Negotiating Biculturalism

TLDR

The study proposes that cultural frame shifting between two interpretative lenses is moderated by perceived compatibility of bicultural identity integration. The authors examined this by exposing Chinese American biculturals to Chinese and American cultural primes and measuring attribution responses. High bicultural identity integration produced culturally congruent attribution responses to primes, while low integration produced reverse effects, showing that bicultural identity differences influence how cultural knowledge is used to interpret social events.

Abstract

The authors propose that cultural frame shifting—shifting between two culturally based interpretative lenses in response to cultural cues—is moderated by perceived compatibility (vs. opposition) between the two cultural orientations, or bicultural identity integration (BII). Three studies found that Chinese American biculturals who perceived their cultural identities as compatible (high BII) responded in culturally congruent ways to cultural cues: They made more external attributions (a characteristically Asian behavior) after being exposed to Chinese primes and more internal attributions (a characteristically Western behavior) after being exposed to American primes. However, Chinese American biculturals who perceived their cultural identities as oppositional (low BII) exhibited a reverse priming effect. This trend was not apparent for noncultural primes. The results show that individual differences in bicultural identity affect how cultural knowledge is used to interpret social events.