Marta Witkowska

The lay historian explains intergroup behavior: Examining the role of identification and cognitive structuring in ethnocentric historical attributions

Both historians and lay people attempt to explain national histories. However, psychological research, to date, focused predominantly on the patterns of those explanations with regard to negative historical behaviors. In this article, we assess ethnocentrism of people’s explanations of both negative and positive historical behavior of ingroup members (own nation) and outgroup members (other nation). Two studies analyze how Poles explain crimes and heroic acts committed in the General Government, as well as diverse behaviors during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The studies confirm an ethnocentric pattern of explanation: positive historical actions of ingroup members were explained more dispositionally than positive actions of outgroup members—negative historical actions of ingroup members were explained less dispositionally than negative historical actions of outgroup members. Furthermore, we found that this effect is more pronounced among individuals who highly identify with their nation. Apart from the influence of the strength of ingroup identification, we found that people who cling to structured knowledge (i.e. a high ability to achieve cognitive closure) tend to explain well-established historical facts (e.g. the Holocaust) but not little known facts (e.g. intervention in Czechoslovakia) in a more ethnocentric way.

Language of Responsibility. The Influence of Linguistic Abstraction on Collective Moral Emotions

Abstract Two experiments investigated the effects of linguistic abstractness on the experience of collective moral emotions. In Experiment 1 participants were presented with two scenarios about ingroup misbehavior, phrased using descriptive action verbs, interpretative action verbs, adjectives or nouns. The results show that participants experienced slightly more negative moral emotions with higher levels of linguistic abstractness. In Experiment 2 we also tested for the influence of national identification on the relationship between linguistic abstractness and emotional reactions. Additionally, we expanded the number of scenarios. Experiment 2 replicated the earlier pattern, but found larger differences between conditions. The strength of national identification did not moderate the observed effects. The results of this research are discussed within the context of the linguistic category model and psychology of collective moral emotions.

How to Teach about the Holocaust? Psychological Obstacles in Historical Education in Poland and Germany

Holocaust education in many countries faces severe obstacles, and the effects of such education are far from desirable. Research on German students found that education about the National Socialist period in Germany did not improve intergroup attitudes. Similarly, a study performed on Polish students in Warsaw showed that the extent of Holocaust education did not affect intergroup attitudes and led to more biased vision of the Holocaust. In both countries current Holocaust education seems to convey simplified entitative information about groups—such that all members of perpetrator group are presented as evil, and all bystanders as righteous. Based on psychological research on moral emotions and psychological needs in reconciliation, we propose another approach to the Holocaust education. We suggest that education about the Holocaust should take into account psychological knowledge about the diversity of human behavior during genocide , including greater understanding of dehumanization , stereotyping , moral exclusion and bystander non-intervention.