Collective guilt peaks at moderate rather than low or high reparation difficulty
Evidence
We examined how the diffi culty of making reparations for the harm done to another group affects the intensity of collective guilt. Men were confronted with information documenting male privilege and were told that they would have a chance to help women and reduce patriarchy by collecting signatures on a petition. We manipulated the diffi culty of making reparations by asking participants to collect 5, 50, or 100 signatures. As predicted by Brehm’s (1999) theory of emotional intensity, collective guilt was a non-monotonic function of the diffi culty of making reparations. Men in the moderate diffi culty (50 signatures) condition expressed greater collective guilt than participants in the low (5) or high (100) diffi culty conditions. — Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 4
Assuming that the function of collective guilt is to urge members of dominant groups to create a more just relationship with the outgroup, we predicted that guilt would be low in intensity when the diffi cultly of reparations was low or high, and relatively more intense when the diffi culty of reparations was unknown or at a relatively moderate level. — Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 60
Categorization
- QUESTION: The abstract says 5, 50, or 100 signatures but the claim reads ‘men in the moderate (50) condition expressed greater guilt’ — this directly tests the institutional-apology-asymmetry claim in the synthesis, which predicted more guilt when apologies are more costly, but here even the LOW difficulty condition produces less guilt than moderate, suggesting the relation hinges on perceived capability.
- XREF: Directly stress-tests the existing synthesis’s institutional-apology-asymmetry claim; also connects to Brehm’s emotional intensity theory and reactance literature. — connects to: Whites feeling collective guilt may attempt actual compensation or partial reparation to restore equity — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 470; Collective guilt follows an inverted-U curve peaking when reparations require moderate effort. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 574; Collective guilt intensity is set by motivation deterred by reparation cost. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 576 (+11 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 4; Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 60
Broader Connections
- Reparation difficulty has an inverted-U effect on collective guilt
#expands(0.97) — Torsten Masson and Markus Barth, The identification-guilt paradox…, 70 - Men feel most collective guilt when reparations are moderately difficult.
#exemplifies(0.92) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 575