The Importance of Identity Development, Principled Moral Reasoning, and Empathy as Predictors of Openness to Diversity in Emerging Adults

Abstract

There are many paths to enlightenment.-Lao Tzu, Chinese Taoist philosopher (600-531 BC) Long-studied in social psychology, the dangers of prejudice (Allport, 1954) and the importance of developing tolerance and respect for others have received attention with an increased sense of urgency over the past decade. Globally, although distances are ever-shrinking and differing cultures must cooperate for survival, terrorist threats and genocidal wars are part of the daily news. Within the United States, although population projections suggest that racial and ethnic minorities will comprise one third of all Americans by 2015 (Wang et al., 2003) and almost half the population by the year 2030 (Cortes, 1991), conflicts among racial and ethnic groups are responsible for many hate crimes (Wang et al., 2003). Numerous institutions, from governmental agencies to educational systems, have noted the need for increasing tolerance. Institutions of higher learning have, in particular, declared the importance of facilitating openness to diversity among students in preparing young adults to become responsible and successful citizens in today's multicultural and global society (Association of American Colleges and

Mediating and moderating processes in the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants in emerging adults

“…Generally, EAs showed positive mean levels of MCI, tolerance and PCI in both contexts. This confirms that emerging adulthood may be a particularly fruitful time to facilitate the acceptance of others (Gerson & Neilson, ). Nevertheless, the attitudes towards the specific immigrant groups selected in this study were in line with the common views of these groups in Italy, where the highest anti‐Roma attitudes in Europe are registered (Pew Research Center, ) and Romanian and Maghrebi people are viewed unfavourably by a substantial part of population (Italian National Institute of Statistics, ).…”

“…Such a task requires knowledge, attitudes and skills respectful of the differences among people (Devine, Green, & McDowell, ). In this sense, few studies (i.e., Gerson & Neilson, ; King & Baxter Magolda, ) examined intercultural relations of emerging adults (EAs), the group of 18–29 year‐olds who are between adolescence and adulthood (Arnett, ).…”

“…This research highlighted that emerging adulthood is an interesting life period to study and facilitate the acceptance of culturally diverse others because is characterised by a number of developmental strides, including new cognitive abilities and corresponding improvements in moral reasoning (Arnett, ; Gerson & Neilson, ). These advances allow EAs to better address the ideological concerns about cultural diversity.…”

Ethnic-Racial Socialization as an External Predictor of Tolerance for Diversity: A Study of Chinese-Indonesian Young Adults

“…Previous studies already found some personal predictors that influence the development of tolerance, i.e. empathy (empathic concern) and personality (Openness and Agreeableness) (Butrus & Witenberg, 2012;Gerson & Neilson, 2014).…”

“…The other personal factor is psychosocial development of the "intimacy vs isolation" stage. A previous study stated that young adults are the stage where they can have more opportunities to interact with more diverse individuals compared with the other life stages (Gerson & Neilson, 2014). These interactions then lead the person to have a higher interest in others that come from different backgrounds, for example others with different ethnicities.…”