ABSTRACT
Most research in the field of political psychology attempts to understand citizens’ values and preferences, as well as to make clear the causal variables that impact such preferences and values. However, as with any field that deals with the complexity of human beings and the numerous factors that influence the way we see, imagine and experience the world – scholarship in this field remains largely in disagreement particularly about when and to what extent formal education can influence one’s values, beliefs and preferences. This research capitalises on the increasing study-abroad returnee population in Mainland China in order to measure the differences of this groups’ traditional values and emotional nationalist sentiment, compared to those who have never left the mainland to gain a diploma or degree. This project finds that there are significant differences between the values of collectivity versus individualism, the feeling of blind loyalty to the nation, and the experience of emotional responses to symbols of the nation. The researcher finds that the disparate emotional nationalist sentiments and self-identity markers do not necessarily form or change when one studies abroad, but in fact crystalise in the earlier adolescent years of elementary and middle school training; therefore, there is a high correlation with provincial location rather than with study abroad which might occur years later. These findings suggest that identity and nationalist sentiment are impacted by early school education experiences, while logical preferences about markets, governance and liberal media are more likely impacted by higher or later educational experiences. This therefore gives us a new understanding that emotional values and self-identity markers may be formed and influenced differently than logical preference factors, and thus we must be more precise and aware when measuring and operationalising certain citizen values or citizen’s nationalist sentiment.
