The role of commitment in perceptions of national belonging

Civic (as opposed to ethnic) definitions of national identity are believed to foster inclusion of others in the national ingroup when people show commitment to the nation. Social psychological research on social identity and organisational citizenship has conceptualised commitment in terms of civic participation and more symbolic support (e.g. loyalty, taking pride in the group). However, little is known about how lay people understand commitment and if and how showing commitment behaviours impacts on the acceptance of claims to national group membership. In the current paper we will first report the results of a focus group study investigating how lay people comprehend commitment and how they relate it to national belonging (in a Scottish context). In a second, experimental, study, we examined how showing commitment impacts on the perceived belonging of “incomers” to the national ingroup by varying levels of commitment displayed to support one’s identity claim. We argue that, if commitment is important when making claim to an identity, displaying behaviours that show high commitment to the nation (as derived from lay perceptions in the focus group) should lead to higher levels of perceived belonging.