The paper's aims are threefold. First, it aims to disentangle social denial of in-group responsibilities for intergroup violence from other types of silence about intergroup violence. Secondly, it argues that intergenerational narratives which omit information about in-group responsibilities for violence that occurred before the birth of younger generations are highly risky to the descendants of perpetrators. Finally, the paper emphasizes the importance of exploring in greater depth the understudied moment when a literal social denial about past in-group war crimes is exposed. To support these aims, the paper presents results from a recent mixed methods, quasi- experimental study, which used between and within subjects comparisons. The study was conducted by our Department and asked young Italian university students to read an explicit text (“detailed text”) vs. a more nuanced one (“mild text”) about Italian war crimes occurring during the colonial invasion of Ethiopia. Data were collected before reading the text, during the reading, and after it. Texts were constructed by manipulating the wording of a single historical narrative, taken from a textbook currently used in Italian high schools. The inclusion of this information in Italian history textbooks is quite recent, taking place approximately 70 years after the end of the war. Prior to this a widespread social denial silenced these crimes and as a result they were largely ignored in general social discourse. Results showed that participants reacted not only to the new information received, but also to the way in which it was conveyed. The detailed narrative, by frankly taking a moral stance on past violence (a strategy that we named, after classic works of Foucault, 1983, parrhesia), provoked a better understanding of information, together with an increase of negative group-based moral emotions. Interestingly, while collective guilt did not differ between participants exposed to a detailed or a mild text, moral emotions distancing young participants from the responsibilities of older generations increased when these crimes were clearly exposed.
The paper's aims are threefold. First, it aims to disentangle social denial of in-group responsibilities for intergroup violence from other types of silence about intergroup violence. Secondly, it argues that intergenerational narratives which omit information about in-group responsibilities for violence that occurred before the birth of younger generations are highly risky to the descendants of perpetrators. Finally, the paper emphasizes the importance of exploring in greater depth the understudied moment when a literal social denial about past in-group war crimes is exposed. To support these aims, the paper presents results from a recent mixed methods, quasi- experimental study, which used between and within subjects comparisons. The study was conducted by our Department and asked young Italian university students to read an explicit text (“detailed text”) vs. a more nuanced one (“mild text”) about Italian war crimes occurring during the colonial invasion of Ethiopia. Data were collected before reading the text, during the reading, and after it. Texts were constructed by manipulating the wording of a single historical narrative, taken from a textbook currently used in Italian high schools. The inclusion of this information in Italian history textbooks is quite recent, taking place approximately 70 years after the end of the war. Prior to this a widespread social denial silenced these crimes and as a result they were largely ignored in general social discourse. Results showed that participants reacted not only to the new information received, but also to the way in which it was conveyed. The detailed narrative, by frankly taking a moral stance on past violence (a strategy that we named, after classic works of Foucault, 1983, parrhesia), provoked a better understanding of information, together with an increase of negative group-based moral emotions. Interestingly, while collective guilt did not differ between participants exposed to a detailed or a mild text, moral emotions distancing young participants from the responsibilities of older generations increased when these crimes were clearly exposed.
Breaking the silence: Intergenerational narratives about past violence / Leone, Giovanna. - STAMPA. - (2017), pp. 35-36. (Intervento presentato al convegno Bridging Across Generations: Turning Research into Action for Children and Families 15th Symposium on the Contributions of Psychology to Peace tenutosi a Rome and Florence, Italy nel 21 – 27 May 2017).
Breaking the silence: Intergenerational narratives about past violence
leone, giovanna
2017
Abstract
The paper's aims are threefold. First, it aims to disentangle social denial of in-group responsibilities for intergroup violence from other types of silence about intergroup violence. Secondly, it argues that intergenerational narratives which omit information about in-group responsibilities for violence that occurred before the birth of younger generations are highly risky to the descendants of perpetrators. Finally, the paper emphasizes the importance of exploring in greater depth the understudied moment when a literal social denial about past in-group war crimes is exposed. To support these aims, the paper presents results from a recent mixed methods, quasi- experimental study, which used between and within subjects comparisons. The study was conducted by our Department and asked young Italian university students to read an explicit text (“detailed text”) vs. a more nuanced one (“mild text”) about Italian war crimes occurring during the colonial invasion of Ethiopia. Data were collected before reading the text, during the reading, and after it. Texts were constructed by manipulating the wording of a single historical narrative, taken from a textbook currently used in Italian high schools. The inclusion of this information in Italian history textbooks is quite recent, taking place approximately 70 years after the end of the war. Prior to this a widespread social denial silenced these crimes and as a result they were largely ignored in general social discourse. Results showed that participants reacted not only to the new information received, but also to the way in which it was conveyed. The detailed narrative, by frankly taking a moral stance on past violence (a strategy that we named, after classic works of Foucault, 1983, parrhesia), provoked a better understanding of information, together with an increase of negative group-based moral emotions. Interestingly, while collective guilt did not differ between participants exposed to a detailed or a mild text, moral emotions distancing young participants from the responsibilities of older generations increased when these crimes were clearly exposed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
