Testing Multiple Identity Measures in Substate Nations: A Quebec-Based Experiment

• In Event: Ethno-nationalist Preferences and Identities

Abstract

Quantitative studies of national identity in multinational states are often built on shaky ground. Historically popular subjective measurements of multinational identity such as the Linz-Moreno scale are increasingly contested, while newer alternatives are either poorly understood or vulnerable to the same limitations. There is also substantial evidence that the survey questions typically used to measure subjective identity are not always capturing what researchers truly intend to measure, and that their meaning varies across national and even sub-national settings. In some contexts, researchers can leverage objective markers of belonging such as language, yet variation in how individuals choose to identify and what identity means to them complicate inferences that rely on such measures. In order to clearly understand what different questions regarding national identity are actually capturing, this paper compares different proposed measures in an experimental framework. Quebec-based study participants are assigned to different close-ended, quantitative measures of national identity, followed up by open-ended questions asking them to explain their national identity in their own words. The validity of the various measurement strategies is then assessed by observing differences in the degree of association between the closed-end responses and the topics raised in the open-ended explanations, as well as through correlations with other attitudes scholars anticipate ought to be associated with national identity.

Authors

• Elissa Berwick, McGill University

• Eric Belanger, McGill University