A century of victimhood: Antecedents and current impacts of perceived suffering in World War I across Europe

Abstract

The present study addresses antecedents and consequences of collective victimhood in the context of World War I (WWI) across 15 European nations (N = 2423 social science students). Using multilevel analysis, we find evidence that collective victimhood is still present a hundred years after the onset of the war and can be predicted by WWI‐related objective indicators of victimization at national and family levels. This suggests that collective victimhood is partly grounded in the actual experience of WWI. In addition, we show that sense of collective victimhood positively predicts acknowledgment of the suffering inflicted by one's nation on other countries during WWI. This is consistent with a social representation of WWI as involving a vast massacre in which nations were both victim and perpetrator. Finally, we find that objective indicators of victimization predict pacifism in divergent ways, with an indicator at the national level associated with more pacifist attitudes and an indicator at the family level being associated with less pacifist attitudes. This finding suggests that war‐torn societies may have developed social representations favouring peaceful coexistence whereas, at the family level, victimization may still foster retaliatory tendencies.

Lest We Forget: The Effect of War Commemorations on Regret, Positive Moral Emotions, and Support for War

“…But, for countries with different histories of war (e.g., Germany, Vietnam), war commemorations may have different effects both on positive moral emotions and regret (see Becker et al, 2016, for a discussion of patriotic imagery across nations). And, while our effects were all observed at the individual level, at the collective level, the effects of war commemorations and military displays may differ (e.g., Bouchat et al, 2017). 5 We hope that the present paper will spur further research on these important questions.…”

Assigning moral roles within the Second World War in Europe: National similarities, differences, and implications for group‐level moral representations

“…The assignment of moral roles should also be examined in other conflicts. One key question is whether World War 2 is today particularly moralized compared to, for example, World War 1, the main lesson of which seems to be tragic rather than heroic (i.e., national losses in World War 1 compared to World War 2 are more influential upon a present-day sense of collective victimhood; Bouchat et al, 2017). Colonial and post-colonial conflicts-the Boer War for the British, Vietnam for the French and U.S.-also carry moral lessons today that are characterized by disagreement about whether the nation acted heroically or as a villain.…”

A social psychological perspective on World War II collaboration in the 21st century: A Belgian case

“…The present study shows that history does constrain memory, and that our current attitudes and representations are influenced by events that took place long before our birth. This observation is the result of a series of empirical studies (see Bouchat et al, 2017;, but above all, of a particular approach consisting in paying attention to history in the understanding of social psychological phenomena. We suggest that the consciousness of the influence of history on the individual and society will allow our discipline to put some of its results in perspective but above all to broaden its scope and its understanding of reality.…”