The Influence of Chinese Cultural Symbols on Attitudes Towards Ethnic Integration: The Moderating Role of Ethnic Identity

Attitudes towards ethnic integration serve as a cornerstone for the interaction, exchange and unity among China's diverse ethnic groups and are essential for strengthening a unified Chinese national identity. Drawing on theories of nation-state building, imagined community and the common ingroup identity model, this study adopted experimental methods to examine the positive influence of Chinese cultural symbols on ethnic integration attitudes and its moderating mechanism at both explicit and implicit levels. In Study 1 with a multi-ethnic sample, experimental priming of Chinese cultural symbols significantly improved explicit attitudes towards ethnic integration. Study 2 targeted ethnic minority participants and adopted both the Ethnic Integration Attitude Scale and the Street Distance Projective Test. The results further verified the positive effect of Chinese cultural symbols on ethnic integration attitudes at explicit and implicit levels and confirmed the moderating role of ethnic identity: stronger ethnic identity amplifies the positive effect of Chinese cultural symbols on ethnic integration attitudes. These findings not only expand the theoretical boundary of the common ingroup identity model but also imply that shared cultural symbols can act as an effective pathway to cultivate positive ethnic integration attitudes.