Cultural appropriation refers to the making use or possession of the cultural elements of another group. Cultural appropriation has emerged as a controversial societal issue after several high-profile instances were highlighted in the media. Although cultural appropriation has often been mentioned in various academic disciplines, there is a lack of empirical research on the psychology of cultural appropriation and its downstream consequences for intergroup relations. My research explores this gap in empirical literature. Specifically, my work examines how group members differentially perceive and construe cultural appropriation. Studying cultural appropriating allows us to understand the pathway to multicultural integration, cultural empathy, and diversity 

I am also interested in various solutions to bridge the conceptual gap between group members, and ways to promote awareness surrounding the implications of cultural appropriation. Ultimately, my goal is to illuminate ways to reduce the occurrence of appropriation and replace it with respectful intercultural exchange that improves intergroup relations in a diverse multicultural environment. 

Scroll down to read some of the research questions that I am working on related to cultural appropriation:

The importance and salience of one's group membership can have important implications for how people make judgements about acts of appropriation, and the moral justifications they engage in to maintain a favorable group image. 

Four experiments test whether group members use different standards of judgment to decide whether examples of in-group (vs. out-group) perpetrators taking from an out-group culture are viewed as cultural appropriation. In Studies 1 and 2, White-American participants read a series of scenarios of depicting an actor engaging with an out-group cultural product. 

We manipulated perpetrator race (Black or White), and assessed group identification and morality threat as potential moderators of appropriation perceptions. White participants who were highly identified with their racial ingroup reported greater perceptions of cultural appropriation and lesser justification of the actor’s actions when reading about a Black (vs. White) perpetrator. In contrast, White participants low in racial identification saw more appropriation and less justification in the actions of White than Black perpetrators. 

Studies 3 also included measures of historical knowledge about racism as an additional potential moderator of appropriation perceptions, and Study 4 focused on Black American participants. Racial group identification moderated White participant’s perceptions of both in-group and out-group cultural appropriation, while Black participant’s judgements of appropriation were only moderated by past historical knowledge, but not racial identification. Implications for how group identity and historical knowledge influence judgements of cultural appropriation are discussed.

Research on cultural knowledge suggests that an awareness of social justice issues can help reduce race discrepancies in perceptions of racism and issues of social justice. 

We apply these insights to perceptions of cultural appropriation, or taking of an out-group’s cultural product. We examined whether group-members perceptions of cultural appropriation were influenced by target wokeness, or knowledge and awareness of issues of racial injustice. Participants read about a White rap-artist winning a music award, who either discussed issues of racial injustice (woke condition), or environmental concerns (control condition). Black perceivers attributed more positive intent to a rap-artist who discussed issues of racial injustice than a rap-artist who discussed environmental concerns. In contrast, White perceivers attributed more positive intent, and perceived less harm to the Black community when the target was portrayed as woke (vs. control condition). Implications of who is “invited” to engage in cultural products, and group-based disagreements of target intent, are discussed.