White Guilt: Its Antecedents and Consequences for Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action

Abstract

Four studies examine the strength of feelings of White guilt, the relationship between White guilt and possible antecedents to this guilt, and the consequences of White guilt for attitudes toward affirmative action. Even though mean White guilt tended to be low, with the mean being just below the midpoint of the scale, the range and variability confirms the existence of feelings of White guilt for some. White guilt was associated with more negative personal evaluations of Whites and the theoretical antecedents of stronger beliefs in the existence of White privilege, greater estimates of the prevalence of discrimination against Blacks, and low prejudice against Blacks. Finally, results indicate that White guilt mediated the relationship from White privilege and beliefs about the prevalence of discrimination to attitudes toward affirmative action, and both White guilt and prejudice independently predicted attitudes toward affirmative action.

Seeing Through Their Eyes: When Majority Group Members Take Collective Action on Behalf of an Outgroup

“…Therefore, we expect that feelings of 454 group-based guilt will mediate the association between outgroup perspective taking and participation in collective action. We may fi nd only partial, rather than full, mediation because guilt tends to be experienced at a moderate level (Swim & Miller, 1999) and because guilt may not be the only emotion associated with outgroup perspective taking. Later we discuss the possibility that group-based anger might also occur.…”

“…Ratings of anger expressed in the essay ranged from 0, not at all to 4, very much (M = .60, SD = .85; intraclass correlation coeffi cient = .93). Participants then completed the fi ve-item White guilt scale (Swim & Miller, 1999), composed of items like 'I feel guilty about the past and present social inequality of Black Americans 460 (i.e. slavery, poverty).'…”

Moral Emotions and Moral Behavior

“…As with personal guilt experiences, group-based guilt has been associated with empathy (Zebel et al 2004) and a motivation to repair or make amends (Iyer et al 2003, Swim & Miller 1999, Zebel et al 2004. And as with personal shame experiences, vicarious group-based shame (but not guilt) has been linked to a desire to distance oneself from the shame-eliciting event (Johns et al 2005.…”

Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction and Guilt Following Ingroup Aggression

“…Collective guilt, for example, has been attributed a role not just in promoting more positive intergroup attitudes (Powell, Branscombe, & Schmitt, 2005) but in actually inhibiting the desire for aggressive intergroup behavior Branscombe, Doosje, & McGarty, 2002). Specifi cally, collective guilt is related to a desire to make apologies or reparations to the offended group (Doosje, Branscombe, Spears, & Manstead, 1998;Iyer, Leach, & Crosby, 2003;Mallett & Swim, 2004;Schmitt, Branscombe, & Brehm, 2004;Swim & Miller, 1999; see also Schmitt, Behner, Montada, Muller, & Muller-Fohrbrodt, 2000). There is even evidence that the more collective guilt individuals feel for their ingroups' wrongdoings, the more likely they are to forgive the outgroup its own indiscretions (Hewstone et al, 2004).…”

“…Branscombe et al, 2002). For example, Australians feel collective guilt for the harsh treatment of Aborigines, Dutch feel collective guilt for the colonization of Indonesia, and white Americans feel collective guilt for the historically harsh treatment of African Americans (Branscombe et al, 2002;Iyer et al, 2003;Powell et al, 2005;Swim & Miller, 1999). However, both self-categorization in terms of a group membership and an acknowledgement of ingroup responsibility are necessary precursors to collective guilt (Branscombe et al, 2002).…”