Article Version of Record

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 contact

Persistent 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
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Kanyangara, Patrick
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Rimé, Bernard
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Paez, Dario
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Yzerbyt, Vincent
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-26T12:45:38Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-26T12:45:38Z
  • Date of first publication
    2014-08-07
  • 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.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • 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
    en_US
  • ISSN
    2195-3325
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1342
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1813
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Publisher
    PsychOpen GOLD
  • Is version of
    https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v2i1.299
  • Keyword(s)
    intergroup conflict
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    reconciliation
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    collective guilt
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    emotional expression
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    truth and reconciliation
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    Gacaca
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    intergroup contact
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    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
    en_US
  • DRO type
    article
  • Issue
    1
  • Journal title
    Journal of Social and Political Psychology
  • Page numbers
    401–416
  • Volume
    2
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record