Comparative analyses: are there discernable patterns in the development of and relationships among national identification and in-group/out-group attitudes?

The purpose of this concluding article in this special issue is to examine whether the developmental courses for National Identification, in-group/out-group attitudes, and the relations between both variables could be characterized by general developmental patterns across different national settings. For this purpose the data from all participants in eight national studies were combined (N = 725) and subjected to the same sequence of analyses reported in the individual studies, be it that the most important independent variable now consisted of 12 levels representing the different national settings. The analyses revealed that the presence versus the absence of actual or recent armed conflict is the most important differentiating variable characterizing the national groups that participated in this study. Universal developmental courses for National Identification and in-group/out-group attitudes predicted by traditional theoretical models such as the CDT and SIDT cannot be maintained across different sociohistorical and political settings. The findings appear more consistent with theoretical models that incorporate reference to sociohistorical factors, such as the SSCMT and the IDCT.