This place is ours: Collective psychological ownership and its social consequences

Abstract

Politicians often argue that ‘this country is ours’. The feeling that your group owns a territory is referred to as collective psychological ownership and can be experienced in various situations. People can feel that their ethnic group owns a country (‘this country is ours’) but also that for example their group of friends owns a hangout place (‘this hangout place is ours’). Using large scale surveys and experiments, Tom Nijs examined whether, why, and when collective psychological ownership of territories has social consequences. Amongst Dutch and British people, he examined the social consequences of collective psychological ownership of the country, a neighbourhood, a neighbourhood park, and a hangout place. He concludes that collective psychological ownership has two faces. On the one hand, as ownership is accompanied by an exclusive right to determine what happens with what is owned, collective psychological ownership can lead to the exclusion of outsiders (such as immigrants). On the other hand, as ownership also comes with a responsibility to take care of what is owned, collective psychological ownership can lead to prosocial behaviour to invest into the territory. The dissertation shows that collective psychological ownership can offer insights in various social situations and can advance social scientific theory and research.