Group-based Guilt and Apology in Australia

Researchers in the School of Psychology at The Australian National University (working with colleagues at Murdoch University and the University of Sussex) have been exploring the causes and consequences of group-based or collective guilt felt by Australians about the historical treatment of Indigenous Australians.

The research led by Craig McGarty (formerly at ANU), Anne Pedersen (Murdoch) and Colin Leach (University of Sussex) suggests that collective or group-based guilt is a real phenomena which seems to produce real consequences. Despite the views of some prominent political leaders Australians can and do feel sorry for things for which they are not personally responsible for even though their group is. The research also shows that group-based guilt predicts support for apology. These findings is consistent with the social identity approach, an approach which has many leading exponents in the School of Psychology at ANU.

The research to be published in the British Journal of Social Psychology shows in Study 1 that the perceived advantage of white Australians was a good predictor of guilt about the treatment of the Stolen Generations and that in Study 2 that perceiving the historical treatment of Indigenous Australians by Non-Indigenous Australians as harsh predicted guilt but that lower levels of guilt and support for apology were associated with guilt avoidance strategies (expressing doubts about guilt and the cost of apology).

None of this research suggests that group-based guilt is a good or bad thing. The research does not suggest to Australians that they should, or should not, feel guilt, but it does suggest that the phenomenon is both real and powerful, and deserves close consideration.