The Mindset of a Cultural Hybrid: 10 Qualities You Need to Develop

Cultural hybrids are people who have internalized two or more different belief systems and feel comfortable in all of them.

They are capable of switching back and forth between the common behaviors of each culture instantly. They are not stuck in one way of thinking, and are able to appreciate the world’s diversity of thought. They have the ability to integrate seemingly paradoxical ways of thinking and thus create new ways of thinking and behaving.

Cultural hybrids are those people who can help to facilitate intercultural encounters between people from two different cultural backgrounds. They act as interpreters who help to resolve misunderstandings and build effective ways of communication between two different parties.

But what qualities do they actually have that set them apart from other people?

10 qualities that make the mindset of cultural hybrids unique

1. Self-awareness: cultural hybrids are aware of their own beliefs, their strengths and weaknesses as intercultural communicators, the way they are perceived by others and the way their own background influences their behavior.
2. Non-judgmental: cultural hybrids are able to withhold judgment of a culture’s behavioral patterns. When they observe a behavior they do not understand, they first do their best to analyse it to the point that they get a complete understanding of its underlying beliefs. Only then they choose how they think about a certain behavior.
3. Cognitive flexibility: cognitive flexibility is the ability to maintain different and perhaps opposing perspectives on the world in one’s head. Cultural hybrids understand that there are different ways of looking at the world and that these different ways are not better or worse than one another. Instead, they hold these different viewpoints in their minds and they are able to integrate them into a new whole.
4. Independence: cultural hybrids understand that the world has many negative influences on our behavior and our way of thinking. They are able to look at a culture’s behavioral patterns from an outsider perspective, and to pick and choose which of these behaviors suit their own personal way of living. They do not simply “copy” a way of acting just because this is what the people around them are doing, but they make conscious choices about who they are.
5. Empathy: cultural hybrids are able to take on the perspectives of other people even if they do not have much in common with them. They possess over such a high degree of mental flexibility that they are able to put themselves into the mind-set and the way of thinking of people who lead significantly different lives as compared to themselves.
6. Open-mindedness: cultural hybrids understand that every single culture and person has something unique to offer to the world. As a result, they do not simply dismiss a belief system or a behavioral pattern simply because it doesn’t seem favorable to them. Rather, they remain open-minded in finding the positive aspects of these behaviors or belief systems and try to discover the lessons that they can learn from them.
7. Analytic mind: cultural hybrids need a strong analytic mind to look at a cultural behavior and understand not only the beliefs that are underlying these behaviors, but also the way in which these beliefs are interrelated with one another.
8. Willingness to accept feedback: nobody can ever adapt to a new cultural environment without the willingness and ability to integrate feedback into their own behavioral styles. Cultural hybrids recognize that there will always be people who understand a particular culture better than they themselves do, and they are willing to integrate the feedback of these people into their own behavioral style.
9. Emotional control: cultural hybrids do not simply let themselves be guided by their emotions. They recognize when they react to a situation in a negative way, and they know how to keep their emotions under control in order to look at the situation as objectively as possible.
10. Adaptability: cultural hybrids maintain the ability to adjust their behavior and way of thinking according to the situation they find themselves in. While they are aware of their own values and beliefs, they do not rigidly stick to them while dismissing all other ways of thinking. Rather, they are always staying open-minded for integrating new ways of thinking and behaving into their own behavioral repertoire.

So, what steps can you take now?

One great exercise you can do is to think through which of these different elements of being a cultural hybrid are your strengths, and which one’s are your weaknesses.

Once you have identified the areas of weakness, think about how you can improve your own ability in these areas. What steps can you take to become a much better all-rounder in terms of adapting the mindset of a cultural hybrid?

Now, I would love to hear from you.

• What are the qualities of becoming a cultural hybrid that you struggle with the most?
• What steps do you take to become better at them?
• What stories do you have that can be great examples of these qualities
• Which of these qualities do you want me to write more about and provide advice on how to develop them?

Let me know your answers in the comments below, and don’t forget to visit my website for more articles on intercultural communication, as well as clapping and sharing this article with your friends.

How to Become an Effective Intercultural Communicator - Tim Rettig