Psychological significance of name changes: A case study of (north) Macedonia's name referendum

Multiple instances of rebranding of corporations or sports teams, or changes of personal names suggest that imposed change of symbols that people identify with leads to resistance towards the symbol change. In this paper, we examine the predictive role of sacred values, identity fusion, identification and essentialism in explaining such resistance, in a unique political context of a national referendum to change Macedonia to North Macedonia. Participants (ethnic Macedonians, N = 301) took a survey measuring these variables, along with their voting intentions and behaviour, 1 week prior to a national referendum on the name change, and again several weeks later. The results indicated that while all variables predicted negative attitudes towards the name change, only considering the name a sacred value and, to a lesser extent, being identified with the country, uniquely predicted this outcome, and only sacred values uniquely predicted voting behaviour. A large proportion of the participants were fully fused with the name “Macedonia,” which may have limited its predictive value. A cross-lagged analysis suggested a potential causal path from national identification to viewing the name as sacred, essentializing it and becoming fused with it. This study is the first to examine the psychological mechanisms that drive resistance to symbol change.