Cultures of Fear: Individual Differences in Perception of Physical (but Not Disease) Threats Predict Cultural Neophobia

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Cultures of Fear: Individual Differences in Perception of Physical (but Not Disease) Threats Predict Cultural Neophobia in both Immigrant and Mainstream Americans Nicholas Kerry 1 & Zachary Airington 1 & Damian R. Murray 1 Received: 13 February 2020 / Revised: 11 April 2020 / Accepted: 15 April 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Abstract Previous research indicates that dispositional worry about potential threats is associated with greater ingroup biases. However, the nature of this relationship within minority cultural groups, and the specificity of which threats matter most for this relationship, remain poorly understood. The current study thus aimed to build on existing work in three key ways: by simultaneously examining the effects of threat in both a mainstream and an immigrant population, by examining associations between threats and cultural practices and real-life interactions, and by addressing whether concerns about disease threats or physical threats were more robust predictors. Thus, we investigated the relative influence of physical- and disease-threat concerns for acculturation and ingroup preferences in both immigrant and non-immigrant Americans (N = 964, 171 immigrants). Immigrant Americans completed an acculturation survey in which their engagement with their heritage culture was compared with their engagement with mainstream American culture. Meanwhile, non-immigrant Americans responded to similar items assessing their engagement with US versus foreign cultural practices. Results indicated that dispositional worry about physical threats was associated with lower acculturation in immigrant participants, and lower engagement with foreign cultures in non-immigrant Americans. Further, in the combined sample, participants who were more concerned about physical threats were less likely to have had a romantic partner of a different ethnicity than their own. By contrast, dispositional worry about disease threat did not reliably predict cultural engagement or partner choice. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that physical-threat concern leads to less engagement with foreign cultures. Keywords Integration . Acculturation . Threat . Belief in a dangerous world . Immigration . Ingroup bias

Introduction “It is hardly possible to overrate the value, in the present low state of human improvement, of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar.” John Stuart-Mill, Principles of Political Economy, 1848/1896

* Nicholas Kerry [email protected] 1

Department of Psychology, Tulane University, 2007 Percival Stern Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA

In the modern industrialized world, people have an unprecedented level of contact with, and access to, foreign cultures. This contact can occur indirectly (e.g., through media) and directly, through traveling and migration. Yet people differ substantially in terms of their engagement with foreign cultures and their attitudes towa