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Visual Primes and European Union Identity: Designing Experimental Research

  • Laura Cram
  • Stratos Patrikios
Chapter
Part of the Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics book series (PSEUP)

Abstract

There has been considerable attention paid to the role of symbols in forging identification with and support for the EU (Bruter, 2003, 2009; Laffan, 1996; Manners, 2011; Mclaren, 2006; Shore, 2000). Detailed empirical analysis is still, however, required of the following:

  • the extent to which such symbols carry implicit messages about EU identity;

  • the type of messages that different symbols convey;

  • the effect that exposure to these symbols in different contexts might have on political preferences.

The authors employed an experimental approach to establish the extent to which implicit visual reminders of EU membership, from images of ceremonial flags to more mundane, functional symbols (like passports and driving licences), prime particular — affective or instrumental — associations, and how these associations may shape EU-related attitudes.

Keywords

European Integration National Identity Social Identity Theory European Identity Comparative Political Study 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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© Laura Cram and Stratos Patrikios 2015

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