Prespes deal saw rise in public flag display, study finds

The number of national flags hung from the balconies of private homes in the streets of the Greek capital grew sharply in the wake of the contentious name deal between Athens and Skopje, according to a new study which explores the impact of symbolic conflict resolution on nationalist sentiment. 

According to the study, which was printed in the Journal of Conflict Resolution under the title "Symbolic Conflict Resolution and Ingroup Favoritism," the effect was more pronounced in Greece's northern port city of Thessaloniki, which is also the capital of the country's Central Macedonia region.

The experts, Elias Dinas of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Sergi Martinez of Princeton University, and Vicente Valentim of the University of Oxford, conducted extensive on-site survey with a team of research assistants, counting the number of flags (the Greek...