Who are 'we'? Implicit associations between ethnic and national symbols for Maori and Pakeha in New Zealand.

Research examining how New Zealanders perceive their nation and its peoples remains scarce. The current study examined one specific aspect of such cognitions—that of the degree to which self-identified members of the Indigenous population (Maori) and New Zealanders of European descent (Pakeha) automatically perceive their own and each other's language and peoples as belonging to the nation. We used reaction-time measures (the Implicit Association Test) administered to university undergraduate samples. Majority group members (Pakeha) showed minimal implicit ingroup biases, and perceived their own ingroup and culture, and Maori peoples and culture, as equally representative of the nation. Minority group members (Maori), in contrast, perceived their ingroup and culture as being more closely associated with representations of the nation. The answer to the question of who 'we' are then, is contingent upon ethnic group membership. These findings differ dramatically from theory and research from the United States, which predict that minority groups—especially minority groups such as Maori that are consistently disadvantaged according to national indicators of income and general wellbeing—should display outgroup biases at the implicit level. In New Zealand, it seems that Maori culture helps to promote the positive distinctiveness of the nation on the world stage, and as our results suggest, Maori may therefore have considerable symbolic power to validate national identity for many majority group (Pakeha) New Zealanders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]