The critical question is how really  bi-cultural individuals (individual with a dual cultural experience) do manage the co-existence of divergent or even conflicting concepts, rooted in their two cultural knowledge systems? How do these cultures interact, or even interfere, within a bicultural mind?.
A key premise is that bicultural individuals in fact possess two cultural code-systems, although not necessarily developed to the same extent. With our experimental studies we examine biculturalism and the phenomenon of 'cultural frame switching' in relation to self-evaluation, explanations for social events and endorsement of cultural values.

Our experiments have been  conducted among bicultural Greek-Dutch children aged 9 to 12 years old and among adult bicultural participants of Greek descent who had lived in the Netherlands for more than five years. Participants in all studies were proficient in both the Greek and the Dutch language.  They were randomly assigned to participate in either Greek or Dutch language questionnaires combined with the corresponding cultural symbols.

In all, more than 800 participants have been surveyed. We are able to observe that indeed specific subsets of, either Greek or Dutch, cultural knowledge can be triggered and activated to guide cognition and behaviour. Results are always qualified by the responses of  two 'mono-cultural' control groups: Dutch participants in the Netherlands and Greek participants in Greece.

Through a better understanding of biculturalism, we hope to improve our approach towards an explanation of how cultural knowledge influences people's perceptions and behavior.