Vessels with Gold or Guilt: Emotional Reactions to Family Involvement Associated with Glorious or Gloomy Aspects of the Colonial Past

Sven Zebel (1) , Sjoerd F. Pennekamp (1) , Martijn van Zomeren (1) , Bertjan Doosje (1) , Gerben A. van Kleef (1) , Michael L. W. Vliek (1) , Job van Der Schalk (1)

1 UvA - University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] = Universiteit van Amsterdam

In two studies we examined whether forging a psychological bond with a nation's colonization past facilitates the experience of positive and negative group-based self-conscious emotions as a function of a positive or negative manipulation of this past. Because people need to belong, we hypothesized that stronger in a nation's colonization past (i.e. involved ancestors) evokes stronger a positive self-conscious emotions after positive descriptions of the nation's colonizing past, and stronger negative self-conscious emotions after negative descriptions. In Study 1, we found support for these hypotheses in a real-life setting in which Dutch people actually found out whether their ancestors were involved in the colonization of Indonesia or not. In Study 2, we manipulated family involvement and valence of the past. Results offered support for the tested hypotheses. Implications of the results are discussed in relation to theories on identity and emotion.

Mots clés: emotions; family; involvement; past; valence

Sven Zebel, Sjoerd F. Pennekamp, Martijn van Zomeren, Bertjan Doosje, Gerben A. van Kleef, et al.. Vessels with Gold or Guilt: Emotional Reactions to Family Involvement Associated with Glorious or Gloomy Aspects of the Colonial Past. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 2007, 10 (1), pp.71-86. ⟨10.1177/1368430207071342⟩. ⟨hal-00571640⟩