"Should a country's leaders apologize for its past misdeeds?": An analysis of the effects of both public apologies from a Belgian official and perception of Congolese victims' continued suffering on Belgians' representations of colonial action, support for reparation, and attitudes towards the Congolese

This study sought to identify the conditions facilitating the recognition of a social group’s past misdeeds among its members. Such recognition entails a threat to group members’ social identity, potentially triggering defensive strategies, such as denying these misdeeds, not experiencing collective guilt and shame, opposing reparative actions, and derogating the victim group’s members. As collective rituals, public apologies performed by an official representative should allow group members to acknowledge the harm done while maintaining a positive social identity, therefore alleviating the ne... Mehr ...