The Social Cognition of Immigrants' Acculturation: Effects of the Need for Closure and the Reference Group at Entry

Abstract

Three studies found support for the notion that the quality of immigrants’ acculturation to the host culture is interactively determined by these individuals’ need for cognitive closure (Kruglanski [amp] Webster, 1996) and the “reference group” they forge upon their arrival in the new land. If such reference group is fashioned by close social relations with the immigrants’ co-ethnics—the higher the immigrants’ need for closure the weaker their tendency to assimilate to the new culture, and the stronger their tendency to adhere to the culture of origin. By contrast, if the “reference group” on entry is fashioned by close relations with members of the host country—the higher their need for closure the stronger their tendency to adapt to the new culture, and the weaker their tendency to maintain the culture of origin. These findings obtained consistently across three immigrant samples in Italy, one Croatian and the two Polish, and across multiple different measures of acculturation.