Guilt can be felt for one’s group’s moral violations without personal responsibility

Evidence

Durkheim (1915) argued that emotions can reflect the individual’s link to larger social entities. Consequently, guilt may be experienced when the moral violations of a social group that one is associated with are made salient. When a unit relation exists that links the self and the ingroup, guilt by association can be experienced when the ingroup is perceived as responsible for an unjustified violation of accepted moral standards (see Heider, 1958; Hoffman, 1991). — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 146

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines guilt-by-association as the perception of ingroup responsibility for unjustified moral violation.
• XREF: connects to: Guilt requires holding internalized personal norms of justice, not external pressure — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 444; Moral outrage motivating reparation does not require perceived ingroup responsibility. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 463; Collective guilt is distress over ingroup immorality without legal responsibility — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 70 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Group members feel guilt by association without personal responsibility for the harm. #corroborates (0.97) — Michael T. Schmitt, Daniel A. Miller, Nyla R. Branscombe, and Jack W. Brehm, The Difficulty of Making Reparations…, 15
• Collective guilt can occur without any personal responsibility for the harm #corroborates (0.97) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 71
• People feel guilt by association for ancestors’ deeds without direct responsibility #exemplifies (0.92) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1810
• Collective guilt is felt when the self’s group illegitimately harmed another group #expands (0.78) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 0
• Guilt requires self-categorizing as a group member #qualifies (0.78) — Torsten Masson and Markus Barth, The identification-guilt paradox…, 20
• Perceiving a group’s wrongdoing as situationally justifiable blocks collective guilt #qualifies (0.75) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 297
• Vicarious group responsibility for others’ suffering triggers shame or guilt. #expands (0.74) — Emanuele Castano, On the Perils of Glorifying the In-group, 63