Dataset for Foreign Influencers' Unscripted China Travel Vlogs Develop Cross-Cultural Competence Among Contact-Scarce Chinese Higher Education Students
Description
This study examines whether engagement with unscripted travel videos filmed by foreign visitors in China, a naturally occurring form of mediated intergroup contact (MIC), is associated with students’ cross-cultural competence (CCC), and through which psychological pathways. Drawing on the parasocial contact hypothesis, we tested a serial mediation model linking MIC to CCC via positive meta-stereotyping (PMS) and cultural agility (CAA). A stratified probability sample of 2,366 students from four Chinese institutions completed an online survey, and the data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling. MIC was positively associated with PMS (β = 0.466), PMS with CAA (β = 0.520), and CAA with CCC (β = 0.776), and the serial indirect association was significant (β = 0.188). Given the cross-sectional design, the paths are interpreted as associations consistent with the theorized sequence, not as causal effects.