Which national group will I identify myself with? The role of preferred and perceived identity representations

Research shows that the more people identify with a national in-group, the more their citizenship representation becomes in line with the citizenship discourse attached to this national-identity. However, although national identification may lead to a preference for a specific citizenship representation, national identification might itself depend on preexisting citizenship representation preferences. In line with this, a longitudinal study among Flemish-Belgian high-school students (N = 275) showed reciprocal relations between national identification and citizenship representation. A second study among Flemish-Belgian high-school students (N = 407) then showed that strength of national identification does not simply depend on preexisting citizenship representation preferences but on the (mis)match between such preferences and the citizenship representation perceived to be attached to a national-identity. In addition, results showed that the relation between national identification and out-group attitudes depends on the national-identity under consideration.