Latinx and White Americans on their American Identity: The Effect of Perception of Culture on Identity
Date
2020-05
Authors
Rizzo Esposito, Alessandra
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Abstract
The purpose of the current study is to compare levels of American identity between White and Latino Americans. This study uses the Zárate et al. (2012) cultural inertia manipulation to create three different conditions in which the perception of culture may affect the affiliation to American identity in both samples. The three conditions are a static condition that suggest there is little to no change in the culture, a dynamic condition that suggest there is tremendous change in the culture, and a control condition in which there is no suggestion with respect of cultural change. We expect that in the dynamic condition both White and Latinxs Americans will present higher levels of American Identity compared to the sample’s scores in the static and control conditions. Additionally, we predict that Latinxs will score higher than Whites in the dynamic condition due to their predisposition to change. Our sample will consist of about 400 adult participants recruited online via Amazon's Mechanic Turk. We will only analyze the responses of those participants that self-report as White or Hispanic/Latinx. The experiment follows a 3 (cultural perception: dynamic vs static vs control) X 2 (ethnic group: Latinx immigrant vs white American) between-subjects factorial design. If we find significant results to back our hypotheses, there would be empirical proof that Latinxs have a parallel, if not higher, affiliation to America and its identity. This could influence the public’s perception of Latinxs in society, politics, and culture.
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Keywords
cultural inertia, American identity, immigrants as threats, Latinx American, white American, cultural change, national identity, Honors College
Citation
Esposito, A. R. (2020). Latinx and white Americans on their American identity: The effect of perception of culture on identity (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.