Group members feel collective guilt for historical ingroup harm they did not cause.
Evidence
Doosje et al. (1998) showed that people who were not personally involved in wrongdoing still experienced collective guilt upon learning that their ingroup had historically harmed an outgroup. This guilt prompted them to ask for higher compensations benefiting the outgroup, signaling their motivation to address moral obligations of the ingroup despite their lack of personal wrongdoing. — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations, 56
Categorization
- XREF: Directly reinforces the asymmetry claim: perpetrator-group members’ motivation centers on moral-identity repair, generating reparative prosocial action. — 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; Group members legitimize their ingroup’s harmful actions to avoid guilt — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 53; Collective guilt requires group membership recognition plus perceived group responsibility for a humanitarian violation. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 791 (+10 more)
- ADDENDUM: Supports the victim-perpetrator asymmetry in the reader’s existing synthesis within this psychology chapter.
Broader Connections
- 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 - People feel guilt by association for ancestors’ deeds without direct responsibility
#corroborates(0.90) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1810 - Collective guilt is distress over ingroup immorality without legal responsibility
#expands(0.88) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 70 - The most loyal group members are least likely to feel collective guilt
#complicates(0.82) - Strongest ingroup identifiers are least likely to feel collective guilt
#complicates(0.82) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1170 - Highly identified group members resist feeling collective guilt by reinterpreting events
#complicates(0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2278 - Reminders of past victimization suppress a group’s collective guilt for its own current harmdoing.
#qualifies(0.78) — Johanna Ray Vollhardt and Michelle Sinayobye Twali, Emotion-Based Reconciliation Requires…, 44