descent served as English‑only controls. Responding in Chinese produced more collective self‑statements, lower self‑esteem, and greater endorsement of Chinese cultural views, whereas English responses yielded more favorable self‑statements and positive mood, indicating that East‑Asian and Western identities are stored in separate knowledge structures activated by language.

Abstract

In a study of bicultural individuals’ self-perceptions, Chinese-born students were randomly assigned to participate in either Chinese or English. Serving as controls, Canadian-born participants of either European or Chinese descent participated in English. The effects of the language manipulation paralleled findings in previous studies comparing East Asians to North Americans. Participants responding in Chinese reported more collective self-statements in open-ended self-descriptions, lower self-esteem on the Rosenberg scale, and more agreement with Chinese cultural views than did the remaining groups. In their self-descriptions, participants writing in Chinese provided similar numbers of favorable and unfavorable self-statements. The other groups reported more favorable self-statements. Participants reporting in Chinese indicated similar levels of positive and negative mood. The remaining groups reported more positive mood. The results suggest that East-Asian and Western identities may be stored in separate knowledge structures in bicultural individuals, with each structure activated by its associated language.