Nationalism and patriotism

Nationalism, patriotism, and group loyalty: a social psychological perspective

The literature on nationalism and its synonyms developed over the next quarter of a century. This chapter introduces the reader to a social psychological perspective on the roots of nationalism. Although granting that nationalism is a political, economic, and sociological phenomenon, it becomes a social-psychological phenomenon to the extent that individuals develop attitudes about their own and other nations. Such attitudes reflect the feelings that persons have toward these objects and their sense of loyalty to them. These feelings of attachment are at the heart of nationalism. This chapter focuses on how these feelings of attachment are formed and take root. It explores how such loyalty on the part of individuals: can lead to hostile reactions toward other groups and become translated into stereotypes that are shared across individuals, can shape the collective behavior of groups, and can help differentiate among the multiple groups that define any political environment.