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Volume 19, Issue 2-3
  • ISSN 1568-1475
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Abstract

Abstract

Culture-specific symbols can prime aspects of identity, like self-esteem, in bilingual-bicultural individuals. The purpose of the present studies was to test whether gestures that are specific to a culture prime self-esteem and, if so, whether it is due to in-group/out-group association. In Study 1, Chinese Canadians had higher self-esteem scores when primed by Chinese number gestures or characters than by English number gestures or words. In Study 2, we taught Chinese number gestures to non-Chinese adults, with half thinking they were Chinese gestures (out-group) and half that they were old fur traders’ gestures (in-group). The self-esteem scores were higher in the in-group condition than the out-group condition. Comparisons with self-esteem scores from previous studies suggest that the out-group conditions were significantly lower than baseline. These results suggest that out-group gesture primes can lower self-esteem.

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2021-09-28
2025-04-19

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/content/journals/10.1075/gest.19004.nic
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Out-group gestures can lower self-esteem
Gesture 19, 223 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.19004.nic
/content/journals/10.1075/gest.19004.nic
/content/journals/10.1075/gest.19004.nic
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): biculturalism; conventional gestures; cultural identity; frame-switching

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