Fitting in or Not Fitting in: Cultural Congruity as a Correlate of Motivation for Intergroup Contact

It is well established in social psychology that intergroup contact is beneficial to reduce intergroup bias. Based on this insight, a growing body of work has focused on correlates of people's motivation to seek or avoid intergroup contact. The present study contributes to this literature by probing motivation for an ecologically valid and ideal form of intergroup contact: intercultural twinnings (structured exchange activities between people of diverse linguistic and ethnocultural backgrounds). We examined three facets of motivation (contact willingness; intrinsic motivation; and contact opt-in as a proxy for behavioral intent) and a range of well-established intergroup contact associates. We also tested the role of cultural congruity with the dominant society, inspired by push-pull theories of migration. Participants included 214 students in Québec, Canada. The results show that motivational profiles differed depending on motivation facets. Intergroup anxiety was negatively related to intrinsic motivation; desire for self-expansion was positively related to all three facets; ethnocentrism was negatively associated with our behavioral proxy. Cultural congruity was associated with all three facets through a suppression effect, such that greater perception of not fitting in Québec society was related to higher motivation indices once avoidance dispositions were taken into account. With prevalent intergroup tensions, better understanding how to "bring the horse to the contact water" is essential.