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Attitudes Towards World War II Collaboration in Belgium: Effects on Political Positioning Towards the Amnesty Issue in the Two Main Linguistic Communities
Attitudes Towards World War II Collaboration in Belgium: Effects on Political Positioning Towards the Amnesty Issue in the Two Main Linguistic Communities
- Source :
- Psychologica Belgica; Vol 57, No 3 (2017); 32-51, Psychologica Belgica, Vol 57, Iss 3, Pp 32-51 (2017), Psychologica Belgica, Psychologica belgica, 57 (3
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Ubiquity Press, 2017.
-
Abstract
- 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.<br />SCOPUS: ar.j<br />info:eu-repo/semantics/published
- Subjects :
- Psychologie sociale
media_common.quotation_subject
lcsh:BF1-990
050109 social psychology
Nazism
050105 experimental psychology
Politics
Belgium
Amnesty for collaboration
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
General Psychology
media_common
Amnesty
Intergroup relations
Social identity World war II
Collective memories
05 social sciences
World War II
Morality
language.human_language
Linguistics
Nationalism
Flemish
lcsh:Psychology
Mediation
language
Psychology
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2054670X and 00332879
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Psychologica Belgica
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....02a8f7e1caa7b0f711aa56351996ca92