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Physical daily contexts are replete with traces of the past. A statue in a park, the name of a street, or an old advertisement can all remind people of specific historical moments or periods. Often, they recall glorious episodes, but traces of less glorious pasts also persist. Among them, the most self-censored ones refer to past immoral actions that tarnish the overly idealized moral standard attributed to the group. As a case in point, material traces of the colonial past became the focus of controversies within formerly colonizing countries during the last decade. European anti-racist movements questioned the colonial heritage of European societies in an unprecedented manner and active social minorities also brought to the fore some traces still in the background of physical environments. Part of public opinion reacted by denouncing the “cancel culture” or the danger of “erasing” history. This chapter outlines a social psychological approach about contemporary perceptions and interpretations of still self-censored material traces of Italian colonialism. Results of a qualitative survey on Italian participants’ representations and attitudes toward a candy with a colonial wrapping will illustrate how Italian participants of different generations question this ephemeral trace and take on the challenge of a cumbersome past.

Although social scientists have examined how political speeches may help forge and/or shape collective memories, they have done so with little to no input from psychologists. We address this deficit, demonstrating how a modified version of a well-established and empirically derived psychological phenomenon – socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting – helps explain the mnemonic consequences associated with political speeches, in this case, the Belgian King’s 2012 summer speech. To this end, we analyzed the responses of 43 French-speakers and 49 Dutch-speakers. Of these individuals 35 of them attended to the speech (16 French-speakers; 19 Dutch-speakers). Our results suggest that the Belgian King’s speech induced French-speaking Belgians who attended the speech to recall less information related to what the King mentioned in the speech. We found no such deficit for Dutch-speaking Belgians. Rather, the Dutch-speaking Belgians exhibited greater recall of related and unrelated information. These results bolster the importance of including a psychological approach in the study of collective memories and the moderating role of social identity., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis which called for two crucial modes of social regulation

In this article we use a social representational perspective on a large sample of European students to consider the interplay between pacifist attitudes and representations of World War I (WWI). WWI gave rise to pacifist movements across the globe. Across 10 European countries (N = 1,347 undergraduate students), we invited participants to report the first 5 words that came to their mind when thinking about this event and measured their level of pacifism. Analyses of the reported words revealed the presence of seven lexical classes corresponding to 2 main perspectives on WWI. The first main perspective was characterized by "analytical" representations of the war, with a focus on the places and actors of WWI. The second perspective highlighted negative emotions and appraisals associated with war. Overall, we found that the pacifist attitudes we analyzed were associated with a view of the conflict in terms of negatively valanced words, both at the emotional level and in terms of concrete consequences. Conversely lower pacifist attitudes were linked with an emphasis upon weapons. The present results help fill a gap in the literature on attitudes toward peace and war by evidencing their interplay with the way individuals view war. These findings allow us to establish a connection between mainstream, individualcentered approach to attitudes relying on individual premises and social representation theory. Moreover, in line with historical scholarship, these results suggest that a common interpretational framework underlies a view of the conflict associated with the pacifist wave that emerged 100 years ago and current pacifist attitudes. Finally, the present study is the first large scale psychology study of the social representations of the Great War.

The objective of this document is to help the RPOs and RFOs involved in CALIPER to develop a tailored internal engagement and change management strategy. This task is part of WP5 (Engagement, change management and sustainability), which aims at creating the appropriate conditions for ensuring the acceptance of the Gender Equality Plan (GEP)’s measures. A key success factor for the acceptance, smooth implementation and sustainability of a GEP is a strong basis of engaged and motivated people. The document presents, on the one hand, some theoretical insights to understand gender equality and discrimination and, on the other, a practical guideline addressing common obstacles in gender equality work (resistance) and how to overcome them, as well as success factors and good practices to foster structural change for gender equality in research organizations. These theoretical and practical knowledges will allow CALIPER research organisations to appropriately design an internal engagement and change management strategy and thus ensure the success of their respective GEPs. In addition to this, a last chapter presents the evaluation and monitoring process of engagement activities, including a presentation of the broad strategy adopted and KPIs for tasks 5.2 (Engagement of regional research and innovation ecosystem) and 5.3 (Awareness raising activities) and the description of the reporting procedure and template.

