All Victims Have Something to Say: The Differential Impact of Victim Narratives on Intergroup Forgiveness

Abstract

Victims’ testimonies have emerged as an interesting tool for generating changes in societies that are seeking to emerge from a violent conflict. However, victims are not a homogeneous group and their stances regarding the perpetrators can different according to whether they accept or reject intergroup forgiveness processes, as was the case of J. Améry, a writer and essayist who survived the Holocaust. In this article, we inquire into the impact of victims’ testimonies on attitudes towards intergroup forgiveness in Spain (N = 274). An experimental study with three conditions was designed using victims’ testimonies that were favourable (Condition 1) and unfavourable (Condition 2) to intergroup forgiveness, along with a condition with statistical data on violence (Condition 0). The results show a differential impact on attitudes based on the victim’s testimony, in addition to emotional activation that is not inherently related to attitudes in favour of forgiveness but instead to the victim’s attitude towards that process.