National Identity, National Favoritism, Global Self-Esteem, Tall Poppy Attitudes, and Value Priorities in Australian and Canadian Samples

This study compared samples of Australian and Canadian university students with respect to attitudes toward tall poppies or high achievers, national favoritism as indicated by a tendency to favor the products and achievements of their own country, global self-esteem at the personal level, and value priorities. Measures of national identity and national identification were also obtained for the Australian sample. Results showed that both samples were similar in regard to national favoritism, tall poppy attitudes, and global self-esteem. In both samples, favoring the fall of tall poppies was negatively related to both self-esteem and national favoritism, and national favoritism was positively related to self-esteem. National favoritism and national identification were positively related in the Australian sample. Categorizing self as Australian rather than having some other national identity was associated with higher national favoritism and higher national identification, consistent with social identity theory. National favoritism scores were higher for Canadian Anglophones than for Canadian non-Anglophones. Australian students rated some universalistic, prosocial values such as equality, a world of peace, and a world of beauty as more important for self and conformity values as less important when compared with the Canadian students. Gender differences in value ratings were consistent with previous findings.