Remembrance Day influence on national sentiments and hostility towards out-groups: Evidence from a panel study in Israel

While scholars have long emphasized the significant impact of national days on the masses, the actual impact of national days on people’s national sentiments have been ignored. This study set out to examine the ways in which exposure to Remembrance Day impacts national sentiments and hostility towards outgroups. Unlike previous cross-sectional-design studies, it adopted longitudinal design in order to explore the actual impact of exposure to Remembrance Day amongst Israeli Jews. While exposure to Remembrance Day increased the respondents’ sense of nationalism, neither their level of national identification and hostility towards out-groups nor the magnitude of the positive link between nationalism and hostility towards out-groups changed significantly. While national identification was unrelated to hostility prior to Remembrance Day, it became negatively related to it on Remembrance Day itself. The findings shed new light on the prevalent assumption regarding the impact national days have on public sentiment.