I am troubled by a series of questions: how can we explain from a sociological and pcychological perspective why people are willing to die for their country? How are we to make sense of this patriotic martyrdom? I want to understand the connections between nationalism and self-sacrifice, more exactly how was it possible that so many people sacrificed their lives in War World I, for instance? How did societies succeed in convincing their citizens to embrace death in the name of their country? Can you recomend me any books approching these issues?
Hi Mihai,
there is some (also not much) literature on the question when people behave in their individual vs. group vs. collective interest. In your examples, there is a conflict between these interests, leading to a multi-level social dilemma.
Papers that give an overview about such kind of conflict situations are Bornstein (2003, Personality and Social Psychology Review), Mead and Maner (2012, Social and Personality Psychology Compass), Benard and Doan (2011, Advances in Group Processes). You find recent (experimental) investigations of such conflict structures in Economics (e.g., Abbink et al., 2012, Economics Letters) and Psychology (e.g., Böhm and Rockenbach, 2013, PLoS ONE). There is much more, of course, but this should be a decent introduction into the field...
Best, Robert
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Social Science
- Sociology