Expectancies, cultural distance and group representations as predictors of majority and minority adolescents’ intergroup attitudes

In this study, we consider the concept of cultural distance and, for the first time, we integrate it with Berry’s acculturation model (1997), by testing whether contact impacts on cultural distance by considering a sample of both majority and minority participants. A questionnaire was administered to 397 Italian and 142 immigrant students enrolled in secondary schools. First, we tested the hypothesis that intergroup expectancies predict frequent and positive contact. Second, we introduced the construct of cultural distance based on Berry’s (1997) model. To operationalize this construct, we moved from the observation that group representations correspond to Berry’s acculturation strategies. Participants were also asked to provide their meta-perceptions on these representations. We then calculated the difference between each group representation and corresponding meta-perception in order to obtain a measure of perceived cultural distance for each of the four group representations/acculturation strategies. SEM analyses revealed that, among Italians, the most influential intergroup expectancies associated with contact were contact avoidance due to fear of being rejected and to disinterest in interacting with the outgroup. In turn, contact was associated with improved intergroup attitudes via both one-group group representations and reduced cultural distance on the separation strategy. Among immigrants, the most relevant intergroup expectancies associated with contact were contact avoidance due to fear of being rejected and to disinterest in contact, in addition to fear of being discriminated against. Interestingly, contact had a marginal indirect relation with more positive outgroup attitudes via reduced cultural distance on the integration strategy, somehow providing evidence for deprovincialization.