Denying collective guilt provokes more affect than denying personal guilt

Evidence

Adorno showed that strong affective reactions, in particular, a collective defensiveness to questions of Germany’s national guilt and the guilt of fellow Germans occurred among almost all Germans, including those who were evidently personally “innocent.” In general, attempts to deny collective guilt were much more affectively loaded than those negating personal guilt (Adorno, 1975). — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1167

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The word choice ‘regret’ avoids guilt where ‘sorry’ would not — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1745; Strongest ingroup identifiers are least likely to feel collective guilt — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1170; Group-based guilt peaks at medium self-investment and drops at high levels — Torsten Masson and Markus Barth, The identification-guilt paradox…, 7

Broader Connections

• Group-based guilt peaks at medium self-investment and drops at high levels #corroborates (0.75) — Torsten Masson and Markus Barth, The identification-guilt paradox…, 7
• Strongest ingroup identifiers are least likely to feel collective guilt #corroborates (0.72) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1170