Ethnocentric Attitudes of American and International Students: Assessing the Impact of Collaboration

To compensate for measurement issues in previous studies and to further test the utility of the social contact hypothesis, this mixedmethods study compared ethnocentric attitudes of American and international undergraduate students who participated in a semesterlong collaboration with undergraduate students in a control group. The Generalized Ethnocentrism scale was used to measure the ethnocentrism levels of the 120 participants before and after the collaboration. Paired samples t tests were conducted to compare pre and posttest means. Qualitative data was also collected with open survey questions. Results reveal no significant differences in ethnocentrism levels as a result of the collaboration. However, qualitative findings indicate increased comfort levels and a desire for more frequent collaborative opportunities. Implications of the findings are discussed