Intercultural Sensitivity
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
The ability to perceive and appreciate cultural difference — to notice, experience, and respond to cultural variation with openness and curiosity rather than denial, defensiveness, or minimization. Understood developmentally as a capacity that can be cultivated, intercultural sensitivity is both a perceptual and an affective orientation, preceding and enabling the behavioral competence described as intercultural competence.
Comparable terms
Intercultural competence (see separate entry — broader; intercultural sensitivity is the perceptual foundation on which competence is built) · Cultural empathy (coaching, education — emphasizes the affective dimension) · Cross-cultural awareness (HR/mobility — typically refers to a more surface-level orientation than sensitivity) · Ethnorelativism (Bennett DMIS — the developmental goal toward which sensitivity grows)
Why this matters
Intercultural sensitivity is the perceptual foundation for healthy cross‑cultural relationships. It evolves over time and can be intentionally developed. Focusing on sensitivity first prevents “skills training” from becoming mechanical or judgmental.
Cross-references
Intercultural Competence (Cultural Adaptation); Global Mindset (Identity & Belonging); DMIS (Cultural Adaptation); IDI (Cultural Adaptation); Cultural Humility (Cultural Adaptation); Intercultural Curiosity (Cultural Adaptation); CCT (Cultural Adaptation). The DMIS is the theoretical framework within which intercultural sensitivity is developmentally structured; the IDI is the validated instrument designed to measure it. Cultural humility provides the ethical grounding — the acknowledgment of the limits of one’s own cultural knowledge — without which sensitivity risks becoming performative rather than genuine. Intercultural curiosity is the motivational disposition that sustains sensitivity across repeated cultural encounters. CCT is the structured intervention most commonly designed to develop intercultural sensitivity in organizational and educational contexts.
Sources
The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) positions intercultural sensitivity as a developmentally structured perceptual capacity moving from ethnocentrism (in which one’s own culture is experienced as the only or superior reality) toward ethnorelativism, in which cultural difference is experienced as a natural and enriching feature of human life. Bennett, M.J. (1986). A developmental approach to training for intercultural sensitivity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 10(2), 179–196.
Hammer, M.R., Bennett, M.J. & Wiseman, R. (2003). Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The intercultural development inventory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 27, 421–443.
« Back