The effect of common humanity on forgiveness and collective action does not generalise to all victim groups

Abstract

Prior work has found that making common human identity salient increases forgiveness of perpetrators but reduces collective action intentions among victims of historical atrocities. We conducted three experiments to investigate the generalisability of this effect among Alevis—a religious minority found mainly in Turkey. Study 1 (N = 222) found that the common human identity manipulation was unsuccessful and did not lead to differences in forgiveness of perpetrators or collective action intentions among Alevis. In Study 2 (N = 164), we conducted the same experiment and asked an open-ended question about norms associated with Alevism. The results replicated the null effects in Study 1, additionally showing that the social norms of Alevis relate to being humanist and peaceful. Study 3 (N = 183) tested the role of Alevis’ humanist norms as a potential moderator of the inclusiveness effect. We again found that the common human identity manipulation did not affect forgiveness or collective action intentions, nor did Alevism norms moderate this effect. We discuss the importance of generalising social psychological findings to different cultural contexts and different victim groups.