When the majority becomes the minority: Reverse acculturation and attitudinal convergence in multicultural America

Abstract

This paper examines reverse acculturation as a framework for understanding attitudinal convergence in multicultural America. Traditional acculturation models generally assume that minority groups adapt to a dominant majority culture. Yet many US cities now represent the opposite condition: non-Hispanic White people are no longer the numerical majority, and multicultural consumers increasingly define the social and commercial context of everyday life. Using a nine-city survey of 1,183 non-Hispanic White, African American, and Hispanic respondents, this paper analyses six constructs: two exposure measures (direct contact and childhood multicultural exposure) and four attitudinal outcomes (interethnic contact attitudes, ethnic-related political attitudes, cultural diversity attitudes, and receptivity to multicultural advertising). Notably, results show non-Hispanic White people in multicultural-majority cities report higher contact, greater childhood exposure, and stronger receptivity to multicultural advertising than those in White-majority cities. The paper’s findings suggest that both acculturation theory and marketing segmentation models must be updated for a multicultural-majority marketplace, where cultural influence is increasingly bidirectional and shaped by sustained intergroup contact rather than one-way minority adaptation. The findings also help address marketplace concerns that multicultural strategies may alienate non-Hispanic White consumers, showing instead that such strategies can resonate more broadly in markets where consumers share sustained multicultural contact and exposure. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection, which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.