In celebration of our national birthday, I thought it timely to comment on what motivates patriotism. The United States is blessed to have many patriots including those who serve in our armed forces, defense department, intelligence agencies, and other federal posts.
My work on the core motives of mankind distinguishes among three kinds of loyalty: loyalty to the clan/family, loyalty to the tribe/nation, and loyalty to the species/humanity. Oh, I suppose we could just say that loyal people score high on Big 5 Conscientiousness and let it go at that, but then we would be lumping together family people, patriots, and humanitarians, and the only people in the world who would think we are insightful would be psychometricians. I delineate three personality types because each behaves very differently in the real world.
Loyalty to Clan/Family. Psychologically, this core motive is about loyalty to one's children and siblings. Family life motivates everybody but not in the same way. People with an above-average attraction for family life usually value children. They may enjoy being involved in their children's lives.
Loyalty to Tribe/Nation. Psychologically, this core motive is about loyalty to parents. Everybody is concerned with their parents, but in very different ways. People with above-average loyalty to their parents tend to be loyal to their ethnic group and nation.
Many people are loyal to their parents but not their children, or vice versa. Mahatma Gandhi, for example, stayed home from school to take care of his ailing father. After his father passed away, Gandhi took off to study in London, leaving his wife and children behind in India. In Gandhi we have an example of a conscientious person whose loyalties were to his parents/heritage/nation, and not to his children/family.
Loyalty to Species/Humanity. This core motive is about compassion for people we do not know, which includes both altruism and humanitarianism. Humanitarians embrace roles larger than self, which may include promoting world peace, eradicating disease, or fighting against world poverty. They aren't necessarily moral in the sense of being righteous or strictly following a moral code such as the Ten Commandments. I have personally known many humanitarians through my national efforts on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities. Some of them thought nothing of lying for the cause even when they were under oath in a courtroom. They believed the end justifies the means - if they reckoned that dishonesty would help their social cause, they lied.
The psychological origin of patriotism, I think, is loyalty to the tribe. Psychologically, patriotism is a common way to gratify the need to honor our parents by being loyal to their ethnic group/nation. Patriots are not necessarily humanitarians, and they may not be compassionate. Some patriots, for example, might support torturing terrorists if it meant enhanced national security. Others might not care that much about the downtrodden. Of course, some patriots are compassionate.
How do I know all this? I asked thousands of people about what motivates them, analyzed their answers, and found these results. Try it yourself: Ask people how loyal they are to their family, how loyal they are to their country, and how loyal they are to humanity. You will quickly learn that one type of loyalty is a poor predictor of the other. Think of all the people you know with reputations for being patriotic and notice that some of them are altruistic and others are not. Think of the altruistic people you know and notice that some of them are righteous and others are not. It is valid but overly general to say that somebody is a "loyal" or "conscientious" person without further specifying if he/she is loyal to clan/family, tribe/nation, or species/humanity. Any individual can embrace all of these loyalties, none of them, or any combination.
On most days those people with reputations for being especially patriotic likely embrace above-average loyalty to their parents and ethnic group. On July 4th, however, all Americans are patriotic, regardless of their personality type.
