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Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: a pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory

Kapitány, Rohan, Kavanagh, Christopher, Buhrmester, Michael D, Newson, Martha, Whitehouse, Harvey (2019) Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: a pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory. Self and Identity, 19 (3). pp. 293-323. ISSN 1529-8868. E-ISSN 1529-8876. (doi:10.1080/15298868.2019.1578686) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:84173)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2019.1578686

Abstract

The US Presidential Inauguration is a symbolic event which arouses significant emotional responses among diverse groups, and is of considerable significance to Americans’ personal and social identities. We argue that the inauguration qualifies as an Imagistic Ritual. Such ritual experiences are thought to produce identity fusion: a visceral sense of oneness with the group. The 2017 Inauguration of President Trump was a unique opportunity to examine how a large-scale naturalistic imagistic ritual influences the social identities of Americans who supported and opposed President Trump. We conducted a pre-registered 7-week longitudinal investigation among a sample of Americans to examine how President Trump’s Inauguration influenced identity fusion. We predicted that the affective responses to the inauguration would predict positive changes in fusion, mediated by self-reflection. We did not find support for this. However, the inauguration was associated with flashbulb-like memories, and positive emotions at the time of the event predicted changes in fusion to both ingroup and outgroup targets. Finally, both positive and negative emotional responses inspired self-reflection, but did not mediate the relationship with fusion. We discuss the implications for models linking group psychology, fusion theory, and ritual modes. All material is freely available at the Open Science Framework: https://bit.ly/2Qu0G37.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/15298868.2019.1578686
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Martha Newson
Date Deposited: 15 Nov 2020 12:24 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Mar 2024 15:37 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/84173 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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