Exploring the Impact of the "RUEU?" Game on Greek Students' Perceptions of and Attitudes to European Identity

European identity is a complex, multi-faced and inherently imprecise concept relating to a range of socio-political and psychological factors. Addressing this topic in educational practice, particularly with respect to Higher Education students, constitutes a complex and open problem for research. This paper reports on an experimental study designed to explore the effectiveness of the educational game "RUEU?" in supporting university students in understanding the key socio-political issues regarding European identity. Quantitative data regarding Greek university students' (N = 92) attitudes to European identity, before and after playing the game, were collected. Students' performance of the game group (N = 46) was compared with that of a control group (N = 46) who explored the same issues about European identity through a tutor-guided discussion. The findings showed that both instructional interventions were effective but in different ways. The participants in the game-based group appeared more attached to the EU after the intervention and moved toward a more balanced description of their Greek and European identity. On the other hand, the students in the control group rated higher what "European identity" and being EU citizen means to them. The findings indicated the potential of game-based interventions to deliver not only academic content but also to promote students' reflection and influence them at an attitudinal and emotional level.

Identity Multiplicity in an Ethnic and Religious Minority in Latvia: Old Believer Youth

The paper explores the relationship between the religious identity and the ethnic and national identities of Old Believer youth in Latvia. This case is of particular interest in providing an in-depth insight into the intersection of ethnicity, nationality and religion, as the Old Believers are an ethnic and religious minority living in Latvia. Applying the concepts of multiple identities, this article explores the role of religion played in the integration of identity among young people belonging to the Old Believer religious community: their self-understanding as a composition of intersecting identities that influence each other; the manifestations of the intersection of various identities; the relationship of identity integration to religion. The analysis is based on the findings of ethnographic research conducted in the Old Believer youth group in Daugavpils (Latvia) within a framework of the international project "Cultural Heritage and Identities of Europe's Future", funded from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement No. 770464. The author has highlighted that today's rapid changes are leading to identity crisis: an individual faces difficulty in shaping and maintaining a stable identity, since economic life is becoming increasingly unpredictable and communities are becoming fragmented. The identity of Latvian Old Believer youth forms and develops in a local cultural context, and is affected by the social change. The qualitative data collected during the fieldwork provided a useful resource for an analysis of belonging, the crucial factor in the formation of identity for Old Believer youth. As the voices of young people in this study reveal, three types of belonging characterize Old Believer youth: their ethnicity, which interacts with national belonging in a complex way; the local belonging, which is stronger than the global one; the European belonging, which conflicts with national belonging and ethnicity.

Explaining voting in the UK's 2016 EU referendum: Values, attitudes to immigration, European identity and political trust

We consider the role of values as determinants of voting in the UK's 2016 EU referendum. First, we consider and clarify 'values' conceptually, before proceeding to utilise Schwartz's basic human values as the most appropriate. Second, we theorise how these basic human values determine both voting in the referendum as well as three of the most consistently demonstrated determinants of voting in that referendum: attitudes to immigration, identifying as European and trust in politicians. Finally, we demonstrate that this psychological theoretical framework effectively predicts voting behaviour in the referendum using multigroup structural equation modelling. Overall, we show that voting dynamics in the referendum are likely to reflect deeper, more personal psychological predispositions than those captured by existing explanations. In doing so, we make an original contribution to the literature on political psychology related to Brexit, Euroscepticism, political attitudes and electoral behaviour.

Immigration, political trust, and Brexit - Testing an aversion amplification hypothesis

A few weeks prior to the EU referendum (23rd June 2016) two broadly representative samples of the electorate were drawn in Kent (the south-east of England, N = 1,001) and Scotland (N = 1,088) for online surveys that measured their trust in politicians, concerns about acceptable levels of immigration, threat from immigration, European identification, and voting intention. We tested an aversion amplification hypothesis that the impact of immigration concerns on threat and identification would be amplified when political trust was low. We hypothesized that the effect of aversion amplification on voting intentions would be mediated first by perceived threat from immigration, and then by (dis) identification with Europe. Results in both samples were consistent with this hypothesis and suggest that voters were most likely to reject the political status quo (choose Brexit) when concerns that immigration levels were too high were combined with a low level of trust in politicians.

Five Dimensions of European Identity: A Contribution to the Italian Adaptation and Validation of the In-Group Identification Scale

Recent approaches define collective identity as a multi-component construct. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research about the dimensionality of in-group identification in relation to European Identity. Leach and colleagues (2008) proposed a framework of in-group identification, in which they distinguish five main components integrated into two higher-order dimensions. In two studies we examined the validity of the Italian version of the In-Group Identification Scale by Leach et al., with a focus on European identity. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the hierarchical model of in-group identification fitted the data well (Study 1); the measure was shown to have satisfactory convergent and divergent validity. In Study 2, the relations between European identification and several possible antecedents and outcomes were examined.

Framing the EU as Common Project vs. Common Heritage: Effects on Attitudes Towards the EU Deepening and Widening

The present study investigated the effects of framing the European Union (EU) as a common project vs. a common heritage on participants' attitude towards EU integration (Experiment 1) and EU enlargement (Experiment 2). An additional aim was exploring whether the different frames affected the strength of identification with the EU, and if the framing effect on attitudes was mediated by participants' identification with the EU and/or by their message evaluation (Experiment 3). Results showed that a common project-based frame was more effective than a common heritage-based frame in promoting positive attitude toward EU integration and enlargement, as well as participants' identification with the EU, which mediated the framing effect on both attitudes; the mediation of participants' message evaluation was not significant. The procedure of the last experiment was replicated on a British sample (Experiment 4), showing a similar pattern of results.

Where are we coming from versus who we will become: the effect of priming different contents of European identity on cooperation

In two experiments, we investigated how priming European identity as common project versus common heritage affects participants' cooperation in a social dilemma; an additional aim was to explore the mediators involved in the process. In the first experiment, 82 students played a public good dilemma with a European bogus partner and then completed self-report measures of identification with the European Union (EU), group-based trust and collective interest. Results showed that priming a common project-based but not a common heritage-based European social identity fostered cooperative behaviour; this effect was mediated by two sequential mediators: the common project prime increased participants' strength of identification with EU (mediator 1) which, in turn, positively affected group-based trust (mediator 2), fostering greater cooperation. Experiment 2 was conducted with a similar procedure on a sample of 124 students, using a different measure of trust and changing the order of mediators. Results supported those of previous experiment: Priming a project-based EU identity content (compared to heritage-based one) had significant direct and indirect effects on cooperation.