Summary of Research

Nationalism is not a new concept. The manifestation of nationalism has been apparent all throughout the worlds history. The ways people act on this sense of identity and belonging can sway either way fairly easily. Patriotic acts are not publicized as much as ugly manifestations of nationalism are and that is because people like to see violence rather than peace. Due to this people cannot differentiate the two and identify the fine line between them. I have seen nationalism go very wrong in my home country. There is a clear difference between nationalism and patriotism and people would rather be violent and irrational than be proud and understanding of the other side. That is why I chose to research the topic because people need to know the difference before the assumptions get the best of them. I started with researching the different events in which either nationalism or patriotism have been demonstrated and how people can identify them easily. I then went in more depth with psychology of choosing patriotism over nationalism.

With reading different articles I learned that people are more intrigued and interested with creating this overly strong sense of identity and belonging. Everyone desires safety and feeling like they belong to something, but when people fight for that it is up to the individual on how they want to act upon it. With this in mind I analyzed the results of my survey and found out that people were on edge about if saying "I love my country" was nationalistic or patriotic, but people were quick to identify "Make America Great Again" as nationalistic. The context and emotions are tied to MAGA, but the other statement people were unsure about because the statement could be used in either an ugly act of nationalism or simply being patriotic.