“It feels like it’s in your body”: How children in the United States think about nationality.

Abstract

Concepts of national groups (e.g., Americans, Canadians) are an important source of identity and meaning in people’s lives. Here, we provide a developmental investigation of these concepts. Across 3 studies involving 5- to 8-year-olds and adults in the United States, we found that (a) compared with older children and adults, young children were more likely to think that national groups have a biological basis, but that (b) other aspects of national group concepts—such as the idea that national group membership is stable and informative about a person—changed less with development. Moreover, with age, the notion that membership in a national group is a meaningful fact about a person (vs. a mere formality) began to link up with attitudes that rationalized the national ingroup’s economic advantages and portrayed it as superior to national outgroups. This work contributes to theory on the development of social cognition and provides a unique source of insight into current political trends.

Children’s Ethno-National Flag Categories in Three Divided Societies

“…In post-accord regions, children's preference for ingroup ethno-national flags points towards an early ethnic conception of nationality, with import placed on their native ethnic symbols. This is consistent with evidence that children may initially conceptualize national category membership as biologically inherited (Davoodi, Soley, Harris & Blake, 2019;Hussak & Cimpian, 2019) and believe that it is not possible to hold more than one civic identity (e.g. Northern Irish and British; Jahoda, 1963a).…”

“…However, more recent work on the development of social cognition demonstrates that even young children hold systemic beliefs about abstract categories, such as nationality (Barrett, 2013;DeJesus, Hwang, Dautel & Kinzler, 2018;Feeney, et al, 2020;Hussak & Cimpian, 2019). Children demonstrate a remarkable ability to detect relevant and salient social information from their surroundings.…”

“…Northern Irish and British; Jahoda, 1963a). While these beliefs tend to decline with age (Feeney et al, 2020;Jahoda, 1963a;Hussak & Cimpian, 2019), an early ethnic construal of nationality might give rise to greater identification with ingroup ethno-national symbols.…”

Türkiye’den Bir Örneklemde Cinsiyet, Irk ve Dile Dayalı Esasçı Düşüncenin Gelişimi

“…Later studies on the development of essentialist beliefs have shown that children think in essentialist terms about many other social categories, including ethnicity, nationality, social class, and religion (e.g., Birnbaum, Deeb, Segall, Ben-Eliyahu, & Diesendruck, 2010;Davoodi, Soley, Harris, & Blake 2020;del Río & Strasser, 2011;Diesendruck & HaLevi, 2006;Hussak & Cimpian, 2019). Further, the degree to which different social categories are essentialized varies depending on the socio-cultural context.…”

Indian = Hindu? The Development of Nationalist Attitudes Among Hindu and Muslim Children in India

“…Further, one recent study showed that American children's tendency to essentialize nationality is correlated with their support of global inequalities that favor the U.S. (Hussak & Cimpian, 2019), providing evidence that essentialism might shape children's developing attitudes about social policy. Future research could directly measure the relation between children's tendency to essentialize their national and religious or ethnic groups and their internalization of ethnic or religious nationalist associations.…”