An analysis of World Values Survey data covering developing and developed countries found that national citizenship, national pride, and world citizenship all predicted life satisfaction. Although the positive effect of national pride on well-being was weaker for individuals who strongly identified as world citizens, those high on both measures still reported the highest overall life satisfaction. The paper was published in Scientific Reports.
Identity is a person’s understanding of who they are, where they belong, and how they relate to others. It is shaped by an individual’s characteristics, values, experiences, and memberships in different social groups. An important aspect of identity is the relationship a person has with their own nation and with humanity as a whole.
There are several aspects of these relationships. National pride is the emotional attachment people feel toward their country, its culture, history, and shared traditions. National citizenship is a more cognitive, or thought-based, civic form of identification based on belonging to a political community.
On the other hand, a person may also have a sense of belonging to humanity as a whole, which is called world citizenship. This broader identity is associated with greater sympathy for people from other societies. It also relates to a more impartial concern for others and stronger support for cooperation across national boundaries.
Social identity theory suggests that identification with a nation may strengthen self-esteem by allowing individuals to see themselves as members of a respected social group. However, national identification can become harmful when it depends on hostility toward outsiders or encourages xenophobia, which is a prejudice against people from other countries. National and world citizenship may appear contradictory because one emphasizes national distinctiveness while the other emphasizes universal inclusion.
Nevertheless, people can integrate these identities by caring deeply about their own country while also recognizing duties toward humanity and supporting solutions to global problems. Study author Glen Spiteri and his colleagues wanted to explore the relationship between national citizenship, world citizenship, and subjective well-being. They noted that previous studies indicate that both stronger national identity and a stronger identification with all humanity are associated with better subjective well-being.
Theoretically, national identity and identification with all humanity should be based on opposing psychological mechanisms. It would be somewhat unexpected to see both being positively associated with psychological well-being. The authors aimed to clarify these relationships by analyzing data from waves five and six of the World Values Survey. The World Values Survey is a large international research program that studies people’s values, beliefs, attitudes, and social views across countries and over time.
Wave five data were collected between 2005 and 2009, while wave six was conducted between 2010 and 2016. In total, data used in this study came from 100,650 respondents across 69 nations. The number of participants from individual nations in wave five ranged from 479 participants in Morocco to 2,681 participants in Egypt. In wave six, the smallest sample was again from Morocco with 150 participants, while the largest sample was from India with 3,218 participants.
In this analysis, the study authors used participants’ ratings of their perceptions of world citizenship and national citizenship. Participants rated statements like “I see myself as a world citizen” and “I see myself as a citizen of the [e.g., French] nation”. Researchers also looked at national pride, life satisfaction, and various demographic data. Life satisfaction was used as a proxy measure, or a practical stand-in, for psychological well-being.
Results showed that all three indicators of identity, which included world citizenship, national citizenship, and national pride, were associated with higher life satisfaction. However, there was also an interaction between national pride and world citizenship. The association between national pride and life satisfaction tended to be lower in individuals who strongly identified as world citizens. Also, in individuals with strong national pride, the link between world citizenship and life satisfaction tended to be weaker.
In spite of this, individuals who experienced both high national pride and high world citizenship tended to report the highest life satisfaction overall. Additionally, national pride and national citizenship identification had a positive interaction, meaning their combined effects on life satisfaction were cooperative. The study authors concluded, “Our findings suggest that the joint effects on well-being of national and global identifications, despite their seemingly competing natures, remain additive. We point to the need for future research on the underlying psychological mechanisms and behavioral consequences of these joint identifications.”
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the links between psychological well-being and group identity. However, it should be noted that all data came from self-reports, leaving room for reporting bias to have affected the results. While it is possible that some people feel high national pride, high world citizenship, and the highest life satisfaction, participants who systematically selected the highest available ratings without fully considering the content could have affected the outcomes.
Additionally, the observational design of the study does not allow any direct cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn from the findings.
The paper, “Life satisfaction effects of national identity, global identity, and their interactions,” was authored by Glen Spiteri, Seamus Kim, and Falk Lieder.