Using data from the International Social Survey Programme, this research investigated
asymmetric attitudes of ethnic minorities and majorities towards their country and explored
the impact of human development, ethnic diversity, and social inequality as country-level
moderators of national attitudes. In line with the general hypothesis of ethnic asymmetry,
we found that ethnic, linguistic, and religious majorities were more identified with the
nation and more strongly endorsed nationalist ideology than minorities (H1, 33 countries).
Multilevel analyses revealed that this pattern of asymmetry was moderated by country-level
characteristics: the difference between minorities and majorities was greatest in ethnically
diverse countries and in egalitarian, low inequality contexts. We also observed a larger
positive correlation between ethnic subgroup identification and both national identification
and nationalism for majorities than for minorities (H2, 20 countries). A stronger overall
relationship between ethnic and national identification was observed in countries with a
low level of human development. The greatest minority-majority differences in the relationship
between ethnic identification and national attitudes were found in egalitarian countries
with a strong welfare state tradition.