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The role of lay beliefs about group transgressions in acceptance of responsibility for ingroup harm‐doing
Author(s) -
Bilali Rezarta,
Iqbal Yeshim,
Erisen Cengiz
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2583
Subject(s) - ingroups and outgroups , psychology , social psychology , denial , construals , harm , construal level theory , in group favoritism , collective responsibility , social identity theory , social group , psychotherapist , philosophy , theology
Abstract Denial of responsibility by perpetrator groups is the most common response to group‐based transgressions. Refusal to acknowledge responsibility has dire consequences for intergroup relations. In this research we assessed whether shifting lay beliefs about group‐based transgressions in general influences acceptance of responsibility for a specific ingroup transgression. In two experimental studies we manipulated lay beliefs about group transgressions as reflecting either a group's stable character (i.e., a global defect construal) or a specific characteristic (i.e., a specific defect construal). Specific defect construals (compared to global defect construals) increased acceptance of ingroup responsibility by increasing group malleability beliefs, but reduced acceptance of ingroup responsibility by reducing the ingroup's perceived moral failure. These effects were moderated by ingroup superiority in Study 1, but not Study 2. We draw implications for our understanding of mechanisms of denial of responsibility, identity threat, and coping with this threat.