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We are quite aware of eastern particularly Indian and Western cultures. Both the cultures are quite different from each other.
Indian culture is based on agriculture and people are dependent on each other. This is a collectivistic society and emphasises on socialisation.
In collectivistic societies the boundaries between self and the group are flexible and people can intrude/interfere in each other’s life.
In such type of societies various concepts are different e.g. human body is determined by natural elements and criteria of being intelligent is very comprehensive e.g. It requires cognitive, social, emotional and entrepreneurial competencies.
Whereas western culture is technologically advanced and is individualistic society. This is based on urbanisation, schooling and child rearing practices. They emphasise on individual liberty.
The boundaries between self and group are rigid. They believe that body is a fully functioning machine. Their criteria of being intelligent demands only the cognitive competence.
Ethnocentrism refers to the use of our own ethnic group as basis for judgements about other ethnic group. There is a tendency to view the beliefs, customs and behaviours of our own group as ‘normal’ and those of other ethnic groups as ‘strange’ or ‘deviant’. There is the implicit assumption in all of this that own ethnic group is somehow superior to the others that we are judging it against.
Ethnocentrism is a natural social process because we all affiliate our silver with a larger group. For reassurance that my behaviour is right, to maintain consistency in behaviour and a belief that majority is always right we conform to the group norms. Gradually we become conditioned to the prevailing group norms in their in-group. We develop an in-group bias.
But it is not difficult to reduce ethnocentrism i.e. in-group bias.
These can minimise opportunities of learning prejudices, changing negative attitudes, deemphasising a narrow social identity based on the in-group and discouraging self-fulfilling prophecy, positive attitude, objectivity and empathy we can reduce ethnocentrism.