How ‘should’ the majority group acculturate? Acculturation expectations and their correlates among minority-and majority-group members

majority-group

Do minority-group members welcome or reject that majority-group members adopt other cultures?Acculturation is commonly defined as a process of mutual accommodation.Yet, the acculturation of majority-group members has only recently received research attention.To date, we do not know the extent to which minority-group members expect majority-group members to adopt the culture of minority groups and/or to maintain their mainstream culture.Knowledge is also lacking about how these expectations relate to minority-group members' own acculturation orientations and symbolic and realistic threat perceptions.We further do not know whether such associations are similar among minority-and majority-group members.To address these gaps, we surveyed 246 Muslim minority-group members and 247 White Christian majority-group members in the United Kingdom.Muslim minority-group members' acculturation expectations towards majority-group members were normally distributed around the midpoint of the scale, suggesting that they did not reject majority-group acculturation on average.Acculturation expectations were correlated with symbolic and realistic threat perceptions among majority-group members but not among minority-group members.Cluster analyses showed that integrated Muslim minority-group members found it relatively important for majority-group members to adopt minority-group culture and to maintain their own culture.In sum, the results support the idea that minoritygroup members, at least in some contexts and settings, view acculturation as a mutual cultural change rather than as cultural appropriation.
Whereas acculturation is commonly defined as a mutual accommodation process, most research has focused on cultural changes among immigrants and minority groups 1 rather than majority groups (Kunst et al., 2021).However, over the recent years, we have increasingly learned about the processes, antecedents, and outcomes of the acculturation of majority-group members.Majority-group acculturation can be defined as "the cultural and psychological changes that current or former majority-group members experience and the cultural styles they adopt as a result of contact with people self-identifying as immigrants or ethnic minority-group members living in the same society" (Kunst, et al., 2021, p. 486).Majority-group members experience acculturation in multiple domains (e.g., at school, work, or in terms of cultural activities; Haugen & Kunst, 2017) and across cultures and contexts (Komisarof, 2009;Kunst et al., 2021;Lefringhausen & Marshall, 2016).Individual differences and personality traits such as openness or ethnorelativism partly explain majority-group members' acculturation (Kunst et al., 2021;Lefringhausen et al., 2020;Ozer et al., 2021).This acculturation, in turn, predicts majority-group members' acculturation expectations toward immigrants over time (Lefringhausen et al., 2022), highlighting the relevance of studying majority-group acculturation for intergroup relations.
Nevertheless, the acculturation of majority-group members has also been met with skepticism.One major criticism is that their acculturation may be perceived by minority-group members as cultural appropriation (Kunst et al., 2021).Cultural appropriation has been defined very similarly to how cultural adoption is defined in acculturation research.For instance, Rogers (2006) defined it as "the use of a culture's symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture" (p.474).However, Roger also outlined in detail how such use of other groups' cultural elements can intersect with concepts of power and dominance.In some settings, the higher power group may adopt and distort the culture of other groups in a way that is negatively perceived as cultural appropriation.Thus, an essential question for acculturation research is whether minority-group members welcome or reject cultural changes among the majority-group (Zagefka et al., 2022).
We aimed to answer this question in this brief report.We examined mutual acculturation in the context of the U.K., a historical colonial power and immigrant nation marked by ongoing, tense political debates about the nature of intercultural relations.Within this context, we focused on the acculturation orientations and expectations of Muslim minority-group members and White Christian majority-group members.We selected this comparison as it lies at the nexus of two of the most salient intergroup markers in the country causing conflicts, namely religion and ethnicity (Hankir et al., 2019;Weller, 2006).Indeed, White British majority-group members tend to perceive Muslims' cultural maintenance as a sign of disloyalty to the U.K. (Tahir et al., 2023).Thus, given the devaluation of their cultural heritage by the majority society, Muslim minority-group members may in this type of context perceive majority-group acculturation as cultural appropriation rather than as genuine interest to learn from it.
We asked a sample of Muslim minority-group Britons living in the U.K. to what extent they expected majority-group members (a) to adopt the culture of minority-group members and (b) to maintain their (British) mainstream culture.In addition, we estimated the extent to which these expectations were associated with symbolic and realistic threat perceptions, given that such threat often seems to underlie or result from the acculturation expectations of majority-group members (Florack et al., 2003;Horenczyk et al., 2013;López-Rodríguez et al., 2014;Montreuil & Bourhis, 2001;Rohmann et al., 2006;Rohmann et al., 2008).We also assessed minority-groups members' acculturation orientations to test whether these relate to their acculturation expectations toward majority-group Britons.Finally, to identify the unique patterns of Muslim minority-group acculturation, we compared these results with findings from a sample of White Christian majority-group members who also were recruited for this study.As is typical for research on majority-group acculturation (e.g., Haugen & Kunst, 2017;Kunst et al., 2021;Lefringhausen et al., 2022), we present results from both a top-down variable-centric approach (e.g., testing for associations between variables) and bottom-up person-centric analytic approach (e.g., conducting cluster analyses to identify acculturation strategies such as integration).This analytic strategy was chosen because it maximizes insights into the data in a still unexplored field.In addition, the cluster analysis allowed us to test whether we would find the same acculturation strategies often observed in previous majority-group acculturation research (Kunst et al., 2021): integration (i.e., high cultural maintenance and high other culture adoption), separation (i.e., high cultural maintenance and low other culture adoption), and a diffuse strategy (i.e., no clear cultural preference with scores around the neutral midpoint of the scales).In these analyses, we identify clusters based on participants' own culture maintenance and other culture adoption, following majority-group acculturation work that shows that such orientations predict acculturation expectations over time (Lefringhausen et al., 2022).However, we acknowledge that the acculturation one expects from other groups may also predict one's own acculturation.
The present work significantly extends previous research on acculturation orientations and expectations.Existing interactive models of acculturation (e.g., Bourhis et al., 1997;Navas et al., 2005;Piontkowski et al., 2002) mostly build on power structures where majority-group members are conceptualized as expecters (i.e., holding expectations toward minority-group members) and minority-group members as acculturators (i.e., who adapt to a given context through different acculturation orientations and strategies; see Zagefka et al., 2022).To the best of our knowledge, the current study is the first to investigate acculturation expectations of the minority group toward the majority group and vice versa as well as how both groups acculturate.

Participants
Two samples were collected for this study.The first sample consisted of 246 Muslim minority-group Britons of various ethnicities, whereas the second sample consisted of 247 White Christian majority-group Britons.Detailed participant demographics are presented in Table 1.All data and code are available at https://osf.io/2g579/?view_only=64504485a6694281ac72c1a182ce180e.

Procedure
The participants were recruited via Prolific Academic in August 2022 and paid equivalent to £ 11-12/hour.Participants had to live in the U.K. Muslim minority-group participants qualified for the study only when they indicated Islam as their belief.Christian majority-group participants had to indicate Christianity as their belief and their ethnicity as White.The following measures were assessed using an online questionnaire hosted by Qualtrics. 2

Measures
Example items, references, and reliability coefficients are presented in Table 2.

Acculturation orientations
On a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (not important at all) to 7 (very important), participants indicated (a) their own culture maintenance and (b) their other culture adoption in the following six domains: the way of living, traditions, values, culture generally, identity, and contact.Importantly, the wording of the items was adjusted to the two groups (see Table 2).For both groups, we refer to the dimensions as other culture adoption and own culture maintenance.

Acculturation expectations
Participants indicated their acculturation expectations toward the respective out-group (for Muslim minority-group members: "White Britons"; for Christian majority-group members: "immigrants and minority-group members") within the same six domains scored on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (not important at all) to 7 (very important).Muslim minority-group members were asked to indicate the extent to which they found it important that majority-group members (a) adopt the culture of minority-group members 2 Please note that additional measures were assessed for an unrelated project about extremist violent intentions.and (b) maintain their mainstream British culture.Christian majority-group members were asked to what extent they found it important that minority-group members (a) adopt the British mainstream culture and (b) maintain their heritage culture.For both groups, we refer to the dimensions as other culture adoption expectations and own culture maintenance expectation.

Group differences
We first ran independent samples t-tests to examine group differences.Whenever Levene's test of homogeneity of variances was significant, adjusted t-test results are reported.Significant group differences were observed for all variables except for the own culture maintenance orientation scale.First, Muslim minority-group members experienced more symbolic, t(490) = 2.11, p = .035,Cohen's d = 0.19, and realistic threats, t(417.73)= 10.73,p < .001,Cohen's d = 0.97, than Christian majority-group members, see Fig. 1.Next, Muslim minority-group members adopted the mainstream British culture to a greater extent than Christian majority-group members adopted the culture of minority-group members, t(486) = 5.07, p < .001,Cohen's d = 0.46.Both groups showed a comparable degree of own culture maintenance, t(472.67)= − 0.14, p = .889,Cohen's d = − 0.01.In terms of acculturation expectations, Christian majority-group members reported both higher own culture maintenance expectations, t(484) = − 2.49, p = .013,Cohen's d = − 0.23, and other culture adoption expectations, t(488) = − 5.13, p < .001,Cohen's d = − 0.46, toward minority-group members than Muslim minority-group members reported toward the majority group.Still, it is important to note that the expectations were normally distributed in both groups close to the midpoint of the scales.

