We examine whether shared collective experiences help build a national identity, by looking at the impact of national football teams' victories in sub-Saharan Africa. We find that individuals surveyed in the days after an important victory of their country's national team are 37 percent less likely to identify primarily with their ethnic group, and 30 percent more likely to trust other ethnicities, than those interviewed just before. Crucially, national team achievements also reduce violence: countries that (barely) qualified to the Africa Cup of Nations experience less civil conflict (9 percent fewer episodes) in the following months than countries that (barely) did not.

中文翻译：

---

通过分享经验建设国家：非洲足球的证据

我们通过考察国家足球队的胜利对撒哈拉以南非洲地区的影响，来检验共享的集体经验是否有助于建立国家形象。我们发现，在他们国家的国家队取得重大胜利后的第二天，接受调查的人比以前接受采访的人少了37％的主要认同自己的族群的可能性，比其他人信任其他族裔的可能性高了30％。至关重要的是，国家队的成就也减少了暴力：在接下来的几个月中，（几乎）有资格参加非洲国家联盟的国家与（几乎）没有的国家相比，经历了更少的内战（减少了9％的事件）。