Antecedents of Multicultural Identity: The Role of Stereotypes and Need for Cognitive Closure

Abstract

A noticeable rise in global mobility has led to an increase in people identifying with more than one culture. This has been described as 'effects of globalisation' on the microlevel by some authors (Arnette, 2003;Fitzsimmons et al., 2017). The reasons for this are manifold and include: increase in migration for both economic and political reasons, increase in binational relationships and marriages, easier access to education abroad with international recognition of degrees, increased travel for both leisure and work, and not least, the increase in digitalisation. These developments facilitate private and professional interactions and relations with people across the globe. Building on previous work on multiculturalism, this paper aims to make a theoretical contribution to understand how daily behaviour is impacted by antecedents of multiculturality, ranging from monocultural to multicultural individuals. Specifically, we hypothesise multiculturality as relevant for behavioural outcomes, only to the extent of antecedent a) situational cues of in-vs outgroup cultural identity, b) degrees of stereotype activation and moderated by c) the individual need for cognitive closure. We postulate a theoretical model that explains the impact of various degrees of individual multiculturality on behaviours. With this, the paper contributes to understanding the psychological antecedents and underlying processes of people within an increasingly multicultural environment.