Collective guilt is distress over ingroup immorality without legal responsibility

Evidence

In this volume, we focus on people’s experience of one particular groupbased emotional response – collective guilt. Collective guilt stems from the distress that group members experience when they accept that their ingroup is responsible for immoral actions that harmed another group (Branscombe, Doosje, & McGarty, 2002). It is a self-conscious emotion (Tangney & Fischer, 1995) that can occur when the individual’s collective identity or association with a group whose actions are perceived as immoral is salient. We are certainly not suggesting that those who feel collective guilt necessarily bear any legal responsibility for their group’s actions. Because collective guilt is a psychological experience, it need not involve actually being guilty in any sense of the word. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 70

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the working definition of collective guilt that anchors the whole volume.
• XREF: connects to: Collective guilt is felt when the self’s group illegitimately harmed another group — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 0; Illegitimacy of group inequality is a necessary precondition for collective guilt. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 572; Perceived group responsibility for inequity produces collective guilt — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 441 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Collective guilt can occur without any personal responsibility for the harm #corroborates (0.97) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 71
• Guilt can be felt for one’s group’s moral violations without personal responsibility #corroborates (0.95) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 146
• Collective guilt requires admitting in-group responsibility and spurs reparations #corroborates (0.88) — Emanuele Castano, On the Perils of Glorifying the In-group, 65
• Perceived group responsibility for inequity produces collective guilt #expands (0.85) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 441
• Acknowledging group privilege triggers collective rather than individual guilt #exemplifies (0.80) — Janet K. Swim and Deborah L. Miller, White Guilt, 25
• Perceived justification of ingroup harm blocks collective guilt regardless of harm severity #qualifies (0.78) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 156
• The ingroup’s own suffering suppresses guilt even when it sees itself as responsible #qualifies (0.77) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 2145
• Collective victimization typically suppresses acceptance of collective guilt #qualifies (0.75) — Sandra Penic, Guy Elcheroth, and Dario Spini, When Is Collective Exposure to War…, 8
• Highly identified group members minimize collective guilt by morally reinterpreting ingroup wrongs #complicates (0.74) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2278
• Collective guilt is a separate construct from personal guilt #expands (0.72) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 187