Sociology

Organic chemistry

Demographics

Salient

Demography

Ethnic group

Political science

Psychology

Chemistry

Anthropology

Group (periodic table)

Minority group

Immigration

Social psychology

Acculturation

Current Directions in Psychological Science

In many countries, individuals who have represented the majority group historically are decreasing in relative size and/or perceiving that they have diminished status and power compared with those self-identifying as immigrants or members of ethnic minority groups. These developments raise several salient and timely issues, including (a) how majority-group members’ cultural orientations change as a consequence of increasing intercultural contact due to shifting demographics; (b) what individual, group, cultural, and socio-structural processes shape these changes; and (c) what the implications of majority-group members’ acculturation are. Although research across several decades has examined the acculturation of individuals self-identifying as minority-group members, much less is known about how majority-group members acculturate in increasingly diverse societies. We present an overview of the state of the art in the emerging field of majority-group acculturation, identify what is known and needs to be known, and introduce a conceptual model to guide future research.

The Missing Side of Acculturation: How Majority-Group Members Relate to Immigrant and Minority-Group Cultures