Xenophilia: Personality x Culture Interactions
Final Report Abstract
In times of resurging racism in many countries all around the globe, xenophobia seems a human universal. However, most civilizations also provide pervasive proof of the opposite phenomenon – xenophilia (“xenos” – “stranger” and philía – “friendship, love”) that manifests itself in multiple and peaceful ways of intercultural exchange in the arts and sciences, international trading, humans’ historic interests in extinct cultures, “new” cultures or travelling. Building on an integration of research findings on intergroup behavior from multiple fields of scientific inquiry (biology, paleoanthropology, psychology) the present project developed and tested a social psychological perspective on human xenophilia employing cross-sectional, longitudinal, experimental and cross-cultural designs. Evidence from diverse samples including adults (N = 1,007) and adolescents (N = 455) shows that xenophile and xenophobic tendencies in humans can be traced back to two distinct subsets of major personality traits. Xenophobia to low levels of altruism/cooperation-related traits, especially, low Honesty-Humility, Emotionality and/or Agreeableness. Individuals with low levels in these traits are generally disposed towards aggression and competitiveness in social relationships. Xenophilia, on the other hand, can be in part explained by high levels of endeavor-related traits, especially, high Openness to Experience, Extraversion, and to some extent also Conscientiousness. High levels in these traits generally dispose individuals to seek out new opportunities to obtain intellectual, social, or material gains. We also developed a psychometrically valid inventory of motivational functions to seek exploratory contact: knowledge and understanding, value expression, professional advancement, social development, personal-, and group-image concerns. Experimental research shows that different social environments offer differing “fulfilment opportunities” such that the motivating potential of a distinct contact function results from a function by environment fit (total N = 1,638). Finally, data from a pre-registered multinational study (N = 1,455) replicated and extending previous findings in Germany, Japan, Span, Turkey, USA, and Mexico/Chile. Findings shows that the relationships between personality and xenophobic or xenophilic tendencies towards immigrants functionally varies with contextual threat perceptions: Individuals with low levels of altruism/cooperation traits (individuals who generally prefer antagonism over cooperation) become more xenophobic when they feel threatened by immigrants. Individuals with high levels of endeavor-related traits, on the other hand, become less xenophilic (presumably, because perceived threat reduced the expectation of rewarding interactions). The stability of the observed interactions across gender, age, education as well as Western and non-Western individuals cautiously speaks for the generalizability of our findings across different populations.
Publications
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(2013). Psychological foundations of xenophilia: The role of major personality traits in predicting favorable attitudes towards cross-cultural contact and exploration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 832-851
Stürmer, S., Benbow, A. E. F., Siem, B., Barth, M., Bodansky, A. N., & Lotz-Schmitt, K.
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(2016). Different origins of xenophile and xenophobic tendencies in human personality structure: A theoretical perspective and some preliminary findings. Journal of Social Issues, 72, 432-449
Barbarino, M.-L. & Stürmer, S.
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(2016). Proactive behavior across group boundaries. Special issue: Journal of Social Issues. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN: 978-1-119-36402-3.
Siem, B., Stürmer, S. & Pittinsky, T. (Guest Editors)
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(2017). Psychological foundations of xenophilia: Understanding and measuring the motivational functions of exploratory cross-cultural contact. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43, 1487-1502
Stürmer, S., & Benbow, A. F.
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(2018). Die Liebe zu anderen Kulturen. Eine deutschsprachige Skala zur Erfassung von Allophilie (ALLO-15). Zusammenstellung sozialwissenschaftlicher Items und Skalen
Slavchova, V., Froehlich, L. & Stürmer, S.
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(2018). Messung motivationaler Funktionen interkulturellen Kontakts: Das Kontaktfunktionsinventar (KFI-30). Zusammenstellung sozialwissenschaftlicher Items und Skalen
Stürmer, S., & Benbow, A. E. F.
