To be or not to be (ethnic): Public vs. private expressions of ethnic identification differentially impact national inclusion of White and non-White groups

Conceptions of national identity in a globalised world: Antecedents and consequences

“…For example, in the American context, although people may endorse principles that support a civic conception of national identity, nationality is implicitly granted to some ethnic groups more easily than others suggesting a more ethnic conception of nationality (e.g., Devos & Banaji, 2005;Devos, Gavin, & Quintana, 2010;Devos & Ma, 2008;Yogeeswaran & Dasgupta, 2010;Yogeeswaran, Dasgupta, Adelman, Eccleston, & Parker, 2011;Yogeeswaran, Dasgupta, & Gomez, 2012). For example, when a sample of mostly White American participants were asked to define what makes someone a true American, they tended to endorse a number of civic national identity statements such as "vote in elections", "respect America's political institutions and laws", etc.…”

In the eyes of the beholder: National identification predicts differential reactions to ethnic identity expressions.

“…In the control condition, participants read descriptions of national parks in the United States with no mention of ethnicity (e.g., "Yellowstone National Park is located in the states of Wy oming, Montana, and Idaho"). These manipulations were mostly adapted from our previous work (Yogeeswaran et al, 2011).…”

“…However, at an unconscious level, perceivers' national identification will lead to less favorable attitudes toward nonWhite ethnic groups whose members embrace ethnic identity in public, but not White ethnic groups who do the same. This pre diction builds on our past research where we had manipulated White and non-White groups' expressions of ethnic identity (pub lic vs. private) and examined its effect on the extent to which they were viewed as authentically American at an implicit versus ex plicit level (Yogeeswaran et al, 2011). Our past work had shown that while public expressions of ethnic identity made both White and non-White ethnic groups be viewed as less American at the explicit level, only non-White ethnic groups were seen as less American at an implicit level (Yogeeswaran et al, 2011).…”

“…This pre diction builds on our past research where we had manipulated White and non-White groups' expressions of ethnic identity (pub lic vs. private) and examined its effect on the extent to which they were viewed as authentically American at an implicit versus ex plicit level (Yogeeswaran et al, 2011). Our past work had shown that while public expressions of ethnic identity made both White and non-White ethnic groups be viewed as less American at the explicit level, only non-White ethnic groups were seen as less American at an implicit level (Yogeeswaran et al, 2011). The present research expands on this work in two important ways: first, we examine how perceiver characteristics (Whites' national iden tification) shape their reactions toward ethnic identity expressions.…”

“…To generalize our findings beyond one group, we chose two ethnic groups that immigrated to the United States in similarly large numbers over the last 100 years (Daniels, 1990;Yogeeswaran et al, 2011): Chinese Americans (non-White ethnic group) and Polish Americans (White ethnic group). After measuring White participants' self-reported national identification, they were exposed to pictures and biographies of either Chinese American or Polish American individuals who expressed their ethnic identity publicly or privately.…”