How do perceived and objective cultural distance compare in predicting immigrants’ acculturation experiences? Using data from a diverse sample of immigrants residing in the United States ( N = 939), we examined perceived cultural distance alongside objective cultural distance measured by the Cultural Fixation Index ( CF _ST ), a novel and flexible metric derived from World Values Survey data that captures between-group variation in cultural values. Our findings reveal that perceived cultural distance, assessed using the Brief Perceived Cultural Distance Scale, was more often associated with psychological outcomes, including higher homesickness (β = .08) and lower psychological adaptation (β = −.08). In contrast, objective cultural distance was negatively associated with physical health (β = −.16), and stronger orientations toward host culture (β = .08). The two measures were moderately correlated ( r = .34), and both predicted greater culture shock and stronger heritage culture orientation. Neither objective nor perceived cultural distance significantly predicted depressive symptoms or anxiety. These findings highlight the importance of assessing both subjective perceptions and objective measures of cultural differences when studying acculturation and considering their respective trade-offs.

With contemporary social movements related to civil rights, personal freedoms, and tensions in higher education institutions around academic freedom, ideological open-mindedness has become an increasingly popular research topic in recent decades. Such openness has been defined as a disposition to engage meaningfully with novel ideas that may conflict with one’s own, and to accommodate or disregard such views with delicacy, precision, and care (Cormier et al., 2026; Kwong, 2023). Findings on effective interventions to reduce ideological polarization remain limited, highlighting the need for a cohesive review. This review catalogued and analyzed findings on individual differences related to ideological open-mindedness through an exploratory research question: Are there measured individual differences (psychological and demographic variables such as personality traits, political beliefs, and gender) that relate meaningfully to ideological open-mindedness? The search process retained 152 records. Results showed associations between ideological open-mindedness and personality traits, age, gender, sexual orientation, culture, language, political standing, socioeconomic status, religious beliefs, education level and type, personal past experience, competence, personal beliefs and interests, and emotional tendencies. Considering varied associations between individual characteristics and differences in ideological open-mindedness, this review serves as a guide towards better understanding this complex construct as precursor to informing effective interventions.