Speaker:

Dr Rongbo Jin, Assistant Professor
Division of Computational Social Science and
Division of Global and Area Studies
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

Date & Time:

Wednesday, 7 May 2025 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm (Singapore Time)

Venue:

Zoom

Registration is required:

Please click here to register: https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cjgV1B7aRlyRIPnz0WEQNg

Synopsis:

Can American national identity fix American democracy? Levendusky suggests that priming American national identity is a promising approach to depolarisation; however, the speaker argues that national identity and its potential effects are more nuanced and complicated. Three types of norms embedded in American national identity—pride norms, boundary norms and process norms—have been identified. Based on two survey experiments, the speaker investigates the effects of different types of national identity norms on affective polarisation and support for democratic norms. In Study 1, findings show that priming national identity has limited effects, but process norms (democracy, specifically) and boundary norms (multiculturalism and ethno-culturalism) show some potential of reducing affective polarisation and increasing support for democratic norms. Study 2 includes a preregistration for a more robust test of the findings from Study 1 as well as an extension that tests an additional process norm (the American Dream) and explores the mechanisms underlying the effects of priming national identity.