Russians, Mokshans and Erzyans: Analysing Projections of National Characters

This research covered three ethnic groups (Russians, Mokshans and Erzyans) and all participants (140 per- sons) were students of the same Mordvinian university. Their task was to evaluate personality traits of the fol- lowing 'evaluation objects' using the National Character Survey: 1) Russian in general; 2) Russian living in Mordovia (regional Russian); 3) Mordva; 4) Erzya; 5) Moksha; 6) oneself. Although there seemed to be no sig- nificant characterological differences between the three ethnic groups of respondents, there certainly were con- siderable differences in their auto- and, most importantly, heterostereotypes. The paper reflects on how posi- tively perceived values in self-descriptions (low Neuroticism, high Openness for Experience, Agreeableness etc.) transform into less positive ones in auto- and heterostereotypes. As it is concluded, ethnocultural close- ness and acquaintanceship between the nations do not guarantee a better understanding of each other's nation- al characters.

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