National Identification and Intergroup Attitudes Among Members of the National Majority and Immigrants: Preliminary Evidence for the Mediational Role of Psychological Ownership of a Country

Abstract

In this study, we examined whether psychological ownership of the country one lives in (in this case, Finland) mediates the relationship between national identification and intergroup attitudes among majority and minority group members (N = 647; Finns, n = 334, Russian-speaking immigrants, n = 313). Consistent with our predictions, both majority group members and immigrants whose national identification was strong experienced greater psychological ownership of Finland; as expected, this relationship was more pronounced among majority group members. Higher psychological ownership, in turn, was associated with less positive attitudes towards Russian-speaking immigrants among majority Finns but more positive attitudes towards Finns among immigrants. The findings also showed that among immigrants, the relationship between national identification and psychological ownership is likely to be reciprocal, with national identification similarly mediating the association between psychological ownership and attitudes towards members of the national group. No support for such reciprocity between national identification and psychological ownership was found among members of the majority group.