Bulgarian National Stereotypes and National Identity
Bulgarian National Stereotypes and National Identity

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to propose a possible explanation of the case of ‘co-existence’ of strong national identity and negative national autostereotype. In its original version Social Identity Theory postulates positive correlation between ingroup bias and social identity. However, some authors (e.g. Mlicki & Ellemers 1997) claim to have demonstrated exception from this assumption. We argue that the discrepancy between negative national autostereotype and strong national identity can be resolved at the level of stereotype dimensionality. By revealing the latent structure of the stereotype and by placing it in a comparative perspective with other nations we demonstrate that Bulgarians with negative autostereotype and strong national identity have positive evaluation on a certain constellation of attributes. These evaluations were not distinct when for measuring the autostereotype we used only the frequency of occurrence of the attributes. They became obvious when for obtaining the latent structure of the stereotypes we applying the unfolding version of multidimensional scaling. The results we obtained can be used in support of the theses that the cases of apparent lack of ingroup favoritism of certain nations could be ascribed to the underestimation of the dimensional structure of the stereotype implicit in some methods for its measuring.

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