Trust, Individual Guilt, Collective Guilt and Dispositions Toward Reconciliation Among Rwandan Survivors and Prisoners Before and After Their Participation in Postgenocide Gacaca Courts in Rwanda
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Kanyangara, Patrick
Rimé, Bernard
Paez, Dario
Yzerbyt, Vincent
Abstract / Description
A field experiment compared the level of personal and collective guilt in survivors (N = 200) and accused perpetrators (N = 184) of the Rwandan genocide before and after participation in Gacaca community courts and in control groups of survivors (N = 195) and prisoners (N = 179) who did not participate in Gacaca. Participation in Gacaca led to a marked reduction in survivors’ personal and collective guilt and to an increase in prisoners' personal guilt. Prisoners’ collective guilt was unaffected by participation but collective guilt was higher for prisoners participating in Gacaca suggesting an effect of the mere anticipation of participation. Survivors who participated in Gacaca had greater doubts about Gacaca, trusted the prisoners' apologies less, were less inclined to forgive, were more revengeful, and opted more for intragroup contact and less for intergroup contact. In sum, participation in Gacaca failed to have direct effects upon dispositions to reconciliation but it produced important indirect effects in this direction by drastically reducing survivors' guilt feelings, which may have enhanced their empowerment.
Keyword(s)
intergroup conflict reconciliation collective guilt emotional expression truth and reconciliation Gacaca intergroup contactPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2014-08-07
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
2
Issue
1
Page numbers
401–416
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Kanyangara, P., Rimé, B., Paez, D., & Yzerbyt, V. (2014). Trust, Individual Guilt, Collective Guilt and Dispositions Toward Reconciliation Among Rwandan Survivors and Prisoners Before and After Their Participation in Postgenocide Gacaca Courts in Rwanda. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2(1), 401–416. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v2i1.299
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Kanyangara, Patrick
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Rimé, Bernard
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Paez, Dario
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Yzerbyt, Vincent
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-26T12:45:38Z
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Made available on2018-11-26T12:45:38Z
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Date of first publication2014-08-07
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Abstract / DescriptionA field experiment compared the level of personal and collective guilt in survivors (N = 200) and accused perpetrators (N = 184) of the Rwandan genocide before and after participation in Gacaca community courts and in control groups of survivors (N = 195) and prisoners (N = 179) who did not participate in Gacaca. Participation in Gacaca led to a marked reduction in survivors’ personal and collective guilt and to an increase in prisoners' personal guilt. Prisoners’ collective guilt was unaffected by participation but collective guilt was higher for prisoners participating in Gacaca suggesting an effect of the mere anticipation of participation. Survivors who participated in Gacaca had greater doubts about Gacaca, trusted the prisoners' apologies less, were less inclined to forgive, were more revengeful, and opted more for intragroup contact and less for intergroup contact. In sum, participation in Gacaca failed to have direct effects upon dispositions to reconciliation but it produced important indirect effects in this direction by drastically reducing survivors' guilt feelings, which may have enhanced their empowerment.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationKanyangara, P., Rimé, B., Paez, D., & Yzerbyt, V. (2014). Trust, Individual Guilt, Collective Guilt and Dispositions Toward Reconciliation Among Rwandan Survivors and Prisoners Before and After Their Participation in Postgenocide Gacaca Courts in Rwanda. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2(1), 401–416. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v2i1.299en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1342
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1813
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v2i1.299
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Keyword(s)intergroup conflicten_US
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Keyword(s)reconciliationen_US
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Keyword(s)collective guilten_US
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Keyword(s)emotional expressionen_US
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Keyword(s)truth and reconciliationen_US
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Keyword(s)Gacacaen_US
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Keyword(s)intergroup contacten_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleTrust, Individual Guilt, Collective Guilt and Dispositions Toward Reconciliation Among Rwandan Survivors and Prisoners Before and After Their Participation in Postgenocide Gacaca Courts in Rwandaen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue1
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers401–416
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Volume2
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record