From ‘Neurons to Nations’: Neurocognitive Foundations of Nationalism

Nationalism—the deep psychological attachment to one's nation—is a pervasive and powerful force shaping modern social and political life. While usually analyzed through historical or political frameworks, nationalism is rooted in evolved neurocognitive and biological capacities for memory, imagination, group affiliation, and emotional bonding. Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, and evolutionary theory, this review explores the neurobiological and psychological substrates of nationalism, integrating Benedict Anderson's concept of “imagined communities” with findings on imagination, group categorization, identity fusion, and collective memory. Central to this analysis is the collective exercise of episodic memory and imagination, suggesting national identity depends on the brain’s ability to construct coherent, imagined, collective worlds. Collective memory and other processes promote in-group loyalty and out-group bias, and (prefrontal) cortical systems facilitate fusing of individual and group identity. The neural bases of important affective processes (including pride, fear, empathy (gaps), and moral outrage) are analyzed to elucidate how nationalism co-opts these mechanisms, scaling them to mass societies through culturally-mediated memory and narrative systems. Often overlooked ethical issues when considering the underlying mechanisms responsible for nationalism are discussed. Finally, some new hypotheses and future research directions to deepen our neurocognitive understanding of large-scale group affiliation, with implications for societal cohesion, intergroup conflict, and transforming nationalism in a globalizing world are discussed.