Perceiving victims and perpetrators as one human group lowers guilt assignment.

Evidence

We report on studies that empirically examine collective guilt assignment and forgiveness of contemporary Germans for the Holocaust among North American–Jewish people as a function of how the groups are categorized. We consider the consequences of perceiving Germans and Jews as distinct and separate groups, versus perceiving both groups as part of a single more inclusive superordinate category – that of humans. We expected that when the groups are categorized in terms of their intergroup relationship, greater collective guilt would be assigned to members of the perpetrator category compared to when the groups are thought about as a single inclusive category membership. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1937

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Forgiving perpetrators can feel like betraying the dead to survivors — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1314; Categorizing at a broader level diffuses responsibility and lowers collective guilt — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 2117; Victimization-history reminders shift perceivers toward more exclusive categorization — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1995 (+4 more)