EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Socio-psychological antecedents of Acknowledgment of Ingroup Responsibility Sabina Čehajić-Clancy Sarajevo School of Science and Technology Bosnia and Herzegovina

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Why acknowledgment matters? Reconciliation Victims’ right Perpetrators’ “healing” Preventive measures of future atrocities

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel What is acknowledgment? = psychological readiness and willingness to publicly acknowledge one’s own group responsibility for committed wrongdoings towards others > than being aware/knowing/perceiving etc. < than personally accepting responsibility for the ingroup behaviour

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Intergroup contact-Acknowledgment Male, 25: “Three or four years ago I was not ready to acknowledge atrocities committed by Serbs. The thing that changed me was contact. I have seen that some things I thought to be true were not exactly the way I thought. I realized that I have lived in a closed society all the time. Contact changed me. It opened me.” (Cehajic & Brown, 2008; p. 206).

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Measures Contact (4 items, α =.85): e.g., “I spend quite a lot of time with my friends who belong to other groups.” Perceived victimhood (3 items, α =.73): e.g., “I consider my group to be the biggest victim in this war.” Perspective-taking (3 items, α =.75): e.g., “I am able to look at things that happened during the war from the perspective of other groups.” Acknowledgment (2 items, α =.86): e.g., “I am ready to acknowledge that members of my group have committed atrocities during the war”

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Study 2: antecedents of acknowledgment of ingroup responsibility Contact M=1.53 (1.65) Perspective-taking M=4.42 (1.69) Perceived Victimhood M=5.02 (1.61) Acknowledgment M=4.85 (2.05) N = 284; M age = 17.8; Χ 2 (1) = 1.18; p =.28; CFI =.999; GFI =.998; RMSEA = * -.17 *.49 * -.14 *

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Self-affirmation – Acknowledgment of ingroup responsibility? Hypothesis: making people feel secure/happy enough with who they are (=affirmation/activation of positive perception of the self) will make it easier for them to admit their ingroup’s improper behaviour Self-affirmation (Steele, 1988; McQueen & Klein, 2006) = active affirmation of some important (threat- unrelated) aspect of the self will increase tolerance for self-threats in another domain

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Experimental manipulation Self-affirmation: participants were asked to recall a meaningful event in their life that made them feel proud and successful. Then, they were asked to describe thoughts and feelings they had following the event Group affirmation: recalling an event that made feel proud of their group Control condition: list of things they would take for a trip to an isolated island

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Study 1: Israel/Palestine (focus on Gaza attack in Dec 2008)

EASP Small Group Meeting in Israel Study 2: BIH (focus on Srebrenica genocide)