An application of the dual identity model and active categorization to increase intercultural closeness

Johanna E Prasch; Ananta Neelim; Claus-Christian Carbon; Jan P L Schoormans; Janneke Blijlevens

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.705858

An application of the dual identity model and active categorization to increase intercultural closeness

Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 13:13:705858. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.705858. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Johanna E Prasch¹, Ananta Neelim², Claus-Christian Carbon^{3

4}, Jan P L Schoormans⁵, Janneke Blijlevens¹

Affiliations

¹ Behavioural Business Lab, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
² Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay, TAS, Australia.
³ Department of General Psychology and Methodology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
⁴ Bamberg Graduate School of Affective and Cognitive Sciences (BaGrACS), Bamberg, Germany.
⁵ Department of Design, Organisation and Strategy, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.

Abstract

The enhancement of social inclusion is a key to maintaining cohesion in society and to foster the benefits of cultural diversity. Using insights from the Dual Identity Model (DIM) with a special focus on active categorization, we develop an intervention to increase social inclusion. Our intervention encourages the participants to (re-)categorize on a superordinate level (i.e., a human identity) while being exposed to their own culture. Across a set of experiments, we test the efficacy of our intervention against control conditions on the effect of social inclusion, measured by perceived social distance. Results show an increase in cultural closeness and provide preliminary support for the use of a DIM-based intervention to increase intercultural inclusion.

Keywords: culture; diversity; dual identity model; intervention; social inclusion.