Salience of nationality in students' spontaneous self-concept: A comparative study of a nationally homogeneous and a heterogeneous school context

We investigated the salience of nationality in adolescents’ self-concept as a function of the diversity of the school context. According to the distinctiveness postulate, people selectively attend to and encode aspects that are most distinctive. We therefore predicted that students in the nationally heterogeneous school environment would mention nationality more frequently in their spontaneous self-concept than those in the more homogeneous school setting. Furthermore, we expected minority members to mention nationality more frequently. These predictions were confirmed and implications will be discussed.