'We're Number One!' Doesn't Bring Warm Fuzzies

Children’s songs open our minds, but national anthems slam them shut. 

Hearing innocent children’s ditties like “Itsy Bitsy Spider” evoke more empathy in listeners than national anthems like “The Star Spangled Banner,” which tend to inspire more prejudice and less empathy, say researchers from Kansas State University.  

During further discussion, Saucier, an associate professor of psychology at KSU says, the question of patriotic songs versus religious songs arose. “If religious songs could lead to more pro-social behavior, what kind of effects would patriotic songs have?” he says.  

Saucier then teamed up with sophomore pre-law student Eduardo Alvarado to examine the effects of religious, secular and patriotic songs on people’s pro-social and anti-social beliefs.  

“We used children’s songs as a control group, we didn’t expect [the reactions to be] good or bad, we just used them as neutral primes, but they turned out not to be so neutral,” he explains.  

"You wouldn't think that those songs were going to put people in a certain mind frame, but they do activate a certain attitude," Alvarado said in a public statement. "We found it made people more accepting and more empathetic. The reason for this we think is because we used to listen to these songs when we were little and they kind of activate childhood happiness." 

Study participants performed a paper and pencil exercise during which they filled in the blanks to famous song lyrics for various songs in different categories: patriotic songs (“The Star-Spangled Banner”), secular Christmas songs (in which there is no mention of religion, such as “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer”), religious Christmas songs (“Silent Night”), and children’s songs (“Row, Row, Row Your Boat”).  

Participants were also asked to fill out surveys about their religion and their attitudes toward other cultures and diversity. Half of the participants filled out their surveys before the lyrics exercise, and the other half filled them out afterwards.  

Preliminary results indicated that when participants listened to patriotic songs, they were more close-minded and less empathetic. "Once they were in a patriotic point of view, they were less empathetic," Alvarado said publicly. "They didn't put themselves in other people's perspective." 

Saucier says that pro-social and anti-social attitudes pre-existed in participants’ belief systems; lyrics did not provoke feelings that were not already there. “Music may bring out the feelings, but not place them there,” he notes. 

Could these study results help us create tools to build a peaceful, more tolerant society? “I think what our study shows is that we have the foundations for that, we just have to remind people of [their pro-social attitudes],” Saucier says. “The music didn’t make people more pro-social, it just reminded them to be more pro-social. People just need more cues. I think that if we have reminders it wouldn’t be the worst thing, and music can be one way to have these reminders be conveyed.” 

Such pro-social reminders certainly couldn’t hurt at international soccer matches notorious for violent football hooliganism. Perhaps playing the national anthem at such events may play a small role in inducing rowdy behavior, along of course, with alcohol and mob mentality?  

"I think it plays a small part; anything that serves to make salient the group differences, leads to animosity, aggression, and hostility,” Saucier says. “You have teams in international competition, people are wearing team apparel, there’s alcohol and aggression. Anything that reminds people of differences, [and promotes] national pride within a conflict arena—yes it can play a small part in that.” 

Saucier warns against oversimplifying the findings. The results are preliminary, and he and his team plan to carry out studies to replicate the data. There are other factors to consider, especially historical and political issues. 

The current political climate contributes to some of the animosity against Arabs, for instance, when listeners hear patriotic songs. “If we had done this study twenty years ago, I don’t think people would have shown as much prejudice and lower empathy toward Arabs,” he says.

Future studies will focus on exploring this issue more deeply, and seeing if the results replicate. “I want to get a broader range of what is going on with it, what participants bring to mind when they hear songs,” Saucier says. “I don’t think anything is all the way good or bad, but what we didn’t find is a lot of advantage to patriotic songs, but I don’t’ think that is one hundred percent true. There may be positive results to hearing them; we just need to do more research.”