Collective guilt and reconciliation: transgenerational differences

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between collective guilt acceptance and assignment, and willingness for reconciliation among the members of a Serb ethnic group in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will examine which factors contribute to readiness for reconciliation in a younger generation who was born after the last war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and grew up in divided ethnic communities, and in an older generation who grew up in ethnically heterogeneous communities, and survived the war during the nineties. Survey included 406 respondents who belong to two different age categories, (203 persons of the younger generation and 203 persons of the older generation). Respondent were sampled from a population of Serb ethnic group on the territory of Banja Luka town (Republic of Srpska) during November and December of 2014. They completed several standardized instruments: the Scale of collective guilt (two subscales: Collective quilt acceptance and Collective guilt assignment), the Scale of readiness for reconciliation, the Scale of Identification with an ethnic group, and the Scale of stressful war experiences. Multiple regression analysis indicated that variables gender, ethnic identification, collective quilt acceptance and assignment, and stressful war experiences explained 41.5% of the variance of readiness for reconciliation among the younger generation, and 15.1% of the variance of readiness for reconciliation among the older generation. There was a negative association between collective guilt assignments and readiness for reconciliation, and a positive association between collective guilt acceptance and readiness for reconciliation among both generations of respondents. Presented results confirm findings from the previous studies which showed the positive contribution of collective guilt acceptance on readiness for an apology and reparations.