Broad national identification measures fail to predict collective guilt reliably

Evidence

We see a central contribution of this chapter as lying in our efforts to resolve a conundrum. If collective guilt is indeed a collective emotion, then why is there so little evidence of the collective processes of self-perception that are widely believed to underlie intergroup behavior, shaping those processes? Although some researchers have found that group identification is related to collective guilt under some circumstances (Doosje et al., 1998), we have not found identification with Australia to be a reliable predictor of collective guilt. Our interpretation is that the field’s preferred tool for exploring the role of collective self-perception, namely a measure of social identification with a broad national category, is insufficiently precise to capture the richness of the collective processes that underpin social categorical relations, collective emotions, and consequential restitution actions. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 858

Categorization

• QUESTION: What precisely does the existing identification-with-Australia data show, and does the failure replicate beyond Australian samples?
• XREF: connects to: Lower national identification predicts more collective guilt and reparation support; higher identification predicts less. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 689; High national identification blocks acceptance of the group’s immoral history; low attachment enables it. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 688; Collective guilt should track strong identification but actually tracks weak identification — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 828 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Collective guilt depends on identification with relevant subgroups, not the nation as a whole. #expands (0.92) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 100
• Studies conflict on whether high identification predicts more or less guilt #corroborates (0.85) — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt, 23
• Ingroup identification reduces collective guilt only when group history is ambiguous. #qualifies (0.82) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 201