What is collective guilt in simple terms?

Guilt you feel for wrongs your group did to another group in the past, even if you did not do them yourself.

Does it always lead to good outcomes?

It raises support for apology and reparation, but people try to avoid it by minimizing harm or blaming victims, and for broader change empathy or anger can be stronger motivators.

Collective Guilt

🧠 Psychology By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated October 27, 2026 Views 2

Collective guilt is guilt felt for wrongs one's group committed against another group, even when one did not personally take part. Historical wrongs such as colonialism, slavery and discrimination against Indigenous peoples are typical contexts. Bertjan Doosje and colleagues first demonstrated it experimentally in 1998. Collective guilt leads people to support apology and reparation to victimized groups, but defensive reactions to avoid it are also strong.

Contents

1. Concept and first experiment
2. Conditions and defenses
3. Apology, reparation and other emotions
4. FAQ
5. References

Concept and first experiment

According to social identity theory, people treat their group as part of themselves and can therefore respond emotionally not only to its successes but also to its wrongs. Doosje and colleagues (1998) had Dutch participants read about the history of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia. When the account was ambiguous, mixing positive and negative aspects rather than covering only negative ones, high identifiers felt less guilt. Low identifiers felt more guilt, and this guilt led to support for compensation. This shows that people who care most about their group find it hardest to admit its wrongs.

Conditions and defenses

Wohl and colleagues (2006) concluded that collective guilt requires categorizing the ingroup as perpetrator, perceiving the harm as illegitimate and seeing the ingroup as responsible. People escape guilt by evading these conditions: minimizing the harm, blaming victims, distancing themselves by calling it "long ago," or claiming that the ingroup also suffered. The last links to competitive victimhood. Branscombe and Doosje's (2004) edited volume examined how these processes appear in societies including Germany, Australia and the United States.

Apology, reparation and other emotions

McGarty and colleagues (2005) showed that non-Indigenous Australians' collective guilt predicted support for a government apology to Indigenous Australians. Brown and colleagues (2008) showed in Chile that guilt about the Indigenous Mapuche predicted support for reparation, whereas shame mainly predicted distancing or image-repair motives. Iyer and colleagues (2003) showed that because guilt is self-focused, it predicts support for direct compensation, while support for broader policies such as affirmative action is better predicted by empathy for victims. Leach and colleagues (2006) reported that anger about unfair ingroup advantage drives political action more strongly than guilt.

FAQ

What is collective guilt in simple terms?: Guilt you feel for wrongs your group did to another group in the past, even if you did not do them yourself.
Does it always lead to good outcomes?: It raises support for apology and reparation, but people try to avoid it by minimizing harm or blaming victims, and for broader change empathy or anger can be stronger motivators.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26

References

Doosje, B., Branscombe, N. R., Spears, R., & Manstead, A. S. R. (1998). Guilty by association: When one's group has a negative history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(4), 872–886. The first experimental demonstration of collective guilt.
Branscombe, N. R., & Doosje, B. (Eds.). (2004). Collective Guilt: International Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. An edited volume with international perspectives.
Iyer, A., Leach, C. W., & Crosby, F. J. (2003). White guilt and racial compensation: The benefits and limits of self-focus. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(1), 117–129. Guilt predicts compensation but has limits versus empathy.
McGarty, C., Pedersen, A., Leach, C. W., Mansell, T., Waller, J., & Bliuc, A.-M. (2005). Group-based guilt as a predictor of commitment to apology. British Journal of Social Psychology, 44(4), 659–680. Group-based guilt predicts support for apology in Australia.
Leach, C. W., Iyer, A., & Pedersen, A. (2006). Anger and guilt about ingroup advantage explain the willingness for political action. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(9), 1232–1245. Compares guilt and anger as motivators of political action.
Wohl, M. J. A., Branscombe, N. R., & Klar, Y. (2006). Collective guilt: Emotional reactions when one's group has done wrong or been wronged. European Review of Social Psychology, 17(1), 1–37. A comprehensive review of collective guilt.
Brown, R., González, R., Zagefka, H., Manzi, J., & Čehajić, S. (2008). Nuestra culpa: Collective guilt and shame as predictors of reparation for historical wrongdoing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(1), 75–90. Guilt versus shame in reparation attitudes in Chile.

Reports and materials that use this theory (Korean)

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This article was last updated on October 27, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.