A Review and Integration of Research on Blind and Constructive Patriotism

Is patriotism helpful to fight the crisis? The role of constructive patriotism, conventional patriotism, and glorification amid the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Previous research has shown that constructive patriots are ready to invest in and devote their time and energy to improving their country (e.g., Sekerdej & Roccas, 2016). We extended these studies by examining the underlying mechanisms of the effects of constructive patriotism and directly testing the notion that constructive patriotism is characterized by the belief that individuals bear responsibility for their country and fellow citizens (Schatz et al., 2018). Overall, our findings suggest that a sense of personal responsibility is highly ingrained in those individuals high on constructive patriotism (compared to those high on conventional patriotism or glorification), indicating a very different, namely, socially responsible mindset concerning one's country.…”

“…Glorification is characterized by a belief in the nation and the state determined by political and geographical characteristics (Feshbach, 1987; Bar‐Tal, 1993), and it engenders external group boundaries (Schatz et al., 2018). Thus, we expected glorification to be positively associated with support for external measures such as closing the borders or monitoring of people coming from particularly infected countries.…”

“…We expect that different attributions of responsibility are more important for some forms of national identification than others. Constructive patriotism is characterized by the belief that not only the state, but also each individual, should try to improve the country (Schatz, 2018). Moreover, constructive patriots are particularly inclined to invest time and effort (Sekerdej & Roccas, 2016; Sekerdej & Szwed, 2021) and engage in behaviors that might benefit the country (Rupar et al., 2020a; Rupar et al., 2020b).…”

The role of national identification in explaining political and social civic engagement

“…Emotional attachment may be accompanied by a willingness to criticize the nation that is aimed at enhancing its welfare and at fostering positive change in the country (genuine or constructive patriotism; Schatz et al, 1999;Sekerdej & Roccas, 2016). Moreover, constructive patriotism, relative to conventional patriotism, is more instrumental in nature, as it involves the belief that individual effort should be undertaken in order to benefit the nation's goals (Schatz, 2018). Constructive patriotism can be expressed through activities that oppose actions that threaten the core values of the nation (e.g., liberty, equality, human rights in general), such as protests against state violence or discrimination within the country, peace demonstrations against interstate war, or exposure of illegal activities of the authorities-whistleblowing.…”

“…In order to better understand how different forms of national identification shape civic engagement, it is necessary to consider the full spectrum of different political and social activities in which individuals might become involved. In the present research, we address these gaps in the literature by examining the relationships between three forms of national identification-conventional patriotism (i.e., attachment and love toward the country; Sekerdej & Roccas, 2016), constructive patriotism (i.e., love toward the country accompanied with criticism aimed at fostering change for the welfare of the nation; Schatz, 2018), and glorification (i.e., belief in group superiority; Roccas et al, 2006)-and by examining their link to two different forms of civic engagement: political and social engagement.…”