Who “Owns” the Stars and Stripes and Why Does It Matter? Effects of the American Flag on Impressions of Prejudice, Intolerance, and Aggressiveness

Prior work finds that symbol-person pairings influence impressions of individuals. We hypothesized that flying the American flag could signal conservativism and Trump support, consequently affecting impressions. Across four experiments, an American flag overlay in a social media profile caused a target person to be seen as more prejudiced, aggressive, and intolerant, particularly by liberals, Trump opposers, and those lower in American pride. Perceptions of Trump support consistently mediated the American flag’s effect on negative impressions, with perceived conservativism emerging as a mediator only in more recent data. Findings from a moderated mediation model suggested that the mediational effect of conservativism grew stronger over the course of our seven years of data collection, primarily among liberal perceivers. In addition, the flag itself was evaluated less favorably as the years progressed, especially by liberals. We discuss interpretational limitations and implications for discrimination and national unity.