Seventy years have passed since the Holocaust, but this cataclysmic event continues to reverberate in the present. In this research, we examine attributions about the causes of the Holocaust and the influence of such attributions on intergroup relations. Three representative surveys were conducted among Germans, Poles, and Israeli Jews to examine inter-and intragroup variations in attributions for the Holocaust and how these attributions influence intergroup attitudes. Results indicated that Germans made more external than internal attributions and were especially low in attributing an evil essence to their ancestors. Israelis and Poles mainly endorsed the obedient essence attribution and were lowest on attribution to coercion. These attributions, however, were related to attitudes towards contemporary Germany primarily among Israeli Jews. The more they endorsed situationist explanations, and the less they endorsed the evil essence explanation, the more 1 0162-895X bs_bs_banner positive their attitude to Germany. Among Germans, attributions were related to a higher motivation for historical closure, except for the obedience attribution that was related to low desire for closure. Israelis exhibited a low desire for historical closure especially when attribution for evil essence was high. These findings suggest that lay perceptions of history are essential to understanding contemporary intergroup processes.
We introduce the distinction between perceiving the group as Intra-Generational (IG; including only the present generation of group members) and Trans-Generational (TG; including all past, present, and future generations of the group). In four studies ( N = 1,265) administered to Jewish Israeli, Palestinian Israeli, American, and Swedish samples, we demonstrate that a tendency to perceive the group as TG is related to willingness to endure ingroup suffering and that this relationship is mediated by the degree to which the interest of the group as a whole is given primacy over the interest of the group as a collection of group members (Primacy of Interest). Furthermore, experimentally raising the salience of the group as TG leads to increased willingness to endure ingroup suffering as compared with raising the salience of the group as IG, and the effect of the TG salience manipulation is mediated by Primacy of Interest.
Two studies examined the association of particular sentiments and political identities with Jewish-Israeli students’ responses to a generic plan to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and to narrower proposals for cooperative undertakings. Three composites—hatred/anger, compassion/empathy (reverse-coded), and guilt/shame (reverse-coded), and also a global composite combining these three sets of sentiments, were generally associated with negative responses to those plans and negative attributions about the wisdom and patriotism of supporters of those plans. Most of the associations between the global sentiments composite and the relevant responses continued to be statistically significant even after controlling for participants’ political identity. The interaction between the relevant sentiments and the putative authorship of one of the proposals was also investigated. Issues of generalizability, replicability, robustness, and of the relevance of mediational analysis, as well as implications for conflict resolution and potential directions for future research are addressed in a concluding discussion.
In three studies across three cultures (U.S., Sweden, and Israel), we examine whether implicit theories about groups are associated with political identity and whether this relationship is mediated by Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). Study 1 found that raising the salience of entity beliefs leads to increased right-wing political self-identification on social issues, although no such effect was found regarding general or economic political identity. In Study 2, we found that the more participants endorsed entity beliefs about groups (vs. incremental beliefs about groups), the more they identified as political rightists (vs. leftists) in the U.S., Sweden, and Israel. SDO mediated this relationship in the U.S. and Swedish samples, but not in the Israeli sample -a political setting in which political identity is largely determined by attitudes regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Study 3 showed that SDO mediated the relationship between implicit theories about groups and Israelis' political identity regarding social/economic issues, but did not have such a mediating role with respect to political identity regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.Keywords: implicit theories about groups, group malleability, political identity, political ideology, social dominance orientation, political psychology SammanfattningVi undersökte, i tre olika kulturer (USA, Sverige och Israel), om implicita teorier om grupper är relaterade till politisk orientering och om denna relation medieras av social dominans (SDO). Resultaten från Studie 1 visade att tendensen till politisk högerorientering kring sociala frågor ökade som ett resultat av att entitetsteorier om grupper (att grupper inte kan förändras) gjordes mer tillgängliga. Ökad tillgänglighet till entitetsteorier om grupper hade dock ingen effekt på generell politisk orientering eller politisk orientering angående ekonomiska frågor. Studie 2 visade att ju mer deltagarna stödde entitetsteorier jämfört med inkrementellteorier om grupper (att grupper kan förändras), desto mer identifierade de sig själva som politisk höger (jämfört med vänster) i USA, Sverige och Israel. Social dominans medierade denna relation i USA och Sverige, men inte i Israel. Det senare landet har en politisk kontext där politisk orientering till stor del handlar om attityder gällande Israel-Palestina-konflikten. Studie 3 visade att social dominans medierade relationen mellan implicita teorier om grupper och Israelers politiska orientering gällande sociala/ekonomiska frågor, men att social dominans inte hade en sådan medierande effekt när det gällde politisk orientering angående Israel-Palestina-konflikten. Teoretiska och praktiska implikationer av forskningen diskuteras.
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