Naming-and-shaming policy fails when shame breeds no guilt or reparation

Evidence

Since the human rights conventional policy is to link shame and guilt, this is not inconsequential. The shaming strategy has been effective in some cases, but it has also encountered a backlash. One manifestation of the backlash has been the opposition of the “shamed” countries. Many abusive governments facing censure in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights have successfully gained seats on the Commission as a way to rebuff this criticism. We can see this rationale in the distinction between collective guilt and collective shame. For example, Lickel et al. (this volume, Chapter 3) show that feeling collective shame predicts a desire to distance oneself from the blameworthy event, but does not predict making a reparative response. These results reinforce the political reality – where shame does not lead to guilt or reparative action – and might call for reconsideration, or at least recalibrating, the policy of naming and shaming. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 2081

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle on why the international ‘naming and shaming’ human-rights tool may be counterproductive given the shame/guilt distinction.
• XREF: Connects to ch4’s finding that public shaming campaigns backfire by evoking shame rather than guilt. — connects to: Guilt requires perceived control while shame arises from uncontrollable exposure — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 219; Public shaming campaigns may backfire by evoking shame instead of guilt — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 371; Naming systems rather than blaming individuals is the antidote to scapegoating politics — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 1073 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Naming systems rather than blaming individuals is the antidote to scapegoating politics #contradicts (0.85) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 1073