Group members legitimize their ingroup’s harmful actions to avoid guilt

Evidence

History is replete with instances of great harm being committed by one group against another. Regrettably, while engaged in such harm doing, group members tend to perceive their own group’s harmful actions as morally justifiable. Such legitimization protects people from the distress and guilt that they might otherwise experience when confronted with the harm done by their ingroup. Indeed, choosing not to legitimize the ingroup’s actions and questioning its morality can be seen as traitorous acts. Thus, there are ample reasons to suppose that people will be strongly inclined to protect their social identity by perceiving their group’s actions from the vantage point of the “moral high ground.” — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 53

Categorization

• XREF: Preludes the glorification side of the Roccas distinction being sought — the protective legitimizing stance the reader is tracking. — connects to: Highly identified group members minimize collective guilt by morally reinterpreting ingroup wrongs — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2278; People are capable of feeling collective guilt for their groups’ wrongs — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 372; People feel emotions for group members and deny their group’s harmful acts — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2092 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Highly identified group members minimize collective guilt by morally reinterpreting ingroup wrongs #expands (0.95) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2278
• Highly identified group members resist feeling collective guilt by reinterpreting events #expands (0.95) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2278
• Moral disengagement mechanisms enable justification of in-group harm. #expands (0.93) — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt, 47
• Rejecting whole-group accountability is a way people avoid collective guilt #corroborates (0.92) — Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 17
• Perceiving a group’s wrongdoing as situationally justifiable blocks collective guilt #exemplifies (0.90) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 297
• People feel emotions for group members and deny their group’s harmful acts #corroborates (0.88) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2092
• Perceived justification of ingroup harm blocks collective guilt regardless of harm severity #expands (0.88) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 156
• Group members feel guilt by association without personal responsibility for the harm. #qualifies (0.75) — Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 15
• Group members feel collective guilt for historical ingroup harm they did not cause. #qualifies (0.74) — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations, 56
• People are capable of feeling collective guilt for their groups’ wrongs #qualifies (0.72) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 372