An examination of the relationship between cultural distance and acculturation preferences in six post-Soviet societies

Asian Journal of Social Psychology. 2025. Vol. 28. No. 2. Article e70013.

A. N. Tatarko, Z. Kh. Lepshokova, J. W. Berry

This study examines the relationship between perceived cultural distance and
acculturation preferences of ethnic majority groups and a minority group in
six post-Soviet
societies: Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan. We surveyed ethnic Russians (the ethnic minority) and members
of the majority groups in each society. The total number of respondents was
3271 people. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the status of the Russian
population in these republics changed from being the dominant group in the
Soviet Union to an ethnic minority group in the newly independent countries.
To take into account contextual features, we evaluated the permeability of
ethnic boundaries for ethnic Russians, which vary across different post-Soviet
republics. We found that in the samples of the national population and one
ethnic minority (Russians), the closer the cultural distance, the higher the
perceived permeability of boundaries. However, among the national population,
a closer cultural distance to Russians is positively associated with the desire to
segregate them, while among Russians, a closer cultural distance to the national
population is associated with a desire to integrate.

Keywords: этническое меньшинство, ethnic minority, cultural distance, культурная дистанция, этническое большинство, acculturation preferences, аккультурационные предпочтения, national population, permeability of ethnic boundaries, проницаемость этнических границ

Publication based on the results of: Comparative studies of culture and subjective well-being: differentiation and integration of societies in the context of global challenges (2025)