Correlation matrices
Next, we examined the relationships among the main study variables (see Table 3).Among Muslim minority-group members, threat perceptions showed only two significant correlations with the acculturation variables.Specifically, symbolic and realistic threats were weakly associated with more own culture maintenance but not with other culture adoption.The acculturation expectations were not significantly associated with threat in this group of participants.More substantial correlations were observed amongst the acculturation variables.The more Muslim minority-group members maintained their own culture, the more they adopted the mainstream British culture, expected White Britons to maintain their own culture, and adopt other cultures (i.e., from minority groups).Own culture maintenance expectations and other culture adoption expectations were positively correlated.
For the Christian majority-group sample, a markedly different picture emerged.The symbolic and realistic threats were positively associated with own culture maintenance, but not with other culture adoption among Christian majority-group members.Both threat perceptions were also associated with lower expectations that minority-group members maintain their own culture and higher expectations that they adopt the mainstream British culture.Moreover, the more Christian majority-group members maintained their own culture, the more they expected other culture adoption from minority-group members.Notably, this correlation was strong.By contrast, the more the Christian majority-group members adopted the culture of minority-group members, the more they expected minority-group members to maintain their own cultures.The two expectation variables were not significantly correlated.Note.
a The first value represents the Muslim sample, whereas the second value represents the Christian sample.b One contact item was deleted during the measurement invariance test.

Cluster analyses
We conducted separate analyses to identify clusters in each of the two study samples.Please note that 6 Christian and 3 Muslim participants were excluded for these analyses because they had missing values on the clustering variables (i.e., on own culture maintenance and/or other culture adoption).The NbClust R function (Charrad et al., 2014) was used to determine the optimal number of clusters based on Euclidean distance and kmeans clustering.By comparing a large range of clustering validity indices, the function identified three clusters (i.e., acculturation strategies) in each group (see Fig. 2 and Supplementary Materials for details): integration (i.e., relatively high scores on both own culture maintenance and other culture adoption), separation (i.e., high scores on own culture maintenance but low scores on other culture adoption), and a diffuse strategy (i.e., low scores both in terms of own culture maintenance and other culture adoption).The assimilation acculturation orientation (i.e., high scores on other culture adoption and low scores on own culture maintenance) did not emerge.In the Christian majority-group sample, the clusters were relatively evenly distributed.In the Muslim minority-group sample, about half of the participants belonged to the integrated cluster, followed by 24.7% who belonged to the separated and 21.8% who belonged to the diffuse cluster.
We conducted Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) with the study variables as outcomes.In the first model, we tested for main effects of the group factor (Christian majority group vs. Muslim minority group) and clustering factor (diffuse vs. integrated vs. separated).In the second model, we added the interaction between the two factors.Model results are reported in Table 4 whereas response distributions on the outcome variables are displayed in Fig. 3.When following up on the significant effects, we report Holm-corrected p-values to prevent Type-1 error inflation due to multiple comparisons.
In terms of symbolic threat, the clustering factor had a main effect but not the group factor.Importantly, the interaction between both factors was significant.The diffuse Christian cluster experienced lower symbolic threat than all other clusters (ps =0.010 for comparison with the diffuse Muslim cluster and the integrated Christian cluster; ps <0.001 for all other comparisons).
Concerning realistic threat, the group and cluster factors both had main effects but did not interact significantly with each other.Christians on average experienced lower realistic threat than Muslims (p < .001).Moreover, across the groups, the diffuse cluster experienced lower levels of realistic threat than the integrated (p = .011)and separated clusters (p = .001).
Next, in terms of expectations that the out-group maintains their own culture, both variables had main effects and interacted significantly with each other.For Christians, the integrated cluster expected more own culture maintenance than the diffuse (p = .002)and separated cluster (p < .001).For Muslims, the integrated and separated clusters did not differ significantly (p = .329),but both expected more own culture maintenance than the diffuse cluster (ps <0.001).Moreover, the Christian diffuse and integrated clusters expected more own culture maintenance than Muslims in the corresponding clusters (p < .001and p = .045,respectively).
Finally, both factors had main effects and interacted significantly in terms of other culture adoption expectation.For both Christians and Muslims, the diffuse cluster expected less other culture adoption than the integrated or separated clusters (ps <0.001).However, whereas the separated Christian cluster expected more other culture adoption than the integrated Christian cluster (p = .007),the separated Muslim cluster expected slightly less other culture adoption than the integrated Muslim cluster (p = .048).Critically, however, Christians in all clusters, but especially in the separated cluster expected more other culture adoption than Muslims in the corresponding clusters (diffuse: p = .012,integrated: p = .007,separated: p < .001).

