“You say it best when you say nothing at all”: effects of reparation, apology and expressions of emotions on intergroup forgiveness

Three experiments examined the effects of a perpetrator group member expressing various emotions or no emotion on victim group members’ propensity to forgive the perpetrator group and hold positive outgroup beliefs. All studies were conducted in Bosnia Herzegovina. In Study 1 (N = 112), a member of the Serbian outgroup expressed No Emotion, Image Shame, Moral Shame or Guilt whilst talking about her group’s involvement in a recent atrocity (Srebrenica). The first condition elicited more forgiveness and more favorable outgroup cognitions in comparison with the other three conditions. This effect was replicated in Studies 2 (N = 90) and 3 (N = 98), which also incorporated manipulations of apologies and reparations respectively. Apologies had no effect on intergroup forgiveness or positive outgroup cognitions; reparations had more positive effects irrespective of emotions expressed

Perceptions of Shared Morality as an Important Socio-Psychological Mechanism for Finding the Common Ground

When we think of human history, it is easy to conclude that violent conflicts are unavoidable. Furthermore, in remembering history, we usually recall violent times and are less likely to remember peaceful societal change. Given the way we remember our history, it is easy to lose sight of the existence of peaceful conflict resolutions or other positive societal changes. The Polish Round Table Talks (RT) that took place in 1989 at times of growing political and economic instabilities serve as an example of peaceful and effective negotiation between two opposing and, one might argue, exclusive ideologies. These talks resulted in an agreement between the Communist government of Poland and the opposition movement Solidarity and paved the road towards the present, democratic and independent Polish state. In this commentary I am going to extrapolate some important socio-psychological mechanisms in the light of contributions made by Janusz Reykowski and Janusz Grzelak - both social psychologists. More specifically, I would like to discuss a specific perception of the other negotiating partner that was activated, formed and maintained during the negotiation, which facilitated the successful outcome. I will argue that the perception of shared morality (perceptions of similarity between the in-group and the out-group on the dimension of morality) was an important socio-psychological mechanism that enabled a stream of other positive psychological processes such as development of trust, as well as cooperative and common-oriented goal tendencies.Special Issue “From Conflict to Dialogue? Lessons of the Polish Round Table ‘89“.</p

Religion and Politics as a Dangerous Mix: Effects of Religiosity on Intergroup Forgiveness and Reconciliation in a Post-Conflict Setting Peace and Conflict

Based on two studies with Bosniak and Croatian students in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this paper analyzes the effects of religiosity on intergroup forgiveness and reconciliation. Both Christianity and Islam advance forgiveness and reconciliation as one of the major moral imperatives. Previous studies also indicate that religiosity can increase readiness to grant forgiveness on the inter-personal level and facilitate rapprochement. When it comes to inter-group level, prescripts of religious piety often conflict with norms of group solidarity and care. Another set of research suggests that religion obstructs conflict transformation due to the dogmatic reasoning it promotes, including reframing of immanent disputes in transcendental (and thus non-negotiable) terms. This study initially tested whether adding religious symbols to conflict narratives impacts prosocial attitudes of respondents and came with negative results. In other words, adding religious codes to already known narratives about conflicts did not have a significant impact on participants’ attitudes. In a subsequent SEM analysis, it was found that religiosity in both groups is strongly correlated with group-centricity, which negatively mediates its relationship with both forgiveness and reconciliation. We conclude that collectivistic forms of religiosity that privilege ingroup solidarity might have negative effects on intergroup forgiveness and reconciliation in post-conflict settings

Moral-Exemplar Intervention : A new paradigm for conflict resolution and intergroup reconciliation

Conflict resolution and intergroup reconciliation are difficult to achieve because of many social and psychological obstacles, such as people’s belief that members of a social group that is an adversary of their own group are mostly bad and essentially all the same. In this article, we introduce a novel intervention aimed at challenging these beliefs by exposing people to stories about individuals who have risked some important aspects of their lives to save the lives of other social groups’ members (moral exemplars). The effects of this moral-exemplar intervention have been tested with field experiments in several postconflict contexts using members of real antagonistic groups. We discuss the results of these studies and three specific and important aspects of the moral-exemplar intervention: (a) its comparative advantage over existing social-psychological interventions aimed at conflict resolution and intergroup reconciliation, (b) its content and conditions, and (c) implications for future theorizing and research targeting prosocial changes in attitudes and intergroup behavior.Preparation and writing of this article were supported by the Pro-Futura Fellowship, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Grant RIK19-1296:3) and awarded to S. Čehajić-Clancy, and by Polish National Science Center Grant Sonata Bis, awarded to M. Bilewicz (Grant UMO-2017/26/E/HS6/00129).</p

'The burden of our times': antecedents of group-based guilt and shame

The present research examined different mediation effects of perception of ingroupresponsibility as a predictor of group-based guilt and shame. Two studies (n1 = 174; n2 = 145), conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina with Serbian participants, showedthat perception of ingroup responsibility for atrocities perpetrated against an outgroupled to greater feelings of guilt directly, and also indirectly through personal acceptanceof ingroup responsibility. In contrast, it led to greater feelings of shame directly andalso indirectly through a perception of threatened group image. In addition, Study 2 showed that perceived legitimacy of personal acceptance of ingroup responsibilitymoderated the relationship between perception and acceptance of ingroup responsibility

Threaten and affirm: The role of ingroup moral exemplars for promoting prosocial intergroup behaviour through affirming moral identity

Information about ingroup moral violations against outgroups evoke defensiveness resulting in low support for reparations to be provided to members of these groups. Yet, it remains unknown if reminders of ingroup harmdoings could also enhance moral engagement rather than disengagement. In this paper, we report experimental evidence from three studies (Ns = 625) set in the context of historical atrocities committed against indigenous people in Sweden demonstrating that high importance of individuals’ moral identity led to increased prosocial behaviours benefiting the outgroup (reparations and outgroup monetary donation). The positive effects of moral identity on reparations and outgroup donation were independent and remained significant after controlling for group-based guilt, which is a known predictor of willingness to provide reparations. Furthermore, our research identified a pathway of affirming individuals’ moral identity through stories of ingroup moral exemplars. Participants who learned about morally admirable behaviours performed by their ingroup fellows were more likely to endorse and engage in prosocial behaviours benefiting the outgroup. These effects were driven by an increased importance of participants’ moral identity. Establishing ways of affirming threatened moral identity and, in that way, facilitating more prosocial and moral actions is important for contexts with a history of human right violations