Non-Indigenous Canadians’ and Americans’ moral expectations of Indigenous peoples in light of the negative impacts of the Indian Residential Schools

Abstract

The historical trauma associated with the Indian Residential School (IRS) system was recently brought to the awareness of the Canadian public. Two studies investigated how the salience of this collective victimization impacted non-Indigenous Canadians’ expectations that Indigenous peoples ought to derive psychological benefits (e.g., learned to appreciate life) and be morally obligated to help others. Study 1 found that modern racism was related to perceptions that Indigenous peoples psychologically benefitted from the IRS experience, which in turn, predicted greater expectations of moral obligation. Study 2 replicated the relations among racism, benefit finding, and moral obligation among non-Indigenous Canadians (historical perpetrators of the harm done) and Americans (third-party observers). Americans were uniquely responsive to a portrayal of Indigenous peoples in Canada as strong versus vulnerable. Factors that distance observers from the victim (such as racism or third-party status) appear to influence perceptions of finding benefit in victimization experiences and expectations of moral obligation.

What drives the perceived prejudice asymmetry among advantaged group members? The mediating role of social group power and moral obligations

“…To this end, we adapted a paradigm established by Warner and Branscombe (2010, 2012). These authors consistently found that observers are more likely to ascribe higher moral obligations (to act rightfully towards others) to victims of injustices, because such convictions help them preserve their own just world beliefs (Warner & Branscombe, 2010, 2012; see also Doiron et al., 2021). Thus, in Study 5, we recycled the unfamiliar ethnic group context of Study 4, and we manipulated whether the agent's ethnic group was reported to have suffered in the past (moral obligations manipulation) or not (control condition).…”

Beliefs around the causes of inequities and intergroup attitudes among health professional students before and after a course related to Indigenous Peoples and colonialism

“…Euro-Caucasian settlers within Canada may deny or downplay the harms of colonialism and selectively focus on the 'positive benefits' [ 21 ], demonstrating an unwillingness to learn the true history of colonialism and its impacts on the health and social well-being of Indigenous Peoples. In this regard, the TRC final report [ 6 ] described how many non-Indigenous Canadians “hear about the problems faced by Indigenous communities, but they have almost no idea how these problems developed” (p.286).…”