Cross cultural understanding: a handbook to understand others’ cultures

A.
 
The Cause of Cultural Conflict 
Cultural conflict occurs as a result of ethnocentrism, 
misinterpretation, and stereotype. Ethnocentrism often entails the 
belief that one's own race or ethnic group is the most important or 
that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other 
groups. Within this ideology, individuals will judge other groups 
in relation to their own particular ethnic group or culture, 
especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and 
religion.  
Speaker from different cultures assume that what they 
believe is right, because they have grown up thinking their way is 
the best and this may result in negative attitudes and judgements 
toward other cultures. These ethnocentrism attitudes cause 
people become critical of individuals from different cultures.
Misinterpretation happens because people fail to interpret 
the verbal and non-verbal communication correctly. As we know 
that non-verbal language is more difficult than verbal language 
because one culture to another has different sign and meaning 
system. 
Stereotypes are generalizations of people groups based on 
past experiences, which are deep-rooted in the psyche of the 
people. These stereotypes develop from jokes, textbooks, movies, 
and television. Stereotypical beliefs prevent us from seeing people 
as individual with unique characteristics. Negative stereotype 

---

Cross Cultural Understanding | 113 
may lead to prejudice, suspicion intolerance or hatred toward 
members of other cultural groups.