Research article The relationship between acculturation preferences and prejudice: Longitudinal evidence from majority and minority groups in three European countries HANNA ZAGEFKA 1 * , JENS BINDER 2 , RUPERT BROWN 3 , THOMAS KESSLER 4 , AMÉLIE MUMMENDEY 4 , FRIEDRICH FUNKE 4 , STÉPHANIE DEMOULIN 5 , JACQUES-PHILIPPE LEYENS 5 AND ANNEMIE MAQUIL 5 1 Royal Holloway, University of London, London, UK; 2 Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK; 3 University of Sussex, Brighton, UK; 4 Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany; 5 University of Louvain- La-Neuve, Belgium Abstract A longitudinal field survey tested the reciprocal effects of acculturation preferences and prejudice among ethnic minorities and majorities. Data were collected at two points in time from 512 members of ethnic minorities and 1143 majority members in Germany, Belgium and England. Path analyses yielded not only the lagged effects of prejudice on acculturation preferences but also the reverse for both majority and minority members. The mutual longitudinal effects between prejudice and desire for culture maintenance were negative, and the mutual effects between prejudice and desire for culture adoption were positive for majority members. The reverse was the case for minority participants. Moreover, the two acculturation dimensions interacted in their effect on prejudice for majority participants but not for minority participants. The effect of desire for culture adoption on prejudice was moderated by perceived intergroup similarity. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Most, if not all, countries around the globe have a demographic makeup that is ethnically or culturally hetero- geneous—ethnic diversity is an inescapable fact in a globa- lized world. Unfortunately, negative interethnic attitudes are also rather common (Brown, 2010; Küpper, Wolf, & Zick, 2010). Moreover, minority members can favour one of several rather different approaches to managing their distinctiveness from the majority. For example, they might try to minimize or even eliminate their difference by emulating the majority members’ way of life, aspiring to become majority members themselves. Or, they might uphold their ethnic or cultural difference, and try to protect their distinctiveness from cultural assimilation. Of course, majority members will also have preferences for how they would like minority members to conduct themselves within the broader society. An important question of both theoret- ical and applied urgency concerns the relationship between such attitudes and interethnic prejudice. Will those minority members who make certain acculturation choices manifest more prejudice against majority outgroup members as a consequence? Or will prejudice instead impact on accultura- tion choices? What is the nature of the relationships between these variables among majority members? These are some of the questions this paper will address. These questions are of great societal relevance, because they can help shed light on the potential positive or negative consequences of encouraging certain acculturation attitudes. Likewise, they might also show how acculturation choices might be limited by intergroup prejudice, thereby highlight- ing the importance of a positive intergroup climate. The questions are also of theoretical relevance because, even though acculturation and prejudice have been found to be linked (e.g. Zagefka & Brown, 2002), to date, there is no de- tailed understanding of the causal direction of these effects. Psychological acculturation is a process of cultural change resulting from intergroup contact (Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits, 1936; Thurnwald, 1932). One of the most influential models of acculturation is that by Berry (1997). The model proposes that there are two underlying dimensions that characterize a person’s overall attitude towards acculturation: the endorsement or rejection of the minority culture, and the desire for intergroup contact. These, when crossed, result in four distinct acculturation preferences: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. A preference for integration exists if minority members wish to maintain their original cultural identity and also wish to have contact with the majority group. Minority members favour assimilation if they prefer to abandon their original cultural identity while endorsing contact. If minority members want to maintain their original culture but do not want contact, they follow a strategy of separation. Finally, if minority members reject both their original culture and contact, this results in marginalization. *Correspondence to: Hanna Zagefka, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, TW200EX, UK. E-mail: Hanna.Zagefka@rhul.ac.uk European Journal of Social Psychology, Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 44, 578–589 (20142014) Published online 1 July 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2044 Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 13 September 2013, Accepted 14 May 2014