The value of forgiveness is emphasized in many religions, but little is known about how members of distinct religious cultures differ in their views of forgiveness. We hypothesized and found that Jews would agree more than Protestants that certain offenses are unforgivable and that religious commitment would be more negatively correlated with belief in unforgivable offenses among Protestants than among Jews (Studies 1 and 2). Dispositional forgiveness tendencies did not explain these effects (Studies 1 and 2). In Study 3, Jews were more inclined than Protestants to endorse theologically derived reasons for unforgivable offenses (i.e., some offenses are too severe to forgive, only victims have the right to forgive, and forgiveness requires repentance by the perpetrator). Differential endorsement of these reasons for nonforgiveness fully mediated Jew-Protestant differences in forgiveness of a plagiarism offense and a Holocaust offense.
Interviews with 29 Holocaust survivors indicate wide variation in degree of aversion to Germans and activities associated with Germany. For some survivors, aversion is limited to those closest to the Nazi perpetrators; for others aversion includes anyone with German ancestry and any situation or product linked to contemporary Germany. This wide range of aversion following horrific experiences is not easily explained by known psychological mechanisms, and has important implications for understanding and ameliorating ethnopolitical conflict. Possible sources of variation in aversion are explored with measures of personality differences and differences in Holocaust experi-
We assessed the degree of discomfort reported by U.S. and Czech Holocaust survivors (Study 1) and Jewish American college students (Study 2) to the prospect of physical proximity to a wide range of contemporary Germans with varying linkages to Nazi Germany, and a range of objects or activities associated with Germany (e.g., riding in a Volkswagen). On both measures, there was a very wide range of aversions, from almost absent to almost complete. A substantial number of participants were uncomfortable with Germans born after World War II. The Czech survivors showed the least aversion, less than the students, probably because the Czechs had a great deal of experience with Germans and German culture prior to and following World War II. Trait forgiveness did not predict aversion. Degree of blame for Germans and Jewish identity predicted current aversion. German essentialism-the idea that "Germanness" is inherent, indelible, uniform, and transmitted across generations-may be the best predictor of total German person aversion and is the only predictor that can easily explain the fact that that many individuals are uncomfortable living near Germans who were born after World War II.
al mundo contemporáneo y a la situación de guerra y pobreza en muchos países, los trabajadores humanitarios representan una forma particular, personal incluso, de actuar, con todas las difi cultades que esto implica, sobre ese mundo. En este texto se exploran y se plantean una serie de preguntas sobre las complejidades, ambigüedades y limitaciones del trabajo humanitario y de desarrollo.
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