Attributions for the negative historical actions of a group
Abstract
Two field studies examined the attributions made for the historically negative behaviour of a group as a whole, depending on whether the actions were committed by the ingroup or an outgroup. In the first study, Jewish people assigned more internal responsibility to Germans for their treatment of Jewish people during the Second World War than Germans assigned to their own group. In the second study, people attributed the negative historical actions of another nation more internally (and less externally) than similar negative historical actions committed by their own nation. This pattern of intergroup attributional bias was more pronounced among people who highly identified with their national ingroup. Outgroup homogeneity and perceptions of differences between the groups were also significantly predicted by ingroup identification. Links between social identity theory and the intergroup attribution bias are considered. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Reminding people of the responsibility of their group for past misdeeds leads to derogation, negative attitudes toward the victim group, and a defensive attempt to protect the group by minimizing the historical crime, distorting the memory of the event, and justifying in-group behavior.
“Reminding people of the responsibility of their group for past misdeeds leads to derogation (Castano and Giner-Sorolla, 2006) and to negative attitudes toward the victim group; it leads to a defensive attempt to protect the group by minimizing the historical crime (Doosje and Branscombe, 2003), distorting the memory of the event (Frijda, 1997; Dresler-Hawke, 2005; Sahdra and Ross, 2007), and Just”
From Collective Trauma and the Social Construction of Meaning (2018) · cites this paper as Doosje and Branscombe, 2003
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References 33 · Cited by 164
Research works printed but not linked: 30
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- Authors
- Doosje, B., & Branscombe, N. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- University of Kansas (US)
- Corresponding author
- Doosje, Bertjan
- Venue
- European Journal of Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2002-12-13
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 235-248
- ISSN
- 0046-2772 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0992
- OpenAlex
- W2093381865
- Cited by
- 164
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 16.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Keywords
- social identity theory, historical responsibility, Holocaust, World War II, outgroup homogeneity, intergroup differences
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