TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2007//
TI  - Subliminal exposure to national flags affects political thought and behavior
JO  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
A1  - Hassin, Ran R.
A1  - Ferguson, Melissa J.
A1  - Shidlovski, Daniella
A1  - Gross, Tamar
SP  - 19757
EP  - 19761
VL  - 104
IS  - 50
N2  - Political thought and behavior play an important role in our lives, from ethnic tensions in Europe, to the war in Iraq and the Middle Eastern conflict, to parliamentary and presidential elections. However, little is known about how the individual's political attitudes and decisions are shaped by subtle national cues that are so prevalent in our environment. We report a series of experiments that show that subliminal exposure to one's national flag influences political attitudes, intentions, and decisions, both in laboratory settings and in "real-life" behavior. Furthermore, this manipulation consistently narrowed the gap between those who score high vs. low on a scale of identification with Israeli nationalism. The first two experiments examined participants' stance toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Experiment 3 examined voting intentions and actual voting in Israel's recently held general elections. The results portray a consistent picture: subtle reminders of one's nationality significantly influence political thought and overt political behavior. automaticity nationalism social cognition unconscious voting<p /> <p>Language: en</p> 
LA  - en
SN  - 0027-8424
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0704679104
ID  - ref1
ER  -