Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

What We Know About Nationalism

  • Chapter
The Psychology of Nationalism

  • 83 Accesses

Abstract

Psychologists, as a whole, have studied nationalism only sporadically.1 However, there is a great deal of psychological research that describes how we categorize people, how we think about ourselves and about others, and how we tend to act when we get into groups. Looking at this research, we will find that people act in predictable ways that predispose us to group together and to engage in conflict.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Notable exceptions include Stephen Worchel, Written in Blood: Ethnic Identity and the Struggle for Human Harmony (New York: Worth Publishing, 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Vamik Volkan, The Need to Have Enemies and Allies: From Clinical Practice to International Relationships (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1994)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Leonard W. Doob, Patriotism and Nationalism: Their Psychological Foundations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964); and

    Google Scholar 

  4. Herbert C. Kelman, “Nationalism, Patriotism, and National Identity: Social-Psychological Dimensions,” in Patriotism: In the Lives of Individuals and Nations, edited by D. Bar-Tal and E. Staub (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  5. A classic discussion of our tendency to categorize is given in Gordon W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1954), from which the general outline of this discussion is taken.

    Google Scholar 

  6. For discussions of this point, see Uri Ra’anan, “The Nation-State Fallacy,” in Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies, edited by J. V. Montville (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1990); and

    Google Scholar 

  7. Anthony D. Smith, National Identity (London: Penguin Books, 1991), 9–11.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Smith, 1991, 11–13.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bryan Pfaffenberger, “Ethnic Conflict and Youth Insurgency in Sri Lanka: The Social Origins of Tamil Separatism,” in Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies, edited by J. V. Montville (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1991), 247. See also

    Google Scholar 

  10. Stanley J. Tarnbiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986), 5.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Tambiah, 1986, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Tambiah, 1986, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Oddvar Hollup, “The Impact of Land Reforms, Rural Images, and Nationalist Ideology on Plantation Tamils,” in Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka, edited by T. A. Bartholomeusz and Chandra R. de Silva (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Thomas Goltz, Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999), 175.

    Google Scholar 

  15. William Graham Sumner, Folkways; A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1940) (original work published 1906).

    Google Scholar 

  16. See Robert A. LeVine and Donald T. Campbell, Ethnocentrism: Theories of Conflict, Ethnic Attitudes, and Group Behavior (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1972), for an extensive elaboration of this idea.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Marilynn B. Brewer, “The Role of Ethnocentrism in Intergroup Conflict,” in Psychology of Intergroup Relations, ed. S. Worchel and W. C. Austin (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Willem Doise, “An Experimental Investigation into the Formation of Intergroup Representations,” European Journal of Social Psychology 2 (1972): 202–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. See Marilynn. B. Brewer, “Ingroup Bias in the Minimal Intergroup Situation: A Cognitive-Motivational Analysis,” Psychological Bulletin 86 (1979), 307–324, for an overview.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Gordon W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1954), 21.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Charles M. Judd and Bernadette Park, “Out-group Homogeneity: Judgments of Variability at the Individual and Group Levels,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54 (1988): 778–788.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. See George Quattrone and Edward E. Jones, “The Perception of Variability within In-groups and Out-groups: Implications for the Law of Small Numbers,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 38 (1980): 141–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Myron Rothbart, Mark Evans, and Solomon Fulero, “Recall for Confirming Events: Memory Processes and the Maintenance of Social Stereotypes,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 15 (1979), 343–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Claudia E. Cohen, “Person Categories and Social Perception: Testing Some Boundaries of the Processing Effects of Prior Knowledge,” Journal of Social and Personality Psychology 40 (1981): 441–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. John W. Howard and Myron Rothbart, “Social Categorization for In-group and Out-group Behavior,” Journal of Social and Personality Psychology 38 (1980): 301–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Robyn M. Dawes, David Singer, and Frank Lemons, “An Experimental Analysis of the Contrast Effect and its Implications for Intergroup Communication and the Indirect Assessment of Attitude,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 21 (1972): 281–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Charles M. Judd and Judith M. Harackiewicz, “Contrast Effects in Attitude Judgment: An Examination of the Accentuation Hypothesis,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 38 (1980): 390–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Brewer, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Robyn M. Dawes, David Singer, and Frank Lemons, “An Experimental Analysis of the Contrast Effect and its Implications for Intergroup Communication and the Indirect Assessment of Attitude,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 21 (1972), 281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. One of the earliest collections of such descriptions was given in Sumner, 1940. His work is reproduced and elaborated upon in LeVine and Camp-bell, 1972. Summaries of modern work in ingroup-outgroup phenomena are provided by Donelson R. Forsyth, Group Dynamics, 3rd ed. (Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1999); and

