Exploring Civic Virtues among International Students

Civic virtues (civility and social responsibility) support individuals' willingness to contribute to the common good, and universities provide key opportunities for their development. Prior research suggests that short-term study abroad enhances civic virtues, but it remains unclear whether long-term immersion in a foreign country, as experienced by international students, yields similar benefits. This study examined civic virtues and related psychological constructs among 150 undergraduate students. Participants completed measures of civic engagement, civility, empathy, epistemic humility, need for cognition, wise reasoning, need for closure, and cultural competence. One-way ANOVAs revealed no group differences in civic virtues. However, international students with higher cultural competence resembled American students with study-abroad experience, scoring higher on attitudinal cultural competence than American students without such experience. International students demonstrated the strongest behavioral skills in navigating cultural differences. Across the entire sample, students with higher cultural competence showed consistently stronger civic-related characteristics. Those with greater openness to cultural differences and stronger perspective-taking abilities also demonstrated higher civility toward others, stronger civic attitudes, greater wise reasoning, and a higher need for cognition.