Interface of ethnic and national attachment: Perceptions of group discrimination as a moderator of subgroup asymmetry

Social psychological research examining ethnic group differences on national attachment has been mixed. There has been support for group differences such that high status subgroups have higher levels of national attachment than low status subgroups (e.g., see Sidanius, Feshbach, Levin, & Pratto, 1997). Conversely, there has also been evidence for equivalent levels of national attachment across ethnic groups (e.g., see De la Garza, Falcon, & Garcia, 1996; Huo, 2003). This dissertation argues that focusing on ethnic group differences on levels of national attachment does not clarify the psychological conditions which allow groups to have high attachment.;The present research includes three studies that examine the moderation of ethnic group differences on levels of patriotism. In brief, all studies ask whether there are social psychological factors (i.e., group discrimination, status legitimacy, or individual mobility) that clarify when all ethnic groups have high levels of patriotism.;Study one is an experiment that manipulates ethnic group discrimination and examines the impact on levels of patriotism. Participants interacted with confederates who espoused (low or high) discriminatory outgroup attitudes and behaved in a consistent manner toward the participant who was an ethnic outgroup. Findings indicated that participants in the high discrimination condition had lower levels of patriotism than participants in the low discrimination condition.;Study two includes an item-order manipulation in which half of participants are primed with group discrimination prior to answering items about patriotism. The remaining participants respond to items about patriotism and then group discrimination. This study examines whether making salient ethnic group discrimination, for example, beforehand impacts levels of patriotism. Results demonstrated that the item order manipulation worked and had a differential impact on feelings of patriotism as a function of the respondents' ethnic group.;Study three is correlational and examines whether group discrimination, status legitimacy, or individual mobility can moderate ethnic subgroup differences on patriotism. Findings indicate that each of these variables affect levels of patriotism and in some cases interacts with respondent ethnic group membership. This study also examines whether Black respondents have a similar or distinct pattern of findings to Latino and Asian respondents (Sears & Savalei, 2006).