    Google Scholar 

  31. Marilynn B. Brewer and Norman Miller, Intergroup Relations (Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  32. B. Gaibov and A. Sharifov, Undeclared War, trans. Y. Rahimov (Baku: Cornmunist Publishing House, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Sam Keen, Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination (New York: Harper & Row, 1988).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Thomas Gilovich, “Seeing the Past in the Present: The Effects of Associations to Familiar Events on Judgments and Decisions,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40 (1981): 797–808.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Anthony R. Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion (New York: W.H. Freeman, 1992), 56.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Terry Ann Knopf, Rumors, Race, and Riots (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1975).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Fernandvan Langenhove, The Growth of a Legend: A Study Based upon the German Accounts of Francs-Tireurs and “Atrocities” in Belgium, trans. E. B. Sherlock (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Arthur Ponsonby, Falsehood in War-Time: Containing an Assortment of Lies Circulated Throughout the Nations During the Great War (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1928).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Van Langenhove, 1916.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Ponsonby, 1928.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Gordon W. Allport and Leo Postman, The Psychology of Rumor (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1946), 33–34.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Allport and Postman, 1946, 34.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Ralph L. Rosnow and Gary Alan Fine, Rumor and Gossip: The Social Psychology of Hearsay (New York: Elsevier, 1976).

    Google Scholar 

  44. Leon Festinger, Dorwin Cartwright, Kathleen Barber, Juliet Fleischl, Josephine Gottsdanker, Annette Keysen, and Gloria Leavitt, “A Study of Rumor: Its Origin and Spread,” Human Relations 1 (1948): 464–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Tamotsu Shibutani, Improvised News: A Sociological Study of Rumor (Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1966).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Pratkanis and Aronson, 75. For a review of urban legends that have become widespread after being picked up by news organizations, see John Todd Llewellyn, “Understanding Urban Legends: A Peculiar Public Relations Challenge,” Public Relations Quarterly 41 (Winter 1996–1997): 17–22.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Goltz, xxiii.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Pratkanis and Aronson, 75.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Shibutani, 1966.

    Google Scholar 

  50. For a description of the massacre, see the Associated Press article, “Sri Lankan Mob Kills 25 Hostage-Takers” (The Toronto Star, 26 October 2000: News Section.)

    Google Scholar 

  51. For a description, see Waruna Karunatilake, “Two dead as race riots worsen in Hill Country,” The Lanka Academic, 30 October 2000. Accessible via the Web at http://www.lacnet.org/the_academic/archive/2000_10_30/

    Google Scholar 

  52. “Death Toll in Ethnic Violence in Sri Lanka Revised to 362,” New York Times, 11 August 1983, p. 6. Estimates of the casualties vary widely; the number cited here is from a Sri Lankan government source. At about the same time, the head of a Tamil party claimed that 2,000 people died in the rioting (“Sri Lanka Toll put at 2,000,” New York Times, 15 August 1983, p. 2.). The exact chain of events, in terms of what caused what, is not clear. See also Stanley J. Tambiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986), 16–17; and Chelvadurai Manogaran, Ethnic Conflict and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), 68–69.

    Google Scholar 

  53. David Little, Sri Lanka: The Invention of Enmity (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1994); see also Tambiah, 1986, 25–27.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Samvel Shahmuratian, ed., The Sumgait Tragedy: Pogroms Against Armenians in Soviet Azerbaijan, Volume I: Eyewitness Accounts (Cambridge: The Zoryan Institute, 1990). This collection of eyewitness accounts gives detailed stories of a number of the victims of the riots.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Stanley J. Tambiah, Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1996), 96–97.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Paul Sieghart, Sri Lanka—A Mounting Tragedy of Errors (Report of a mission to Sri Lanka in January 1984 on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists and its British Section, JUSTICE), (London: International Commission of Jurists/JUSTICE, 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  57. Shahmuratian, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Igor Nolyain, “Moscow’s Initiation of the Azeri-Armenian Conflict,” Central Asian Survey 13 (1994): 541–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Joshua Searle-White
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2001 Joshua Searle-White

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Searle-White, J. (2001). What We Know About Nationalism. In: The Psychology of Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312299057_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation