Common threats promote patriotism: The role of perceived resource scarcity and socioeconomic status

Abstract

Humanity is currently confronted with numerous common threats such as pandemics, environmental pollution, and economic crises. Will these common threats affect the public’s attitudes towards their country? Three studies (N = 955) explored the impact of common threats on patriotism. Results showed that only under conditions of high perceived resource scarcity does a common threat promote patriotism. In contrast, under conditions of low perceived resource scarcity, a common threat did not significantly influence patriotism. The role of socioeconomic status was also examined. The results indicated that under conditions of high perceived resource scarcity, individuals of low socioeconomic status, compared with those of high socioeconomic status, exhibited stronger patriotism when facing common threats. This finding provides a reference for uniting hearts and minds as well as for the effective crisis response of the state.

Keywords

common threats patriotism perceived resource scarcity socioeconomic status

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrams

Lalot

Hogg

M. A.

(2021). Intergroup and intragroup dimensions of COVID-19: A social identity perspective on social fragmentation and unity. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(2), 201–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430220983440

Adler

N. E.

Epel

E. S.

Castellazzo

Ickovics

J. R

(2000). Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy, White women. Health Psychology, 19(6), 586–592. https://doi.org/10.1037//0278-6133.19.6.586

Adorno

T. W.

Frenkel-Brunswik

Levinson

D. J.

Sanford

R. N

. (1950). The authoritarian personality. Norton.

Barnes

C. D.

Pomerantz

Yashko

(2016). Children cover your eyes: Masculine honor and the role of blind patriotism in teaching national allegiance to posterity. Political Psychology, 37(6), 817–834. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12291

Bar-Tal

(1993). Patriotism as fundamental beliefs of group members. Politics and the Individual, 3(2), 45–62.

Chen

Matthews

K. A.

(2001). Cognitive appraisal biases: An approach to understanding the relation between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular reactivity in children. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 23(2), 101–111. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324796ABM2302_4

Chugh

Kern

M. C.

Zhu

Lee

(2014). Withstanding moral disengagement: Attachment security as an ethical intervention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 51, 88–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.11.005

Davis

D. W.

(2007). Negative liberty: Public opinion and the terrorist attacks on America. Russell Sage Foundation.

Druckman

(1994). Nationalism, patriotism, and group loyalty: A social psychological perspective. Mershon International Studies Review, 38(1), 43–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/222610

10.

Duckitt

Fisher

(2003). The impact of social threat on worldview and ideological attitudes. Political Psychology, 24(1), 199–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/0162-895X.00322

11.

Esses

V. M.

Jackson

L. M.

Armstrong

T. L.

(1998). Intergroup competition and attitudes toward immigrants and immigration: An instrumental model of group conflict. Journal of Social Issues, 54(4), 699–724. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1998.tb01244.x

12.

Flade

Klar

Imhoff

(2019). Unite against: A common threat invokes spontaneous decategorization between social categories. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 85, Article 103890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103890

13.

Frey

C. B.

Osborne

M. A.

(2017). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation? Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 114, 254–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019

14.

Gaertner

S. L.

Dovidio

J. F.

(2014). Reducing intergroup bias: The common ingroup identity model. Psychology Press.

15.

Gamez-Djokic

Waytz

(2020). Concerns about automation and negative sentiment toward immigration. Psychological Science, 31(8), 987–1000. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1177/0956797620929977

16.

Gorodzeisky

Semyonov

(2016). Not only competitive threat but also racial prejudice: Sources of anti-immigrant attitudes in European societies. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 28(3), 331–354. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edv024

17.

Greenberg

Porteus

Simon

Pyszczynski

Solomon

(1995). Evidence of a terror management function of cultural icons: The effects of mortality salience on the inappropriate use of cherished cultural symbols. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(11), 1221–1228. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672952111010

18.

Hogg

M. A.

(2014). From uncertainty to extremism: Social categorization and identity processes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(5), 338–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414540168

19.

Hogg

M. A.

(2020). Uncertain self in a changing world: A foundation for radicalization, populism and autocratic leadership. European Review of Social Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2020.1827628

20.

Hui

C. H.

Triandis

H. C.

(1986). Individualism–collectivism: A study of cross-cultural researchers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 17(2), 225–248. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002186017002006

21.

Z. J.

Mayer

Palier

Rovny

(2019). The “losers of automation”: A reservoir of votes for the radical right? Research & Politics, 6(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168018822

22.

Kahn

D. T.

Björklund

Hirschberger

(2022). The intent and extent of collective threats: A data-driven conceptualization of collective threats and their relation to political preferences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151(5), 1178–1198. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000868

23.

Kraus

M. W.

Côté

Keltner

(2010). Social class, contextualism, and empathic accuracy. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1716–1723. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610387613

24.

