This study examines cultural frame switching among bicultural Greek children between the ages of 9 and 12 living in the Netherlands. By means of experimentally primed bicultural children and the use of monocultural comparison groups in the Netherlands and Greece, it was demonstrated that social explanations, self-identification, and attitudes toward family integrity and obedience were affected by cultural identity salience. Compared to Dutch identity salience, activating Greek identity especially led to more external attributions, stronger identification with friends, a more positive evaluation of social identity, and a less positive evaluation of personal identity. Similar tendencies were found for the attitude measures. In addition, similar differences were found when comparing monocultural Dutch and monocultural Greek children. It is concluded that this kind of experimental study and its results help to improve our understanding of the experiences of bicultural individuals and the way culture influences people’s lives.
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