ABSTRACT National identities have tended to be established by elites who universalize deep cultural conformity to key cultural artefacts such as language and religion. But this approach can provoke intergroup conflict when the official national identity clashes with other social identifications (e.g., religious, ethnic, or regional ones). Research based on the Social Identity Theory of Henri Tajfel and John Turner indicates that collective identities can be easily induced, through ?minimal? cues of group membership, suggesting a strong and innate need to (...) identify with larger groups and to share in and contribute to their achievements. Instead of insisting on deep conformity, therefore, national identification might be achieved through the use of simple cultural cues, banal national symbolism, and mass political participation. (shrink)