Shock Study? Exposure to American Flag Only Boosts GOP

Alternate headline: Exposure to an American Flag does not make you socialist.

A new study found that even a brief exposure to an American flag shifts voters to Republican beliefs, attitudes and voting behavior.
Via US News and World Report:

Just a brief exposure to an image of the American flag shifts voters, even Democrats, to Republican beliefs, attitudes and voting behavior even though most don’t believe it will impact their politics, according to a new two-year study just published in the scholarly Psychological Science.

What’s more, according to three authors from the University Chicago, Cornell University and Hebrew University, the impact had staying power.

“A single exposure to an American flag resulted in a significant increase in participants’ Republican voting intentions, voting behavior, political beliefs, and implicit and explicit attitudes, with some effects lasting 8 months,” the study found. “These results constitute the first evidence that nonconscious priming effects from exposure to a national flag can bias the citizenry toward one political party and can have considerable durability.”

Theirs is the first study to look at the political impact on Americans who have seen an American flag, and it seems to back up another recent Harvard University professor’s study that found that kids who attended a July 4th parade ended up leaning Republican when they grew up.

It’s also sure to prompt GOP presidential candidates to add more U.S. flags at their events and speeches.

Related… A recent Harvard Study found that 4th of July events only help Republicans.

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#1 July 20, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Joe College commented:

Flag leaving schools…3…2…1…
#2 July 20, 2011 at 4:56 pm
#1AMERICAN commented:

and that is why the kenyan fraud odumbass got rid of the american flags from all podiums and his airplane during campaign mode…
#3 July 20, 2011 at 4:59 pm
PB-in-AL commented:

“Exposure”!??! So now seeing our nation’s flag is akin to being exposed to an illness? How long before we get a 9th Circuit ruling that flags should not be flown near polling places for x months before an election?!

What freakin’ idiots! Who paid for this “study” I wonder? So United States of American patriotism is seen as a sickness… nice. Well, I suppose there will be a focus group convened to establish what a new “non-patriotic, non-offensive” flag should be.

So my response, well aside from the above, is this:

Three Cheers for OLD GLORY!!

Finally, the last verse to the Star Spangled Banner (basically a prayer):

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
#4 July 20, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Studious Citizen commented:

So, in other words, Democrats hate the flag?
#5 July 20, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Matches Malone commented:

Oh great, now their going to try to outlaw the flag.
#6 July 20, 2011 at 5:04 pm
USMC Thomas commented:

Having spent time in foreign lands I can’t describe in words the warm emotions seeing the Red, White and Blue and everything it represents.
This country isn’t perfect, but no other comes close or has its borders overrun like the USA.
#7 July 20, 2011 at 5:12 pm
ar05075 commented:

Being taught REAL American history in schools has an even more profound effect. Which is precisely why it doesn’t happen anymore.
#8 July 20, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Mark1957 commented:

Then we should fly as many flags as possible near polling places. What ever it takes to get rid of Obama.
#9 July 20, 2011 at 5:18 pm
bg commented:

++

not to mention the TEA PARTY & US TROOPS!!

DON’T TREAD ON ME – OOH-RAH!!

==
#10 July 20, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Garrison commented:

Shown your flag everywear fine folks…we need to the the flag to defeet the Commies!
#11 July 20, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Marsh626 commented:

Now you know why the treasonous Left is always trying to ban the American flag.
#12 July 20, 2011 at 5:25 pm
daryl commented:

I remember when the daily raising/lowering of the flag at our grammer school was passed from class to class where everyone voted on who got the honor of that duty each time it rotated back to your class. We didn’t all get the honor but we were all taught the correct procedure in case we were called on. Those that were Boy Scouts were usually the winners because they were supposed to already know the drill.
I’m referring to early 50s Texas schools so perhaps others here weren’t as lucky as were we. Things have certainly changed in those 50 and some odd years, a few for the the better, I’ll admit but so many for the worse. Teaching flag etiquette being one of those now being all but non existant in the public schools.
#13 July 20, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Don Rodrigo commented:

Assuming this “study” has any more merit than any of the other bogus “studies,” it does present a great opportunity for election day:

Make sure there are AMerican flags flying everywhere around polling stations.

One other option, because I KNOW what the effect would be: Plant a bunch of MEXICAN flags around polling stations, and watch how enraged legal voters react in the booth!
#14 July 20, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Taqiyyotomist commented:

Interesting. Just today I bought a nice shirt imprinted with flags, fireworks, the Statue of Liberty, and the cursive words to “The Star Spangled Banner!”

(This one right here, actually!)

http://www.pfiwestern.com/pfi/western.wear/itemdetl.html?item=7-130368%20DARKNT

When the weather cools down a bit, I’ll go out and “infect” a few people, by “exposing” them to this American “pathogen”.

Heh.
#15 July 20, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Dr_Proboscis commented:

FLAG EXPOSURE?

The Harvard Study makes “the flag” sound like something that should be turned over to the CDC.

We all know what this is about. It’s real easy: It’s America and what it stands for against those who would destroy it.

We all know who they are.

Our America will survive, thanks to your here and everywhere else where “the flag” means something.
#16 July 20, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Ozark Lee commented:

I’m old school. We used to say the pledge of allegiance before the start of class when I went to grade school in the ’60s. To this day I tear up when a good rendition of the Star Spangled Banner is played at a sporting event – particularly when there is a B-2 flyover involved.

I love this country but I am very afraid for my kids that are now in college.

…Lee
#17 July 20, 2011 at 5:37 pm
dnb commented:

First thought: Plaster them everywhere. Second, are these liberal studies using reverse psychology: Overload America with flags until there’s so many no one wants to see them (or the GOP) any more. Worked for my aunt and her over the top religious piety. The more she pushed, the more others ran away. Can’t see liberals letting this information out if it helps Republicans (but it would make a great commercial).
#18 July 20, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Rock commented:

By this study being American and proud of your country and flag makes one unacceptable to the One World Order dream team. Well pretty well defines the Rights distrust of Democraps, Progressives, and Socialist. Finally, its not that we are raciest, but worst, Patriotic. All the more reason to resist these traitorous filth who occupy the inner sanctums of our Government.
Odd that the Left would be so reckless as to reinforce our distrust of them by framing our resistance to them as being Patriotic. Of course the new talking point will now be, being patriotic is raciest
#19 July 20, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Valerie commented:

…..and a group of demonstrators invents …. government. The Sandmonkey, at Tahrir square.

http://www.sandmonkey.org/2011/07/16/tahrir-an-exercise-in-nation-building/
#20 July 20, 2011 at 5:39 pm
Dr_Proboscis commented:

#16 Ozark Lee

Don’t worry. When your kids come home on semester break, and if they come back to spend the summer with you between years, you have the opportunity to connect with them, and make sure they know what their freedom is all about.

Kids can be pretty smart when they want to be.