Political Psychology – Lecture 9 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]

Reconciliation refers to the mutual acceptance by groups of each other. It consists of a changed psychological orientation toward each other. Forgiveness refers to the restoration of a positive relationship between perpetrator and victim. The negative emotions toward the perpetrator are replaced with positive emotions and behaviour. Forgiveness is one-sided, whereas reconciliation is not. Forgiveness makes one very vulnerable by returning to the victim role momentarily.

Forgiveness without appropriate actions by perpetrators or members of the perpetrator group can have harmful effects. Victimization diminishes the status of the victims in relation to the perpetrators. Reconciliation is often aimed at restoring this balance. It is possible to obtain some form of reconciliation through justice.

Victims suffer from chronic effects of trauma. This includes hyper-vigilance (1), chronic anxiety (2), insomnia (3), nightmares (4), tension-related physical problems (5), numbness (6) and anger (7). This can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder if it is prolonged. A consequence of PTSD is that victims are reluctant to enter the reconciliation context. Therefore, strong institutional support to safeguard victims is necessary.

After a political tragedy (e.g. genocide), the perpetrators can also suffer from trauma. However, the perpetrators often show no guilt (1), continue to dehumanize the victims (2) or believe it was the right thing to do (3). The bystanders often distance themselves from the victims and do not acknowledge what happened.

There are several challenges of the post-conflict society. Peacebuilding is often extremely difficult. The leaders are required to build coalitions and calm fears. The justice perception and reconciliation in a post-conflict society depends on the social context. There are several societal interventions that can increase reconciliation and forgiveness:

1. War tribunals
   The focus of war tribunals is on punishment and the perpetrators. It makes use of punishment as a deterrence strategy. There is acknowledgement of trauma for the victims and there is judgement of the perpetrator. The audience is present for both sides. One disadvantage is that it also gives a stage to the perpetrator.
2. Dialogue and truth reconciliation commissions
   This employs a dialogue approach. It is a process by which individuals engage with each other in an open forum to speak about their side of the story but also to hear the other side. In consists the stages who are we (i.e. personal stories) (1), where are we (i.e. historical context) (2), where do we want to be (i.e. vision) (3) and what will we do as individuals to make the difference (4). The focus in TRCs is on the victims.
3. Integration strategies
   This promotes intergroup contact in situations where segregation is not an option. The contact interventions aim to increase empathy (1), increase perspective-taking (2), counter fear (3), reduce realistic threat (4), reduce symbolic threat (5), reduce intergroup anxiety (6) and reduce distrust (7). It is aimed at creating a more common identification while maintaining own identity. It can make use of shared sovereignty which secures the primary identity of the group and thus reduces identity threat.

Potential disadvantages of war tribunals are that there is more focus on vengeance than reconciliation (1), there are feelings of injustice as only the commanders are punished (2) and the perpetrator gets a stage as well (3). Not all perpetrators are prosecuted. Another limitation is that the population is often not aware of war tribunals.

An example of the dialogue and truth reconciliation commissions is the Gacaca system in Rwanda. Truth and reconciliation commissions (TRC) can prosecute a large number of people (1) and includes the population (2). TRCs allow for the possibility to trade amnesty for receiving information (1), allow for identifying responsibility (2), acknowledge the victim’s needs (3), allow victims to grieve (4), achieve some measure of reconciliation and forgiveness (5) and recommend policies for treatment of victims and perpetrators (6).

A negative effect of integration strategies can be a false expectation of equality as the contact strategies lead to reduced social support for change.

In general, the need of victims is regaining some power and control and the need of perpetrators is regaining a positive image. Reconciliation attitudes will be reinforced if victims receive a message of empowerment and perpetrators receive a message of social acceptance.

It is possible that truth-telling does not lead to reconciliation as this is theoretically underdeveloped. Witnessing Gacaca courts could negatively affect psychological health. There are several effects of participation in TRCs:

• Enhanced social integrating by reducing perceived outgroup homogeneity and decreased ingroup self-categorization.
• Increased positive stereotypes of both victim and prisoners (i.e. perpetrators).
• Increased genocide-related emotions (e.g. anger).

The participation in TRCs leads to an increase in negative emotions for the victims. For the perpetrators, it leads to the perception of a positive emotional climate. Participation in TRCs leads to less shame (1) and more PTSD symptoms (2) for victims. Participation in TRCs leads to more shame (1) and less PTSD symptoms (2) for perpetrators

Durkheim’s model of collective rituals states that collective rituals lead to activation of shared beliefs and emotions and this enhances perceived similarity among participants, reducing the outgroup homogeneity effect

Perceiving the outgroup as homogeneous can be detrimental to intergroup relations. It is associated with more negative attitudes towards the outgroup. Intergroup contact can reduce the perception of outgroup homogeneity (i.e. contact hypothesis) A superordinate identification has positive effects on social cohesion in multiculturalist societies. This does not mean that people have to give up their subgroup identities. They only need to identify more strongly with the superordinate group.

Victimization creates mistrust and fear of other people. It is, therefore, important to reconnect with others and regain trust in others. Acknowledgement of others of the suffering of the survivors furthers healing. During the healing process, people may experience empathy with themselves which opens them to empathy with others. This can lead to the victims feeling less vulnerable and more trusting. This allows for reconciliation.

An unwillingness to forgive might be associated with an unwillingness to forget as forgiving is often associated with forgetting.