Natives’ Interaction with Outlanders and Oultural Ideology: the Moderating Effect of Nfcc

One’s cultural ideology refers to his/her opinion about how to attain the harmonious coexistence of diverse cultural groups. Previous studies had revealed cultural ideology is closely relative to intergroup attitudes and relationship, and the current study examined the predictive effect of multicultural experience on one’s endorsement of different appproaches of cultural ideologies, and also examined whether ones’ levels of need for cognitive closure (NFCC) would moderate the effects of multicultural experienc. Responses to the questionaires indicated that there was no significant predictive effect of outlander-interaction on endorsement of each cultural ideology, but NFCC was a significant moderator of the relationship between extent of contact with outlanders and endorsement of multiculturalism and polyculturalism. For individuals with low levels of NFCC, more contact with outlanders predicted an improvement in endorsement of multiculturalism and polyculturalism, while outlander-contact of those with high NFCC predicted the endorsement of both cultural ideologies in reverse direction. In addition, with further communication with outlanders, low-NFCC people would have greater endorsement of polycultural ideology, but there was no significant effect on multiculturalism. The results of the current study revealed the predictive effect of multicultural experience on endorsement of cultural ideology and also suggested that different kinds of individual experience would have different influences on cultural ideology.