Belief in Cultural Dominance

Rise of neoliberalism redefines the contemporary world in terms of competitive relations. Within this backdrop, we proposed a concept of Belief in Cultural Dominance (i.e. BCD) to capture individuals’ general belief that cultural relations are hierarchical and coercive, and the process of transnational interaction between cultures as rewarding merit and punishing inefficiency. In study 1, we validated the scale of BCD with theoretically related criterion measures in both Chinese participants and American participants. In study 2, we demonstrated the theoretical utility of BCD among Chinese participants and American participants, respectively. The results indicated that BCD positively predicted tendency to credit a success of culture hybrid to the dominate culture after controlling for a series of confounding variables (eg. social dominance, right wing authoritarianism). In study 3, we tried to further extend the results of study 2 to participants from a third culture, which did not contribute to culture hybrid. The results showed that linkage between BCD and tendency to credit a success of culture hybrid to the dominate culture is strengthened as the culture hybrid created higher instrumental value. Results were interpreted in terms of economic Darwinism and its impact on cultural attitude.