Who Is for (or Against) the National Flag? Ideological and Identity‐Based Motivators of Attitudes

Abstract

AbstractAlthough national flags arguably reflect a unified nation, support for a particular flag design may vary across ideological cleavages within the electorate. Here, we examined the impact of system‐challenging and system‐justifying ideologies, as well as political party support, on support for flag‐change in a large (N = 13,559) nationally representative sample of New Zealand adults. As hypothesized, system‐justifying ideologies (e.g., conservatism, right‐wing authoritarianism, historical negation, and symbolic exclusion) correlated negatively with flag change support, whereas system‐challenging ideologies (e.g., support for multiculturalism) correlated positively with support for change. Yet, consistent with an identity politics perspective, support for the National Party—the center‐right/conservative party in New Zealand whose leader advocated change—correlated positively (rather than negatively) with support for changing the flag. These results demonstrate the countervailing effects of system‐justifying and system‐challenging ideologies on support for change, and identify a boundary condition of conservatives’ opposition to change (namely, party support).