South Koreans were enraged when their countrywoman lost to a Russian competitor at the Sochi Olympics. That reaction may or may not have been right, but it was perfectly healthy.
By Monica Kim
The Atlantic - Mar 4 2014
It was a good old-fashioned Olympic scandal in Sochi, when South Korean figure skater Kim Yuna, known as “the Queen,” lost to a less experienced Russian. The judgment spurred millions of angry Tweets, and a Change.org petition protesting the result was the fastest growing one on site record—reportedly more than 1.2 million signatures in about 12 hours.
Skating officials and fans around the world have questioned the decision, but critics remain focused on the South Korean outrage, largely since their sports fanaticism has made headlines before. Diehard citizens of countries like South Korea may seem odd to some; a post on Yahoo
had the misguided headline: “Deal with it, South Korea.” But that
injunction doesn't really understand the nature and depth of nationalist
feeling—and the extent to which a sentiment often associated with
extremism, even war, can be pervasive in the psychology of everyday
life, including in sports fandom.
The ideology of nationalism has a complex history, originating in
early-modern Europe and evolving in many different ways as it's spread
throughout the world. Today nationalism can be civic, ethnic, or a
combination of the two, but all nationalists “carry strong attitudes and
beliefs about their own people and about others, who feel their
attachment to their nation passionately, and who even, at times, act
with great cruelty against their enemies,” according to Joshua
Searle-White in his book The Psychology of Nationalism. This
“us versus them” mentality and its negative effects have been well
examined from a political and historical standpoint, but surprisingly
few have studied its psychological roots. From a social psychological
perspective, nationalist sentiment is thought to stem from two main
points: attachment and identity.
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