Examining the psychological effects of animosity on university students’ study choice intention

This study examines how Chinese undergraduate students’ feelings of animosity can be associated with their psychological perceptions and study choice intentions in the US. A total of 278 usable data responses were collected from Chinese students who enrolled in a private university in Macau, China; the data were analyzed through partial least squares-structural modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA) to create an expanded analytical process. PLS-SEM revealed that students’ overall animosity is positively associated with risk perceptions and negatively associated with their country image perceptions and study choice intentions toward the US. Moreover, NCA identifies various dimensions of animosity (i.e., economic, social, political, religious, historical, and military) as necessary conditions of students’ overall animosity. This study reveals that political and historical animosity are the two most important factors that are associated with students’ overall animosity. Actionable implications are offered to the US higher education institutions to understand students’ psychology and mobility in order to implement better strategies to recruit and retain Chinese international students.