Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Collective Guilt
- Section 1 Defining the nature of collective guilt
- 1 International Perspectives on the Experience of Collective Guilt
- 2 The Measurement of Collective Guilt: What It Is and What It Is Not
- 3 The Evocation of Moral Emotions in Intergroup Contexts: The Distinction Between Collective Guilt and Collective Shame
- 4 Collective Guilt in the United States: Predicting Support for Social Policies that Alleviate Social Injustice
- 5 Gender Inequality and the Intensity of Men's Collective Guilt
- Section 2 The Relationship Between Group Identification and Collective Guilt
- Section 3 Consequences for Intergroup Relations
- Section 4 Commentary on the Volume
- Index
- References
3 - The Evocation of Moral Emotions in Intergroup Contexts: The Distinction Between Collective Guilt and Collective Shame
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Collective Guilt
- Section 1 Defining the nature of collective guilt
- 1 International Perspectives on the Experience of Collective Guilt
- 2 The Measurement of Collective Guilt: What It Is and What It Is Not
- 3 The Evocation of Moral Emotions in Intergroup Contexts: The Distinction Between Collective Guilt and Collective Shame
- 4 Collective Guilt in the United States: Predicting Support for Social Policies that Alleviate Social Injustice
- 5 Gender Inequality and the Intensity of Men's Collective Guilt
- Section 2 The Relationship Between Group Identification and Collective Guilt
- Section 3 Consequences for Intergroup Relations
- Section 4 Commentary on the Volume
- Index
- References
Summary
Conflict, in many cases extending to war, genocide, enslavement, and other forms of violence and domination, is the unfortunate hallmark of much of intergroup relations. Nonetheless, though humans tend to view even the most violent acts of their group against outsiders as morally justified, there are exceptions. Some individuals, in some situations, experience compunction for what people in their group have done to outsiders. Understanding when such reactions are likely to occur, and the consequences of such responses, is a potentially crucial element in attenuating intergroup conflict.
Our interest in understanding collective guilt concerns when individuals will take responsibility for and make reparations for their group's mistreatment of another group. It is important to recognize that the word “guilt” can be used to refer to both an emotional response (“I feel guilty”) and a judgment of responsibility (“I am guilty”). Obviously, the two usages are related, however, our work is derived from a conceptualization of guilt first and foremost as an emotional experience. As such, our approach is grounded in basic research on emotion and strives to describe the interpretative process by which a person proceeds from a simple awareness that a negative intergroup event has taken place to having an emotional reaction and a behavioral response to that event.
Our primary objective in this chapter is to outline some of the main steps in this interpretive process.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Collective GuiltInternational Perspectives, pp. 35 - 55Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
References
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley
, , & (1995). Personal narratives about guilt: Role in action control and interpersonal relationships. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17, 173–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , & (1999). Black sheep and expectancy violation: Integrating two models of social judgment. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 523–423.0.CO;2-J>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boehm, C. (1984). Blood revenge: The anthropology of feuding in Montenegro and other tribal societies. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press
Branscombe, N. R., Doosje, B., & McGarty, C. (2002) Antecedents and consequences of collective guilt. In D. M. Mackie & E. R. Smith (Eds.), From prejudice to intergroup emotions: Differentiated reactions to social groups (pp. 49–66). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press
Daley, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Homicide. Hawthorne, NY: De Gruyter
, & (2003). Attributions for the negative historical actions of a group. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 235–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , & (1998). Guilty by association: When one's group has a negative history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 872–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , & (1999). Self-categorization, commitment to the group and group self-esteem as related but distinct aspects of social identity. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 371–893.0.CO;2-U>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1992). The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations. Psychological Review, 99, 689–723CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2001). Are ethnic groups biological “species” to the human brain?: Essentialism in our cognition of some social categories. Current Anthropology, 42, 515–54Google Scholar
Hamilton, D. L., Sherman, S. J., & Castelli, L. (2002). A group by any other name – The role of entitativity in group perception. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.) European Review of Social Psychology (pp. 139–66). Chichester, UK: WileyCrossRef
Hardy, M. J. L. (1963). Blood feuds and the payment of blood money in the Middle East. Beirut: Catholic Press
, , & (2000). Essentialist beliefs about social categories. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 113–27CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, & (1954). They saw a game: A case study. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49, 129–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1982). Esteem and control bases of blame: “Adaptive” strategies for victims versus observers. Journal of Personality, 50, 180–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, H. B. (1971). Shame and guilt in neurosis. New York: International Universities Press
, , , , , & (2000). Varieties of groups and the perception of group entitativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 223–46CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , & (2001). Elements of a lay theory of groups: Types of groups, relational styles, and the perception of group entitativity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 129–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lickel, B., Miller, N., Stenstrom, D., Denson, T., & Schmader, T. (2004). The role of vicarious retribution in intergroup conflict. Manuscript in preparation
Lickel, B., Schmader, T., Ames, D. R., & Curtis, M. (2004). Vicarious shame and guilt. Unpublished manuscript
, , & (2003). A case of collective responsibility: Who else was to blame for the Columbine High School shootings?Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 194–204CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , (1992). Ingroup bias and the “black sheep” effect: Assessing the impact of social identification and perceived variability on group judgments. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 331–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1994). “If only I weren't” versus “If only I hadn't”: Distinguishing shame and guilt in counterfactual thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 585–95CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ortony, A., Clore, G. L., & Collins, A. (1988). The cognitive structure of emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press
(1979). The ultimate attribution error: Extending Allport's cognitive analysis of prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 5, 461–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2000). Collective task responsibility allocation: Revisiting the group-serving bias. Small Group Research, 31, 739–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse, T., Ropp, S. C., & Sikkink, K. (1999). The power of human rights: International norms and domestic change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Rothbart, M., & Taylor, M. (1992). Category labels and social reality: Do we view social categories as natural kinds? In K. Fiedler & G. R. Semin (Eds.), Language, interaction and social cognition (pp. 11–36). Newbury Park, CA: Sage
, & (1997). How effective are the things people say to apologize? Effects of the realization of the apology speech act. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 26, 127–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1996) An in-group becomes part of the self: Response time evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 635–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , (1986). Distancing after group success and failure: Basking in reflected glory and cutting off reflected failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 382–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). Social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In W. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7–24). Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall
(1992). Situational determinants of shame and guilt in young adulthood. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 199–206CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tangney, J. P. (1995). Shame and guilt in interpersonal relationships. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.) Self-conscious emotions (pp. 64–113). New York: Guilford Press
, , , , (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 1256–69CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiner, B. (1995). Judgments of responsibility: A foundation for a theory of social conduct. New York: The Guilford Press
Weinstein, M., Finnegan, M., & Watanabe, T. (2001, September 24). Racial profiling gains support as search tactic. The Los Angeles Times
, , & (1983). Participant descriptions of guilt and shame. Motivation and Emotion, 7, 25–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilder, D. & Simon, A. F. (1998) Categorical and dynamic groups: Implications for social perception and intergroup behavior. In C. Sedikides, J. Schopler, & C. A., Insko (Eds.) Intergroup cognition and intergroup behavior (pp. 27–44). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
, & (2001). The interplay of subjective essentialism and entitativity in the formation of stereotypes. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 141–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yzerbyt, V. Y., Rocher, S., & Schadron, G. (1997). Stereotypes as explanations: A subjective essentialistic view of group perception. In R. Spears, P. J. Oakes, N. Ellemers, & S. A. Haslam (Eds.), The social psychology of stereotyping and group life (pp. 20–50). Oxford: Blackwell
- 62
- Cited by