Ethnic-Racial Identity, Interethnic Contact, and Reddit Community Identification Relate to Monoculturals’ Intercultural Sensitivity

The Internet has reshaped communication, bringing together people from varied cultural backgrounds, especially within social media sub-communities such as Reddit. These interest-based spaces can foster intercultural encounters. Framed by Ethnic Racial Identity (ERI) and Allport’s Contact theory, this study examines how monocultural Reddit users experience interculturality. We tested whether ethnic-racial identity exploration, resolution, and affirmation–internal factors–and frequency and quality of interethnic contact on Reddit and identification with the Reddit community–external/contextual factors–associated with intercultural sensitivity. We administered an online questionnaire on Qualtrics platform and recruited 241 self-identified monocultural Reddit users (107 males, 44.4%). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that both internal and external/contextual factors were significantly related to intercultural sensitivity: ERI resolution showed a positive association, whereas ERI affirmation and exploration were not related. In addition, more frequent, higher-quality interethnic interactions on Reddit and stronger identification with the platform’s community were linked to greater intercultural sensitivity. These findings highlight the role of social media in shaping cross-cultural understanding among monocultural individuals and suggest practical avenues for promoting intercultural sensitivity within online communities. The study contributes evidence from a large, interest-driven platform and extends classic identity theories and contact to contemporary online contexts.