TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2010//
TI  - Crimes of the Past: Defensive Temporal Distancing in the Face of Past In-Group Wrongdoing
JO  - Personality and social psychology bulletin
A1  - Peetz, J.
A1  - Gunn, G. R.
A1  - Wilson, A. E.
SP  - 598
EP  - 611
VL  - 36
IS  - 5
N2  - Relegating past in-group transgressions to ancient history might deflect threat to collective identity. Germans (but not Canadians) judged the Holocaust to be more subjectively remote in time when they read only about German-perpetrated atrocities than when this threat was mitigated. Greater subjective distance predicted lower collective guilt, which, in turn, predicted less willingness to make amends (Study 1). Distancing under threat was more pronounced among defensive Germans who felt unjustly blamed by other nations (Study 2). In Study 3, the authors examined the causal role of subjective time. Nondefensive Germans induced to view the Holocaust as closer reported more collective guilt and willingness to compensate. In contrast, defensive Germans reported less collective guilt after the closeness induction. Taken together, the studies demonstrate that how past wrongs are psychologically situated in time can play a powerful role in people’s present-day reactions to them.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 0146-1672
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167210364850
ID  - ref1
ER  -