Xenophilia: Social-psychological foundations of affection for foreign cultures

The overarching aim of the project is to research the socio-psychological foundations of human affection for foreign cultures and intercultural contact. While (social) psychological research - especially research on intergroup processes - has dealt intensively with the psychological and social-contextual determinants of rejection and defense against the culturally foreign, the phenomenon of affection for foreign cultures has hardly been systematically researched to date. The planned research project is based on an integration and further development of different research approaches to explain positive intergroup behavior (trait approach, functional approach, social identity approach), taking into account influencing factors at different levels of analysis (personal processes, group processes). The planned empirical studies are divided into three main areas:

• Construction of a reliable and valid measurement instrument to record xenophilia
• Identification and analysis of personal antecedents of xenophilia
• Identification and analysis of group antecedents and influencing factors

The empirical research is based on a multi-method approach (laboratory experiments, longitudinal studies, interviews). The new theoretical insights gained from this research will be integrated into a socio-psychological and empirically testable model of xenophilia, which will provide the theoretical basis for further studies.