LAUSR

How does being a national of a country, steeped in its cultural context, affect our perception of that country's past? Despite demonstrations of “national narcissism” in prior work on collective memory, the present studies suggest that pride alone does not shape national identity. Considering collective memories for one's own and the other nation, American and German participants agreed more on which events nations should be ashamed of. When asked to generate events that shaped national identity, for both sets of participants, only a few of the most frequently nominated events were categorized as proud events. The rest were mixed or predominantly categorized as ashamed events or as evoking neither pride nor shame. Across studies, similar events were generated from the “self” vs. “other” perspective, indicating that national collective memories can, to an extent, be understood by non-nationals. Variations in specificity, location, and timing of events were also examined.