A cross-cultural investigation of the effects of individual privilege, group identification and societal perceptions on global consciousness

Abstract

Amidst growing polarization and nationalism across societies, global consciousness (GC) provides an important construct for addressing the political challenges of our era. GC is a holistic and complex psychological orientation constituted by the distinct components of awareness, identity and morality. The current studies investigated whether measures of individual privilege (income, education, subjective status, frequent travel and multilingual capacity), group identification (national, religious and political) and societal perceptions positively predict these distinct components of GC. This was examined across a cross-cultural sample including two global superpowers (China and the United States) and other Asian societies (Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan) that vary in their positioning toward globalization (N = 1449 in Study 1, N = 1615 in Study 2). The findings supported the replication tests of individual privilege as predictors of GC to varying extents across cultural contexts, while measures of identification with meaningful groups showed high cross-cultural consistency as predictors of GC and its underlying components. Finally, the studies found considerable cultural variation in the influence of societal perceptions on GC between the United States and China. The importance of building upon knowledge that incorporates cultural, contextual and geopolitical dynamics in our endeavour to understand and cultivate GC is discussed.