Dealing effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds is challenging because cultural learning is deeply integrated into personality. Our values, perceptions and behavioural patterns are not neutral or objective; they are shaped by long-term socialisation processes that operate largely unconsciously.

As a result, we tend to perceive the world through our own cultural lens. Our own cultural standards appear “natural”, “normal” and “self-evident”. This creates a central reference point: our culture becomes the implicit centre of interpretation. Everything else is understood and evaluated in relation to it. This orientation is called ethnocentrism.

Ethnocentrism means that we interpret the behaviour of others through the framework of our own cultural experiences and expectations. This is rarely a conscious or intentionally exclusionary process. Instead, it is a “natural” cognitive and emotional mechanism that provides orientation in a complex world.

Because culture is closely linked to identity and emotional stability, questioning one’s own cultural assumptions can feel uncomfortable or even threatening. People do not easily abandon their “cultural glasses”, even when they become aware of them.

At the same time, ethnocentrism is not simply a problem. It is a normal human condition and provides psychological security. However, it becomes a barrier in intercultural communication when it remains unreflected and leads to automatic misinterpretations of others.

For this reason, ethnocentrism cannot be removed through knowledge alone, even through extensive cultural learning. It can only be reduced, reflected and regulated. Intercultural competence therefore means learning to recognise one’s own ethnocentric reactions and avoiding “cultural autopilot” responses in interaction.

Bild „Baum mit wunderschönen Wurzeln“ von FelixMittermeier auf Pixabay