Don’t burn our flag: patriotism, perceived threat, and the impact of desecrating a national symbol on intergroup attitudes

Abstract

Desecration of national symbols is a recurring societal phenomenon that can lead to highly defensive reactions from some citizens, especially on the part of those expressing a strong attachment to the nation. In this paper, we investigated the effects of blind and constructive patriotism when faced with an ingroup (vs. outgroup) national flag burning on ingroup bias, taking into consideration the mediating role of perceived threat. In two studies (N = 252), the level of blind patriotism predicted stronger ingroup bias—due to more negative evaluation of visible minorities and/or more positive evaluation of the ingroup—when another ingroup member burnt an ingroup (vs. outgroup) flag. This effect was partly mediated by a greater threat to the group’s image perceived by blindly patriotic people when the ingroup (vs. outgroup) flag was burnt (Study 2). Study 2 also highlighted a main effect of the symbol: ingroup bias was stronger when the ingroup (vs. outgroup) flag was burnt. We discuss the implications of our findings with respect to the role played by modes of national attachment and the consequences of desecrating symbols.

Intergroup sensitivity in a divided society: Calls for unity and reconciliatory behavior during the 2020 U.S. presidential election

“…Finally, the discourse between political groups is also not limited to critical remarks but extends to critical actions. Outgroups engaging in flag burning (Marinthe et al, 2021) or telling group-based jokes (Thai et al, 2019) have been observed to elicit considerable defensiveness, although we are not aware of research including behavioral measures. Outgroup activism may instill an even greater urgency to act in recipients, increasing aggression and undermining reconciliatory behavior.…”

Behavioral consequences of intergroup sensitivity

“…Finally, group interaction may materialize in hostile behavior (e.g., flag burning; Marinthe et al, 2020;Marinthe et al, 2021). Moving beyond harsh words opens an entire new field of ISE research.…”

Supplemental Material for On efficient mass-media messages during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of expertise and expressed social identity.

“…Although past research has observed an effect of such manipulations , it may not suffice to produce consistent effects in our experimental setting where the message sources belonged to a salient superordinate groups (Americans). Future research could additionally use medical terms rather than plain language as a stronger signifier of medical group membership, or even group directed-action to underline their disapproval (e.g., Marinthe et al, 2021).…”