Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Columbia University, New York, USA.
Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 16;13(1):17518. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-44906-w.
We examine how cultural distance between sojourners' country of origin and their host country influences their engagement in intercultural exchange upon return. One might expect intercultural exchange to be much harder between culturally-distant countries than culturally-close ones, given that the former vary more in norms or expected behaviors from one's home country. Our novel theorizing, however, leads to precisely the opposite expectations. In particular, we hypothesized that cultural distance between the repatriates' home and host countries would be positively associated with being inspired by the host culture. In turn, this heightened inspiration would predict an increased sharing of knowledge about the host culture upon returning home (intercultural exchange). We combined measurement-of-mediation (Study 1) and experimental-causal-chain (Studies 2-3) approaches to test and confirm these hypotheses in three large samples of repatriates. We first examined whether cultural distance predicted greater intercultural exchange via repatriates' heightened inspiration (Study 1). We then tested the individual links in this postulated causal chain. In Study 2, a quasi-experiment, we examined the causal path from cultural distance to inspiration. In Study 3, we experimentally manipulated inspiration to test its causal effect on intercultural exchange. The findings advance theory and application around multicultural experience and intercultural exchange.
我们考察了旅居者的原籍国与东道国之间的文化距离如何影响他们返回后参与跨文化交流的程度。人们可能会认为，文化距离较远的国家之间的跨文化交流要比文化距离较近的国家困难得多，因为前者的规范或预期行为与自己的祖国有更多的差异。然而，我们新颖的理论化恰恰得出了相反的预期。特别是，我们假设旅居者的原籍国和东道国之间的文化距离与受到东道国文化的启发呈正相关。反过来，这种更高的启发会预测在回国后（跨文化交流）增加对东道国文化知识的分享。我们结合中介测量（研究 1）和实验因果链（研究 2-3）方法，在三个大型归国人员样本中测试和验证了这些假设。我们首先检验了文化距离是否通过归国人员的灵感增强来预测更大的跨文化交流（研究 1）。然后，我们检验了这个假设因果链中的各个环节。在研究 2 中，我们进行了一项准实验，检验了从文化距离到灵感的因果路径。在研究 3 中，我们通过实验操纵灵感来检验其对跨文化交流的因果影响。这些发现推进了关于多元文化经验和跨文化交流的理论和应用。
