Ingroup identification predicts less forgiveness only among the higher-status group

Evidence

The strongest positive predictors of forgiveness were measures of outgroup trust, perspective-taking, and attitude; ingroup identification was a negative predictor, but only for Protestants. Outgroup contact was a significant positive predictor for Catholics only, but was significantly correlated with forgiveness for both groups. — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 105

Although all the manipulation checks were successful, the results were clearly driven, for all three main dependent variables (blame, forgiveness, and early release), by a two-way interaction between religious group membership of participant and perpetrator. Overall levels of forgiveness were low but ingroup and outgroup perpetrators were not treated evenhandedly. Responses of both participant groups were biased in favor of their own group. Catholics were more forgiving of a Catholic than a Protestant perpetrator; Protestants were more forgiving of a Protestant than a Catholic perpetrator (both blame attributions and recommendations for early release showed similar patterns). Additional analyses showed, however, that forgiveness was moderated by participants’ identification with their religious group. For participants low in group identification, the twoway interaction between religion of participant and perpetrator disappeared completely; but for those high in identification, the two-way interaction was significant, revealing an even stronger pattern of intergroup bias than in the overall analysis. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1402

Categorization

• QUESTION: This asymmetry — ingroup identification predicting unforgiveness for Protestants but not Catholics — is striking and directly relevant to whether historical persecution shape different trajectories to glorification. The reader should chase whether this reflects status asymmetry or threat asymmetry in the Northern Irish case.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 105; Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1402
• XREF: connects to: Contact predicts forgiveness only for Catholics, while ingroup identification inhibits it only for Protestants — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 84; Ingroup identification only predicts bias under specific moderating conditions — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 448; Strongest ingroup identifiers are least likely to feel collective guilt — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1170 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Ingroup identification only predicts bias under specific moderating conditions #qualifies (0.85) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 448
• Highly identified group members minimize collective guilt by morally reinterpreting ingroup wrongs #qualifies (0.78) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2278
• Ingroup identification can moderate or mediate how deprivation produces prejudice #qualifies (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 464
• Perceiving group boundaries as impermeable and status as illegitimate boosts ingroup favoritism #expands (0.72) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 974
• Disparaging a lower-status group psychologically uplifts the higher-status group #expands (0.72) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 236
• Strongest ingroup identifiers are least likely to feel collective guilt #qualifies-own (0.50) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1170