Attitudes toward the culturally different: the role of intercultural communication barriers, affective responses, consensual stereotypes, and perceived threat

Abstract The psychological impact of intercultural communication barriers on intergroup attitudes was examined by testing a model of global attitudes toward the culturally different. The prejudice literature has largely overlooked the role of intercultural communication and intercultural communication in determining people's evaluative orientation toward ethnolinguistic outgroups. Intercultural communication emotions (negative affect associated with perceived linguistic and cultural barriers) were investigated as determinants of prejudice, in conjunction with causal factors that are widely recognized as central to intergroup judgments (consensual stereotypes, intergroup anxiety, and realistic and symbolic/cultural threats [Stephan & Stephan Int. J. Intercultural Relations 20 (1996) 409]). Regression analyses indicated that intercultural communication emotions were strongly and uniquely related to prejudice toward a culturally diverse outgroup: foreign students. Consistent with the contact hypothesis [Allport (1954) The nature of prejudice , Addison-Wesley], moderated regression analyses indicated that the structure of intergroup attitudes was modified by social contact with the international community. Implications for intergroup relations and international educational exchange are discussed.