Discussion
The present study aimed to investigate the mutual acculturation expectations of Christian majority-group members and Muslim minority-group members in the U.K. and the relationship of these expectations to acculturation orientations and threat perceptions.The acculturation expectations of Muslim minority-group members were normally distributed around, roughly, the midpoint of the scale.In other words, at least in this group, there seems to be no apparent disfavor toward the idea that majority-group members should adopt the culture of minority-group members.Moreover, unlike findings among majority-group members in this and previous studies (Bourhis et al., 1997;Florack et al., 2003;Horenczyk et al., 2013), their acculturation expectations were not significantly related to perceptions of symbolic and realistic threats.These observations render it unlikely that most Muslim minority-group members in the U.K., in principle, perceive the other culture adoption by majority-group members as cultural appropriation.Nevertheless, they may be antagonistic toward how their culture is adopted in practice, a distinction that future research needs to address.
The more Muslim minority-group members maintained their own heritage culture, the more they expected majority-group members to maintain their mainstream culture and adopt the culture of minority-group members.By contrast, the more the majority-group members maintained their own culture, the more they solely expected minority-group members to adopt the mainstream British culture.Thus, unlike majority-group members, Muslim minority-group members who maintained their heritage culture seemed to endorse the importance of cultural maintenance and adoption for all groups, as in multiculturalism or integrationtransformationism (acceptance of some transformation of the majority culture as part of integrating immigrants; Bourhis et al., 1997).
Cluster analyses gave interesting complementary insights into how acculturation strategies may be related to acculturation expectations among minority-group members.Diffusely acculturated Muslim minority-group members experienced relatively low symbolic and realistic threats.They found it of minor importance for majority-group members to maintain their mainstream culture and/or adopt the culture of minority groups.This pattern seemed to reflect an individualist stance that ethnic cultures should generally play little of a role in people's lives (Bourhis et al., 1997).A diffuse cluster was also observed among majority-group membersa cluster regularly observed in previous research (see Kunst et al., 2021, for a review).Interestingly, diffusely acculturated majority-group members showed higher acculturation expectations than diffusely acculturated minority-group members.In particular, they found it relatively important for minority groups to maintain their culture.Thus, for majority-group members, the diffuse cluster may primarily reflect the preference that ethnicity should play less of a role for their in-group while being tolerant or even favorable toward the role of ethnic cultures for other groups in society.
Integrated minority-group members-the largest cluster in this sample-found it relatively important that the majority group maintains their culture but scored around the neutral midpoint when it comes to expectations that they should adopt the culture of immigrants and minority groups.This finding counters the general stereotype that immigrants and Muslims particularly (Kunst et al.,  2015; Uenal et al., 2020) not only remain culturally separated from society but also impose their culture on othersa stereotype that generally may be more accurate for majority-group members (Dovidio et al., 2007;Guimond et al., 2010;Obaidi et al., 2021).The present study's findings need to be replicated in other contexts and, if possible, with more representative samples than those obtained through online panels.Moreover, as we only could estimate correlations, longitudinal and experimental work is needed to establish causality between the constructs of interest (Kunst, 2021).Nevertheless, the present study forms the first important step toward understanding the acculturation expectations that minority-group members have toward majority-group members (Zagefka et al., 2022).
The current study's findings may have implications for practitioners and policymakers.Intercultural encounters where majoritygroup members can learn from minority-group members may facilitate mutual harmonious acculturation, with concomitant benefits for intercultural relations.Based on the longitudinal effects observed in previous research (Lefringhausen et al., 2022) and the correlations in the present research, this other culture adoption may make majority-group members more open toward the culture maintenance of immigrants.However, such intercultural encounters need to show sensitivity toward the expectations of minority-group members, as some may perceive certain forms of adoption of their culture as cultural appropriation.Nevertheless, our research suggests that, ceteris paribus, minority-group members may not generally reject the idea that majority-group members adopt the culture of minority-group members.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Group Differences on the Main Study Variables.Note.Violin charts and box plots represent response distributions.The red point represents the mean and the red error bar the 95% confidence intervals.

Fig. 3 .
Fig. 3. Distribution (Violin Charts and Box Plots), Means (Red Point), Standards Deviations (Red Error Bars) of the Main Study Variables for each Cluster and Study Group.
a Multiple answers possible.

Table 2
Overview of Measures.

Table 3
Correlations Between Main Study Variables among Muslim Minority-group Members (Right Side of Diagonal) and Christian Majority-Group Members (Left Side of Diagonal).
Fig. 2. Cluster Visualization for Muslims and Christians.

Table 4
ANOVA Results for Comparisons Between Clusters.