Several European countries have introduced integration programs that oblige immigrants to adopt the host culture. While research has shown that members of national majority groups consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable, the effect of making host culture adoption mandatory on attitudes toward immigrants has so far not been investigated. We argue that perceiving host culture adoption as mandatory yields less positive evaluation of immigrants than voluntary adoption. Moreover, we contend that this effect is explained by a lower perception of identification with the host nation by immigrants in the former case than in the latter. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a first study in France ('N' = 63) and a second preregistered study in Switzerland ('N' = 110). In both studies, participants received information about an immigrant who adopted the host culture either voluntarily or as part of a mandatory integration program. As expected, granting civic rights to the immigrant is perceived as more legitimate in the voluntary adoption condition than in the mandatory adoption condition, and this effect was mediated by perception of host nation identification. These results highlight the role of the situational context of acculturation practices in social judgments about immigrants. Implications for mandatory integration policies are discussed.

COST Action IS1205 “Social psychological dynamics of historical representations in the enlarged European Union”.

The present study examines current social representations associated with the origins of the Great War, a major event that has profoundly affected Europe. A survey conducted in 20 European countries (N = 1906 students in social sciences) shows a high consensus: The outbreak of the war is attributed to the warring nations’ leaders while the responsibility of the populations is minimized. Building on the concept of social representation of history (Liu and Hilton, 2005), we suggest that the social representations of the Great War fulfill social psychological functions in contemporary Europe. We suggest that WWI may function as a charter for European integration. Their content also suggests a desire to distinguish a positively valued ingroup ("the people") from powerful elites, construed as an outgroup., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

European colonial powers invaded and then dominated a large part of the African continent from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The influence of colonialism did not cease after independence as it still impregnates the cultures and identities of both formerly colonising and formerly colonised peoples. The question of how inhabitants of formerly colonised and formerly colonising countries represent the colonial past is a key issue in understanding this lasting influence. Social representations of European colonial action were investigated among young people (N = 1134) in three European countries and six African countries. Social representations of the colonial past were structured around two main dimensions across African and European samples: Exploitation and Development. Social representations of colonialism denoted by Exploitation were more strongly endorsed by the European compared to the African subsample, whereas those denoted by Development were more strongly endorsed by the African compared to the European subsample. However, while African participants considered colonialism less negatively than Europeans, they also had higher expectations concerning Europeans’ collective guilt feeling and willingness to offer reparations. By contrast, European participants’ social representations of colonialism were more negative but they were less likely to believe that present-day European peoples and governments are accountable for the misdeeds of colonialism in the past. Finally, national identification mediated the association between the Exploitation dimension of colonialism and both group-based emotions and support for reparation in the African, but not the European, subsample. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd, SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The consequences of colonialism are important not only because they shape our “world of nations” at the level of international relations, but because their contemporary repercussions are also present in the psychosocial dynamics at work among former colonized and former colonizing peoples, such as identity building, collective emotions, traumatic processes, intergroup relations, prejudice, discrimination, and acculturation processes. However, there is still a scarce amount of cultural and social psychological studies dealing with the current implications of colonial history and memories in contemporary societies. This Special Issue aims to fill this gap. The main focus here is on the relevance of historical representations and collective memories of the colonial past with regard to contemporary intercultural relations. In this vein, this Special Issue includes eight papers that shed light on the content and structure of social representations of colonial history; the emotional and cognitive impacts of the colonial past; and how colonial past is shaping contemporary acculturation processes and intergroup attitudes and relations. This Special Issue hosts original empirical research employing different methodologies (e.g. interviews, questionnaire surveys, experiments, and case studies), as well as theoretical papers that rely on a systematic review of the empirical literature. Together, the contributions in this Special Issue stress the importance of considering colonial legacies in the study of contemporary intercultural relations. We call for dialogue and interdisciplinary work in this domain between social and cultural psychology and other social sciences, such as history, anthropology, and political science., SCOPUS: re.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Inspired by the popular Arab protests against oppressive regimes that began in 2010,people around the world protested in sympathy with the Arab peoples. The present research draws on two major theories of intergroup relations to develop an initial integrative model of sympathetic collective action. We incorporate social dominance theory’s (SDT) concept of (rejectionist) legitimizing myths with the solidarity and emotional mediation concept of the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) to understand motivations for sympathetic collective action among bystanders. Using data from 12 nations (N=1480), we tested three models: (a) SIMCA (i.e. solidarity, anger, and efficacy), (b) a social dominance theory model of collective action (i.e. social dominance orientation and ideologies concerning Arab competence), and (c) an integrated model of sympathetic collective action combining both theories. Results find the greatest support for an integrated model of collective action. Discussion focuses on theoretical pluralism and suggestions for future research., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

It is a known fact that some Belgians collaborated with the Nazi occupier during WWII. However, according to a popular myth, collaboration was widespread in Flanders, whereas Walloons bravely resisted. Of course, historical reality is much more nuanced, but this oversimplification has largely resurfaced in political debates surrounding the Belgian linguistic conflict. Demands for amnesty for former collaborators addressed by Flemish nationalist parties are a case in point. We conducted two studies in order to investigate Belgians’ attitudes towards this political issue in the two linguistic communities. In 2012, a first survey (N = 521; 315 French-speakers (FS) and 206 Dutch-speakers (DS)) showed that WWII collaboration was morally condemned, and attitudes towards amnesty were predominantly negative, in both groups. However, DS tended to support amnesty more than FS. This effect of Linguistic Group on Support for Amnesty was mediated by Judgments of Morality of collaboration, and this mediation was moderated by Linguistic identification. In 2015, a second survey (N = 774; 476 FS and 298 DS) confirmed these results. Moreover, judgments about the Unfairness of the repression of collaboration also mediated the effect of Linguistic Group on Support for Amnesty. These results suggest that differences in political position-taking regarding the granting of amnesty between DS and FS are, at least partly, due to different attitudes towards collaboration and to the membership to a linguistic community., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Despite the current societal emergency, little is known about the acculturation processes undergone by Syrian and Iraqi asylum seekers. The present paper investigates their early-stage acculturation preferences in relation to their perception of majority members' acculturation expectations and to their settlement intentions. 103 Syrian and Iraqi male asylum seekers were recruited during the peak of the 2015 "refugee crisis" in a provisional reception centre and completed a brief questionnaire. Results showed that asylum seekers reported a high willingness to participate in the host society and to adopt the host culture, while maintaining their culture of origin. Moreover, as predicted, asylum seekers' settlement intentions and their perceptions of majority members' acculturation expectations were key predictors of their own acculturation preferences. Implications for integration policies are discussed., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

A questionnaire survey (N = 247) investigated the influence of identification with the Rwandan nation on reconciliation sentiments between members of the survivor and of the non-victim groups of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Results showed that, whereas the two groups did not differ in their level of identification with the nation, members of the non-victim group were more willing to reconcile than members of the survivor group. Perceived intergroup similarity mediated the effect of national identification on reconciliation sentiment for both groups, but this effect was stronger among non-victims. Finally, self-esteem during commemorations also mediated this effect, but only among non-victims. We discuss the importance of people’s motivation to reconcile with out-group members in post-genocidal contexts in light of the common in-group identity model (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000) as well as the needs-based model of intergroup reconciliation (Nadler & Schnabel, 2008)., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Collective memories of the historical past allow group members to make sense of their sharedpast but also to project themselves in the present and future. In this line, collective memories ofcolonialism may present consequences for present day intergroup relations and acculturationdynamics, given that they allow processes of meaning making and social positioning whendifferent groups with a shared colonial past interact. Indeed, previous research has shown thatcollective memories are associated with processes of reconciliation, victimization, and groupbasedemotions, among others, but, to our knowledge, little research has paid attention to theconnections between collective memories of colonialism and acculturation dynamics amonggroups with a past of colonization. The present study aimed to analyze collective memories ofcolonialism and acculturation experiences among Congolese immigrants living in Belgium. 43semi-structured interviews with Congolese participants were content analyzed, using ananalytical framework along the two variables of interest. We were able to map distinct aspectsof the collective memories of colonialism that Congolese immigrants in Belgium have, as well astheir experiences of acculturation in Belgium. Our results suggest that individuals remembertheir ingroup’s past in accordance with their current social identifications and relationshipswithin a given society. The results are discussed in light of their consequences for present dayintergroup relations between host and immigrant communities in Belgium., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Some people experience a feeling of guilt after transgressing a social norm, while others do not. Perceiving this emotion in others therefore yields important information about their personality. Two experimental studies assessed the effects of perceptions of offenders’ guilty feelings on judgments of their personality by the victim. Study 1 showed that offenders perceived as experiencing guilt are perceived as more extraverted (sociable) and more conscientious (competent) than those who do not. These results were replicated in Study 2, which further showed that the effects of perception of guilt on personality judgments are distinct from those of apologies. These effects are mediated by the victim’s perception of justice and anger. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The present study addresses antecedents and consequences of collective victimhood 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 victimhood 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 representations favouring peaceful coexistence whereas, at the family level, victimization may still foster retaliatory tendencies., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Successful reconciliation between groups following a violent conflict requires psychological change. We test a model predicting intergroup attitudes towards Muslims in Lebanon among Maronite (Christian) Lebanese youths. Identification with both their religious subgroup and with the superordinate national group predicted attitudes towards Muslims, in opposite directions. These effects of levels of identification on intergroup attitudes were mediated by attributions of responsibility for the war (Muslim responsibility) and perception that the current generation of out-group members is different from the war generation (perceived out-group discontinuity). Identification with Lebanon fosters positive attitudes towards Muslims by lowering Muslim responsibility for the war, and by increasing perceptions of foreign responsibility and perceived out-group discontinuity. In contrast, increased identification with their own religious subgroup undermines attitude change by increasing Muslim responsibility for the war and lessening perception of out-group discontinuity. Representations of the past have implications for attitudes towards former enemies and reconciliation in the present., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Dans la société contemporaine, les jeunes Belges issus de l’immigration sont de plus en plus exposés aux changements structurels et à l’évolution des pratiques socioculturelles des pays d’origine de leurs parents. Cet article traite du rôle des contacts avec le pays d’origine dans la construction de l’identité sociale d’enfants d’immigrés. Nous postulons que ces contacts affectent les « stratégies identitaires » telles que définies par Carmel Camilleri (1990). Seize jeunes Belges d’origine turque et marocaine ont été rencontrés lors d’entretiens semi-directifs qui furent par la suite analysés au moyen du logiciel d’analyse de données textuelles ALCESTE. Nous observons une influence de la dimension de genre dans l’incidence de ces contacts sur l’identité ainsi que l’émergence de stratégies visant à gérer la disparité culturelle et les assignations identitaires provenant du pays d’origine., Belgian youth of Turkish and Moroccan origin are increasingly exposed to the structural and sociocultural changes affecting their parents’ country. This paper examines how contacts with the parents’ country of origin influence processes of social identity construction. We postulate that these contacts affect “identity strategies” as defined by Carmel Camilleri (1990). Sixteen Belgian youths of Turkish and Moroccan origin participated in in-depth interviews. These were analyzed with the content analysis software ALCESTE. Results reveal an influence of gender: girls and boys perceive cultural evolution differently. As expected, results show that participants adopt strategies to manage cultural diversity, but they also point to the influence of identity assignments from the country of origin.

La reconstruction du passé fait partie intégrante des processus de réconciliation intergroupe car, à l’issue d’un conflit, la mémoire collective sous-tend une bonne partie de l’animosité, de la haine et de la méfiance entre les groupes. La difficulté de cette gestion des mémoires tient au triple défi qu’elle doit pouvoir relever: permettre la reconnaissance et favoriser la guérison des souffrances individuelles; préserver l’identité sociale des groupes impliqués; tout en leur permettant de vivre ensemble en paix. Ainsi, une mauvaise gestion de la mémoire collective peut mener à la résurgence du conflit, voire à un véritable cycle de vengeance dans lequel les blessures du passé justifient les violences à venir. Dans cet article, qui puisera dans les apports de la psychologie sociale et de la philosophie, nous commencerons par délimiter le concept de mémoire collective, en particulier dans ses rapports avec l’identité sociale. Ensuite, nous isolerons certains processus à travers lesquels la mémoire collective des groupes impliqués dans un conflit passé est susceptible d’entraver leur réconciliation. Enfin, nous tenterons d’envisager des voies de solution par le biais de la transmission de la mémoire aussi bien au sein des groupes impliqués qu’entre ceux-ci., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Emergent properties of global political culture were examined using data from the World History Survey involving 6,699 university students in 35 societies evaluating 40 figures from world history. Multi-dimensional scaling and factor analysis techniques found only limited forms of universality in evaluations across Western, Catholic/Orthodox, Muslim, and Asian country clusters. The highest consensus across cultures involved scientific innovators, with Einstein having the highest evaluation overall. Peaceful humanitarians like Mother Theresa and Gandhi followed. There was much less cross-cultural consistency in the evaluation of negative figures, led by Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein. Latent class analysis was used to identify four global representational profiles: Secular and Religious Idealists were overwhelmingly prevalent in Christian societies, and Political Realists were common in Muslim and Asian societies. An argument is made for understanding global political culture as dialogue with a historical trajectory that resists unification., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

We tested the internal reliability and predictive validity of a new 4-item Short Social Dominance Orientation (SSDO) scale among adults in 20 countries, using 15 languages (N = 2,130). Low scores indicate preferring group inclusion and equality to dominance. As expected, cross-nationally, the lower people were on SSDO, the more they endorsed more women in leadership positions, protecting minorities, and aid to the poor. Multilevel moderation models showed that each effect was stronger in nations where a relevant kind of group power differentiation was more salient. Distributions of SSDO were positively skewed, despite use of an extended response scale; results show rejecting group hierarchy is normative. The short scale is effective. Challenges regarding translations, use of short scales, and intersections between individual and collective levels in social dominance theory are discussed. © The Author(s) 2013.

