Authors:	Kazarovytska, Fiona Imhoff, Roland
Title:	Too great to be guilty? : Individuals high in collective narcissism demand closure regarding the past to attenuate collective guilt
Online publication date:	7-Feb-2023
Year of first publication:	2022
Language:	english
Abstract:	While the Holocaust is widely regarded by Germans as one of the worst human atrocities, they differ in their readiness to express collective guilt or, in contrast, in their demand to close this chapter of history. We propose that such a demand for historical closure (HC) is particularly pronounced among individuals high in collective narcissism, and is systematically related to reduced collective guilt. Across three studies (N = 1,383), collective narcissism was significantly related to demand for HC, even when controlling for national identification and national pride. Moreover, collective narcissism was associated with reduced guilt only via demand for HC, but not via the defensive strategies of moral delegitimization of the victims or demand for recognition of the perpetrator group's suffering. Yet collective narcissism was associated via all three defensive strategies with fewer actual donations to support Holocaust survivors. We discuss how demanding HC helps group members to shield their ingroup from its negative past, thus alleviating aversive feelings of collective guilt.
DDC:	150 Psychologie 150 Psychology
Institution:	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department:	FB 02 Sozialwiss., Medien u. Sport
Place:	Mainz
ROR:	https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI:	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8771
Version:	Published version
Publication type:	Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Document type specification:	Scientific article
License:	CC BY-NC
Information on rights of use:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Journal:	European journal of social psychology 52 4
Pages or article number:	748 771
Publisher:	John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Publisher place:	Malden, Mass
Issue date:	2022
ISSN:	1099-0992
Publisher DOI:	10.1002/ejsp.2850
Appears in collections:	DFG-491381577-H