Are ‘cultural omnivores’ more accepting of outgroup members? Survey findings from a new immigrant destination

Abstract

A voluminous literature has shown that a wide range of individual and contextual factors are related to why some natives are more (less) accepting of the foreign-born population. In this study, we offer a novel concept in addressing this issue: omnivorous cultural consumption. We contend that those who are engaged in consumption behavior across multiple (including ‘highbrow’ and ‘lowbrow’) fields, i.e., cultural omnivores, are more open to immigrants—that they are more willing to accept them as friends, neighbors, and marriage partners. Using a large hierarchically nested dataset (N = 42,991) on native residents of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, we provide robust evidence in support of our argument. We also report the magnitude of the focal association between omnivorous cultural consumption and pro-immigrant attitudes (outgroup acceptance) to be higher among the better educated, high trustors, and those who identify themselves as politically more liberal. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd