Identity Centrality and In-Group Superiority Differentially Predict Reactions to Historical Victimization and Harm Doing

• Main Author: Rezarta Bilali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bielefeld 2012-10-01
• Series: International Journal of Conflict and Violence
• Online Access: https://www.ijcv.org/index.php/ijcv/article/view/2923

Two U.S. studies report a differential effect of identity centrality and in-group superiority on reactions to in-group victimization and in-group harm-doing. Study1 (N = 80) found that higher identity centrality predicted less justification for freely-recalled in-group victim events, whereas higher in-group superiority predictedmore justification for freely-recalled in-group harm-doing events. Study 2 (N = 105) reexamined these findings in specific contexts of historical victimization(Pearl Harbor) and harm-doing (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), finding that in-group superiority was a predictor of reactions to historical in-group harm-doing(justification, emotional reactions, importance of events), whereas centrality was a predictor of reactions to historical in-group victimization.