Altering Cultural Bias through Authentic Cultural Simulation.

There is much research suggesting that cultural biases or attitudes are difficult to change. This study assumes that the reason for the difficulty is that such biases are deeply rooted in a variety of situational and individual sources that must work simultaneously for change to occur. In searching for a way to conform to this requirement, a situational authentic cultural simulation (or culture camp) was developed. Subjects in an experimental group (198 predominantly white females aged 8 through 17 at a residential camp) spent 2 days in a simulated Mexican village. Those in a control group were taught about Mexican culture using traditional teaching methodology, including hands-on experiences. Both groups showed a similar increase in their knowledge of Mexican village culture, but only the experimental group showed a significant reduction in cultural bias. Four tables and four figures present study data. (Contains 54 references.) (Author/SLD)