Abstract
National identity is underpinned by historical representations. Recent research shows that narratives presenting an in-group’s history as discontinuous rather than continuous raise collective angst, suggesting that historical discontinuity threatens social identity. This previous research has focused on positive aspects of an in-group’s past. The present research aims to extend the findings to go beyond positive histories. We suggest that when the in-group’s actions in the past are presented as negative, historical continuity instead of discontinuity will increase perceived identity threat because a negative, continuous history threatens group members’ need for a positive social identity in the present. In an experiment with a sample size of N = 316, we manipulated the narrated valence of in-group actions during the historical event of the approval of the German constitutional law by framing the group’s actions in either positive or negative terms. In addition, we presented the in-group’s history as connected or disconnected to the in-group’s present. Results demonstrate that historical continuity only decreased identity threat compared to historical discontinuity when the in-group’s past behavior was presented as positive. When the in-group’s past was presented as negative, continuity even increased identity threat compared to historical discontinuity. These results were particularly pronounced for people who strongly identified with their national in-group. We discuss implications of the findings for political communication and managing a nation’s perception of social identity threat.
Highlights
Media frequently presents narratives of national history
Why was this study done? We suggested that historical narratives affect peoples’ perceptions of identity threat differently depending on whether the narratives focus on a positive historical episode or on a negative one
These effects were strong for Germans who valued their in-group and to whom the in-group was important to their self-concept. What do these findings mean? These findings indicate that political leaders, institutions, and organizations that portray a national group’s past as positive or negative and as continuous or discontinuous create more or less identity threat. These narratives most strongly affect group members who value their in-group and to whom the group membership constitutes an important aspect of their self-concept
Summary
Media frequently presents narratives of national history. These narratives affect how people feel and think about their national identity. Research suggests that narratives that present people’s national history as broken from its past threaten people’s identity whereas narratives about a continuous national history benefit people. We suggested that historical narratives affect peoples’ perceptions of identity threat differently depending on whether the narratives focus on a positive historical episode or on a negative one. We suggested that for negative episodes of people’s national past – episodes during which the national in-group actively violated present-day established norms and values – narratives of historical continuity amplify perceptions of threat because they imply that the in-group continues to misbehave in the present. We expected historical discontinuity to relieve people from the burden of a negative past by explicitly separating the past from the present
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