Cross-cultural training effects on cultural essentialism beliefs and cultural intelligence

► Examines effects of an intercultural training intervention in a university course. ► Matched pre-post data for 49 students across five weeks was available. ► Cultural essentialism (CE) increased and cultural intelligence (CQ) decreased at Time 2. ► More open-minded individuals benefited more from training. ► CE and CQ were positively correlated, challenging essentialist criticism of trainings.