The Influence Of National Identity On National Stereotypes: The Role Of Inter-group Contacts

Ethnic identity is a measure of ethnic relations, which can affect the ethnic relations, facilitate ethnic unity, enhance ethnic cohesion and maintain the social stability. It is known that ethnic identity is closed related to the social contact of the individual in other culture, and can affect the perception of individual on other ethnic groups. The research object of this thesis is the minority college students from the northwest area of China. And both self-report method and questionnaire method are employed in this thesis. Thus, the ethnic identity level of the minority college students in northwest area is investigated, and the relationship between ethnic stereotype and intergroup contact is also obtained.Aiming to obtain the ethnic stereotype of minority on Han nationality,95 minority college students are investigated by adopting the self-report method. It is shown that the ethnic stereotype of these subjects are positive, which means that ethnic minorities can regard the main nationality comprehensively and positively.Based on the Ethnic Identity Questionnaire proposed by Huiying Shi and Qinglin Zhang,390 college students are tested to investigate the ethnic identity level and the intergroup contact of various minority groups, and the related demographic statistics analysis are also conducted afterwards. As a consequence, the following conclusions are obtained:(?) The subjects have a positive ethnic identity on his/her own nationality; (?) Compared with the ethnic identity of Chinese nationality, the subjects tends to have a better ethnic identity of their own nationality; (?) The results are related to sexuality, nationality, family location, parental education and high school. The ethnic identity of women is higher than men. The self-ethnic identity of uyghur nationality is highest. The self-ethnic identity of subjects who were raised up in ethnic sections is higher. And the ethnic identity of subjects who was educated in a Han nationality school is higher. Compared with the ethnic identity of Chinese national identity, the subjects tends to have a better ethnic identity of their own nationality; (?) Considered of the high contact level of subjects, the average score of subjects of the Hui nationality is higher than others in intergroup contact and another two dimensions.The relationship of ethnic identity, ethnic stereotype and intergroup contact is discussed. Thus, the following conclusions are obtained:(?) Both intergroup contact quantity and quality exhibit negative correlation to ethnic stereotype; (?) The ethnic identity has a positive correlation to the quality of intergroup contact. However, the quantity of intergroup contact is only related to Chinese national identity. The total score of intergroup contact has a positive correlation to Chinese national identity and self-ethnic identity; (?) Ethnic identity and ethnic stereotype have a significant negative correlation; (?) Intergroup contact has a mediating effect between ethnic identity and ethnic stereotype, and the ratio can reach 17.6%.Based on the above results, the following conclusions are obtained:Firstly, according to the social identity theory, the preference of the internal group may lead to the deprecation of the outside group. Under the pattern of multi-ethnic in our nation, the ethnic identity of minority is relatively high, and the ethnic stereotype is positive.Secondly, there are obvious differences of the intergroup contact level among the investigators, especially in minority enclaves and non-enclaves. It is indicated that the cohabitation of different nationalities has a positive effect on intergroup contact level.Thirdly, by improving the intergroup contact level and enhancing the ethnic identity, the ethnic relationship will be improved and ethnic fusion will be accelerated.