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

Bouchat, P. and Licata, L. (2016) A century of victimhood: Antecedents and current impacts of perceived suffering in World War I across Europe. European Journal of Social Psychology. pp. 1-15. ISSN 1099-0992 (In Press)

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Abstract

The present study addresses antecedents and consequences of collective vic-timhood 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 vic- timhood 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 represen¬tations favouring peaceful coexistence whereas, at the family level, victimiza¬tion may still foster retaliatory tendencies.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion / filozófia, pszichológia, vallás > BF Psychology / lélektan
H Social Sciences / társadalomtudományok > H Social Sciences (General) / társadalomtudomány általában
Depositing User: István Csertő
Date Deposited: 08 Nov 2016 08:38
Last Modified: 08 Nov 2016 08:38
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/42274

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