Right-wing political orientation, national identification and the acceptance of immigrants and minorities

Abstract

This paper examines the intriguing possibility that higher national identification commonly found among political conservatives can make them more, rather than less, accepting towards immigrants and minorities. This possibility is based on the theoretical reasoning that national attachment, net of national narcissism, provides a secure and stable sense of national belonging that forms a basis for a more open attitude towards outgroups. In two studies using three nationally representative samples from Germany and Netherlands (N = 4440), we show that stronger political conservatism predicts more positive outgroup attitudes and higher tolerance through stronger national attachment, specifically when partialling out national narcissism. These findings indicate that higher national identification from politically more conservative individuals can provide a confident basis for positive outgroup attitudes.