This article examines how group representations can be used strategically to induce social change. The speeches delivered by Patrice Lumumba during the decolonization of the Belgian Congo were analysed using the content analysis software ALCESTE. Lumumba used radically different descriptions of Belgians and Congolese depending on the period during which the speech was delivered and on the audience he was addressing (Congolese or Belgian). When addressing Belgians, he described their countrymen as benevolent allies who could assist the development of Congo, and the Congolese as pacific and friendly. When addressing Congolese audiences, Belgians were described as oppressors, and Congolese as victims. In addition he emphasized the unity of the country more at the end of the decolonization process than at its onset. Considering that his nationalist and pan-African aims remained stable, we suggest that this variability stems from the different actions expected from his audiences, as a function of their group membership and the political context. We argue that this performative dimension cannot be captured if group representations, including stereotypes, are only viewed in cognitive terms. In addition, we show that they should be studied not only as justifications for the existing social order but also as instruments of social change.

We propose that the expression of prejudice may be used for publicly validating a social identity. This assumption was investigated in a Greek political context. Prejudice toward the Turks is strongly associated to Greek identity but is contrary to the norms of tolerance associated with European identity. Hence, expressing this attitude in front of a European audience may conflict with many Greeks' desire to be viewed as fully European by other members of the European Union. It was therefore predicted that Greeks who strongly identified with Europe would refrain from publicly expressing negative attitudes toward the Turks when they addressed prototypical Europeans, but not when their answers were private or when they addressed other Greeks. In order to test this hypothesis, the impact of personal identifiability, identification with Europe and the audience's group membership (western European, Greek) on the expression of prejudice toward the Turks was examined among Greek students (n =118). Results were g...

We examined the impact of the distribution of information regarding social groups on the formation of shared stereotypes within triads in two studies. Three-person groups discussed which of three groups (A, B, and C) was the most able and the most sociable. In Study 1, some of the information about these three groups was available to all group members (shared) whereas the remainder was distributed among group members (unique). Based on the total profile, there was more evidence of group A being sociable and of group B being able than of A being able and B sociable. In Study 1 (n = 58), sampling was manipulated as 'representative' (information in line with the overall differences was shared) or 'unrepresentative' (only information contradicting these differences was shared). In a third condition, all items of information were shared. Emerging stereotypes were directly influenced by sampling of information independently of the discussion. As well as this, the discussion consensualized initial stereotypes. In Study 2 (n = 52), sampling was always unrepresentative and we manipulated the labels associated with the target groups in such a way that the stereotype associated with the label was either inconsistent or consistent with the overall differences between the target groups. In the inconsistent condition, participants were more likely to discuss information that violated stereotypical expectations, and to be less influenced by sampling as a result of discussion. Altogether, these findings suggest that information sampling directly affects the consensualization of social stereotypes. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., SCOPUS: re.j, FLWIN, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by J. Prager, volume 4, pp. 2223–2227, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd.

Xenophobia refers to a fear of the stranger that has taken on diverse forms throughout history and is conceptualized according to different theoretical approaches. Often confounded with racism in modern times, the concept of xenophobia is rooted in universal fears of the unfamiliar, but also in specific historical traditions and regulations regarding the place devoted to outsiders within host societies. With the rise of the nation-state and the development of migration, xenophobia depicts immigrants, asylum seekers, or populations of immigrant descent as posing a material or identity threat to nationals., SCOPUS: ch.b, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The European Union is generally perceived as endorsing universalistic and multi-cultural values. However, social identity and self-categorization theories predict that, when certain conditions are met, a negative relation between ingroup identification and tolerance towards outgroup members should be observed. We argue that the creation of the status of ‘Citizen of the Union’ in Maastricht may contribute to meeting those conditions and therefore to increase intolerance towards resident foreigners. If that is the case, a paradoxical situation could emerge, in which people's levels of tolerance towards foreigners would contradict group values. We examined the relations between values associated with Europe, European and national identification, and tolerance towards foreigners through a survey study with a—non-representative—sample of undergraduate French-speaking Belgian students. Results show that Europe was generally associated with humanistic values. But they also reveal that strong European identifiers tended to express more xenophobic attitudes than weak European identifiers, whilst national identification was not related with such attitudes. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.