The Dual Process Model of National Identification: Harmonious and Dangerous Worldviews as Antecedents of National Attachment and Glorification

• Main Author: Syropoulos, Stylianos
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 2021
• Subjects: worldviews; national identification; RWA; SDO; positive and negative peace; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/1127; https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2159&context=masters_theses_2

Worldviews can shape the way in which we perceive the world. They can also shape the way in which we identify with our ingroup. Conceptualizing national identification as national attachment and glorification, four studies (total N = 1795) tested the association between endorsement of a harmonious or a dangerous worldview and national identification. Study 1 established the harmonious worldview and refined the dangerous worldview scale. Study 2 examined these relationships correlationally, and highlighted the prejudicial ideologies of right wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) as mediators to this association. Study 3 examined this relationship longitudinally, across the span of two months. Study 4 successfully manipulated dangerous but not harmonious worldviews, partially establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between worldviews and national identification. A dangerous worldview predicted increased attachment and glorification via increased RWA and SDO. Contrary to our expectation, a harmonious worldview predicted decreased attachment and glorification via increased RWA and SDO. These effects remained significant two months later, and when controlling for other key worldviews such as belief in a competitive world. Crucially, for liberals, but not moderates or conservatives, a harmonious worldview predicted increased attachment as well as decreased glorification.