Kraus

M. W.

Piff

P. K.

Mendoza-Denton

Rheinschmidt

M. L.

Keltner

(2012). Social class, solipsism, and contextualism: How the rich are different from the poor. Psychological Review, 119(3), 546–572. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028756

25.

Livi

Leone

Falgares

Lombardo

(2014). Values, ideological attitudes and patriotism. Personality and Individual Differences, 64, 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.02.040

26.

McFarland

S. G

. (2005). On the eve of war: Authoritarianism, social dominance, and American students’ attitudes toward attacking Iraq. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(3), 360–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167204271596

27.

Maher

P. J.

Roth

Griffin

Foran

A. M.

Jay

McHugh

Ryan

Bradshaw

Quayle

Muldoon

O. T.

(2023). Pandemic threat and group cohesion: National identification in the wake of COVID-19 is associated with authoritarianism. The Journal of Social Psychology, 163(6), 789–805. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2021.2024122

28.

Mani

Mullainathan

Shafir

Zhao

(2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science, 341(6149), 976–980. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238041

29.

McFarland

S. G.

(2005). On the eve of war: Authoritarianism, social dominance, and American students’ attitudes toward attacking Iraq. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(3), 360–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167204271596

30.

Meyer

O. L.

Castro-Schilo

Aguilar-Gaxiola

(2014). Determinants of mental health and self-rated health: A model of socioeconomic status, neighborhood safety, and physical activity. American Journal of Public Health, 104(9), 1734–1741. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2014.302003

31.

Miao

Liu

Dang

Wei

Huang

Liu

(2023). Unity or estrangement under crises? Perceived resource scarcity moderates the effect of a common threat on intergroup cooperation. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 15(6), 659–669. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506231195501

32.

Mikulincer

Shaver

P. R.

(2005). Attachment theory and emotions in close relationships: Exploring the attachment-related dynamics of emotional reactions to relational events. Personal Relationships, 12(2), 149–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1350-4126.2005.00108.x

33.

Mullainathan

Shafir

(2013). Scarcity: Why having too little means so much. Macmillan.

34.

Pereira

Fehl

A. G.

Finkelstein

S. R.

Jiga-Boy

G. M.

Caserotti

(2022). Scarcity in COVID-19 vaccine supplies reduces perceived vaccination priority and increases vaccine hesitancy. Psychology & Marketing, 39(5), 921–936. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21629

35.

Riek

B. M.

Mania

E. W.

Gaertner

S. L.

(2006). Intergroup threat and outgroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(4), 336–353. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1004_4

36.

Schatz

R. T.

(2020). A review and integration of research on blind and constructive patriotism. In Sardoc

(Ed.), Handbook of patriotism (pp. 613–631). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30534-9_30-1

37.

Sheehy-Skeffington

(2020). The effects of low socioeconomic status on decision-making processes. Current Opinion in Psychology, 33, 183–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.043

38.

Sumino

(2017). National identity and public attitudes toward multiculturalism in Canada: Testing the indirect effect via perceived collective threat. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue Canadienne des Sciences du Comportement, 49(3), 183–194. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000076

39.

Takeuchi

Taki

Sekiguchi

Nouchi

Kotozaki

Nakagawa

Miyauchi

C. M.

Iizuka

Yokoyama

Shinada

(2016). Differences in gray matter structure correlated to nationalism and patriotism. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 29912. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29912

40.

Vezzali

Cadamuro

Versari

Giovannini

Trifiletti

(2015). Feeling like a group after a natural disaster: Common ingroup identity and relations with outgroup victims among majority and minority young children. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54(3), 519–538. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430215590492

41.

Wamsler

(2022). Violated entitlement and the nation: How feelings of relative deprivation shape nationalism and constructive patriotism. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 65(2), 135–153. https://doi.org/org/10.1177/00207152221103123

42.

Wei

Muzi

L. I.

Chen

(2018). Social class and social perception: Is warmth or competence more important? Acta Psychologica Sinica, 50(2), 243–252. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00243

43.

Williams

K. D.

(2007). Ostracism. The Annual Review of Psychology, 58(1), 425–452. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085641

44.

Wang

Peng

(2024). The influence of perceived robot threat on workplace objectification. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 56(2), 210–225. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2024.00210

45.

Yam

K. C.

Tang

P. M.

Jackson

J. C.

Gray

(2023). The rise of robots increases job insecurity and maladaptive workplace behaviors: Multimethod evidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108(5), 850–871. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001045

46.

Yoon

Kim

H. C.

(2018). Feeling economically stuck: The effect of perceived economic mobility and socioeconomic status on variety seeking. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(5), 1141–1156. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx091