Through the cultural looking glass: Diversity ideologies and cultural sharing in intercultural romantic relationships

Abstract

Intercultural romantic relationships are increasingly common. While past work has focused on how satisfied intercultural couples are compared to monocultural couples, we focus on factors within intercultural relationships that predict partners’ relationship quality. We propose that diversity ideologies—people’s beliefs about cultural diversity—are one set of factors that influence communication about cultural differences and relationship quality. Across two cross-sectional studies of individuals and one longitudinal study of couples in intercultural relationships ( Ntotal = 838), we found that people who endorsed colorblindness—ignored cultural differences—expressed their own culture more but accepted their partner’s culture less in the relationship, in turn experiencing mixed relational outcomes. However, participants who endorsed multiculturalism—acknowledged cultural differences and aimed to preserve cultures as distinct—or polyculturalism—recognized cultural differences and viewed cultures as interconnected—expressed their own culture and accepted their partner’s culture more and in turn experienced higher relationship quality. Our studies provide the first empirical examination of how diversity ideologies shape the way intercultural couples communicate about their cultural differences and subsequently impact their relationship quality.