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Ethnocentrism Is A Basic Attitude Expressing The Belief That One? S Own Culture Essay

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ETHNOCENTRISM

Ethnocentrism is a basic attitude expressing the belief that one?s own ethnic group or one?s own culture is superior to other ethnic groups or cultures, and that one?s cultural standards can be applied in a universal manner. The term was first used by the American sociologist William Graham Sumner (1840?1910) to describe the view that one?s own culture can be considered central, while other cultures or religious traditions are reduced to a less prominent role. Ethnocentrism is closely related to other attitudinal indicators for racism, xenophobia, prejudice, mental closure, and, more generally, an authoritarian personality structure. Ethnocentrism is widely used in research on social and political attitudes because it proves to be a very powerful and easily identifiable attitude that can be measured in a valid manner with a limited number of variables. Although ethnocentric prejudice can be directed toward one specific outsider group, empirical research reveals that usually ethnocentrism is generalized toward all outsider groups.

Although ethnocentrism is closely related to racism, it can be distinguished from racism because it does not involve necessarily a negative vision toward other races. Any culturally distinct outsider group (whether the distinction involves language, religion, color, or descent) can be targeted by ethnocentric attitudes. In practice, European researchers often tend to avoid using the term?racism?because they are reluctant to apply the

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