The Benefits of Being Bicultural

In my last post I discussed some of the challenges or obstacles that are posed by being bicultural. But as I mentioned, being bicultural does not have to be burden on the individual and actually has many potential benefits. To begin with, by being exposed significantly to two cultures, bicultural individuals can have more perspective and more to draw upon. This can allow those who are bicultural to be more aware of differences and similarities between individuals, and make them more sensitive, tolerant, and accepting of different people. Additionally, some research has found a relationship between biculturalism and creativity. This is line with the idea that being bicultural provides the individual with more perspective to draw upon from the two cultures and thus, more ways to approach a situation. Of course, you do not have to be bicultural to benefit from the increased perspective that exposure to other cultures can have, which I will touch upon at the end of this post. Getting back to bicultural individuals, what is it that can allow them to benefit from being bicultural while minimizing the potential negative effects? 

The answer may lie in what some researchers refer to as Bicultural Identity Integration. Bicultural Identity Integration is essentially the level that individuals experience and view their two cultures as compatible and complementary, and can fluidly move back between them. Someone high in Bicultural Identity Integration can easily and flexibly move back between the two cultures and finds a harmony within them, not viewing either as better or worse than the other. In contrast, those low in Bicultural Identity Integration tend to view the cultures as oppositional, conflicting and disparate. In the course of making decisions, living their lives and determining who they are, those who are low in Bicultural Identity Integration feel conflicted between their two cultures. Like virtually all components of identity, flexibility and fluidity between various aspects of our cultural identity leads to the healthiest outcome. The bicultural individual who views her two cultures as equal, complementary, and can see the good in both, can reap the benefits of being bicultural while avoiding the potential challenges.

We see that at the individual level, what is significant is how people view and feel about the different aspects of their cultural identity. In fact, this also relates to how we view cultures in general. There is a tendency to view our own culture as superior to others, with an ethnocentric bias. We can even have a negative emotional reaction to outside cultural values and feel that they are somehow less moral or just than our own values. But this is due to our ethnocentrism and automatic, innate emotional responses, not logical reasoning about morality. As we saw with bicultural individuals, the most beneficial mindset is to view all cultures as equal and good in their own way. By exposing ourselves to many cultures, we can actually multiply and expand the benefits of being bicultural by gleaning the good of as many cultures as we can, while expanding our perspective and awareness in the process. Biculturalism can be good but multiculturalism is even better. By looking at other cultures with a sense of openness and non-judgment, we can gather the best parts of each culture and incorporate them into our lives. This is all the more important as the world continues to move towards becoming more and more multicultural and eventually develops a human culture.