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http://jls.sagepub.com/content/26/4/398
The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.1177/0261927X07306984
2007 26: 398 Journal of Language and Social Psychology
Sylvia Xiaohua Chen and Michael Harris Bond
Affirmation Among Chinese-English Bilinguals
Explaining Language Priming Effects: Further Evidence for Ethnic
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2
= .04. The participants completing the measures in English reported a significantly
lower self-esteem (M = 2.85) than those responding in Chinese (M = 2.98), and
Mainland Chinese reported a significantly higher level of self-esteem than their HK
counterparts.
In the present study, we consistently found ethnic affirmation rather than cultural
accommodation on measures of cultural identification and self-esteem, thus confirming
contrast effects regardless of the cultural context in which the research was conducted
HK or Mainland China. When completing the measures in English, Chinese college
students identified more with Chinese culture but less with Western culture and reported
lower self-esteem than when responding in their native language of Chinese.
A plausible explanation is that our ethnolinguistic priming was overt, which provoked
reactance. Using self-construals to activate independent versus interdependent self-
knowledge in a study on social comparisons, Kuhnen and Hannover (2000) suggested
that assimilation effects emerged when the priming was subtle, whereas contrast effects
occurred when the priming was overt. If participants became aware of the priming
influences on their judgments, they corrected their responses by moving in the opposing
direction, a phenomenon termed correction contrast. Thus, one may speculate that it
was the overt nature of our ethnolinguistic priming that caused the present contrast
effects. However, because Bond (1983) found both assimilation and contrast effects
using a relatively overt manipulation (viz., asking the participants to rate the perceived
positions of typical HK Chinese and typical English-speaking Westerners), we could
rule out this possibility.
Rather, we maintain that it was the language manipulation itself combined with
the measures of language proficiency and daily usage that reminded the participants
of their ethnolinguistic identity. The use of an outgroup language and evaluation of the
respondents own linguistic patterns activated ethnic awareness in an ethnically vital
group, thereby eliciting responses that created psychological distance from outgroup
Chen, Bond / Explaining Contrast Effects 403
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members. These responses deviated from the normative self-evaluations of these
outgroup members, moving their responses closer to those of their ingroupethnic
affirmation. In this process, they identified more with the Chinese culture (ingroup)
but less with the Western culture (outgroup) and reported lower levels of self-esteem,
which contrasted with the normative responses of members in Western culture.
However, it is also possible that having to respond in a second language decreased
ones sense of competence, a source for low self-esteem. Judged from the means of
English proficiency, both HK (M = 4.02) and Mainland (M = 3.61) samples rated
themselves above average on a 6-point Likert-type scale. Given that these participants
were from prestigious universities in which a high level of proficiency in English is
an important requirement for admission, we could infer that they were competent in
English, as perceived by themselves and as required by the university. Thus, the respon-
dents reported low self-esteem is not a consequence of their language deficiency in
English but probably an outcome of the experimental manipulation.
It is intriguing to find that Mainland Chinese identified with both Chinese and
Western cultures more than did the HK Chinese. Conceptually, identification with
ones culture of origin and the second culture are orthogonal instead of bipolar, as
suggested by acculturation researchers on their work on cultural identity (e.g., Berry,
1984). Biculturals may display high identification with both cultures rather than
being high in one culture and necessarily low in the other. In fact, the present study
showed that the correlations between Chinese identification and Western identifi-
cation were nonsignificant in both HK, r
(210)
= -.08, p > .05 and Mainland China,
r
(235)
= .01, p < .05.
Interpreting these findings within their cultural contexts, Mainland China has
witnessed rapid growth economically and politically after the open-door policy in the
late 1970s, with its prosperity-inducing pride and patriotic fervor. Opening up to
the West has simultaneously exposed Mainland Chinese to the influences of Western
cultures and led to increasing Western identification. By contrast, HK was under British
rule and heavily influenced by British culture before 1997; the transfer of sovereignty
to China has moderated these Western influences, at least politically. The economic
downturn after 1997 might have made HK Chinese dissatisfied with their own govern-
ment and led them to identify less with Chinese culture. In consequence of these
various cultural influences, Mainland Chinese scored higher in identification with
both Chinese and Western cultures than did the HK Chinese. HK Chinese may be
developing a stronger identification with a HK identity in compensation.
Further studies may explore other psychological mechanisms underlying the
differential outcomes of language priming, with particular emphasis on the social
context and the cultural orientation of the participants, which leads to affirmation or
accommodation across cultural lines. Because most previous work on language priming
has focused on written measures, future research should use other methods, such as
behavioral observations, thereby focusing more on social processes and tapping into
the social dynamics involving language and culture.
404 Journal of Language and Social Psychology
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Chen, Bond / Explaining Contrast Effects 405
Notes
1. The reliability coefficient for Chinese usage among Mainland Chinese was less than satisfactory
and thus needs to be interpreted with caution.
2. We also conducted 2 (Language) 2 (Culture) 2 (Gender) ANOVAs to test the differences of
language, cultural context, and gender in identification with Chinese culture, identification with Western
culture, and self-esteem separately. We found no significant interaction or main effects for gender,
ps > .05, indicating that males and females showed similar patterns on the three variables within each
cultural group. Because gender is not the major focus of this study, we used two-way ANOVAs in the
Results section.
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Sylvia Xiaohua Chen is an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University. She has a Ph.D. in psychology from The Chinese University of Hong Kong
and a M.A. in counseling psychology from Santa Clara University, U.S.A.. Her research interests include
the social psychology of bilingualism and biculturalism, personality and social behaviors in cultural
contexts, cross-cultural research methodology, and sociocultural influences on illness behaviors and
help-seeking patterns.
Michael Harris Bond has been practicing social psychology for the last three plus decades at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong where he is Professor of Psychology. He is fascinated by culture, having been
socialized into an English-Canadian variant, followed by an American graduate education in exotic
California, and an extended inter-cultural immersion as a Research Associate from 1971-74 at Kwansei
Gakuin University in Japan. Throughout much of this cultural awareness-raising, he has been a member
of the Bahai Faith. This religious practice has further extended his contact with representatives of other
cultural realities, sharpened his appreciation of pervasive societal influences on human social performance,
and opened his sensibilities to Islamic art, literature, and philosophy. He is the author of Beyond the Chinese
face (Oxford, 1991), and co-author of Understanding social psychology across cultures (Sage, 2006).
406 Journal of Language and Social Psychology
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