HOW TO APPLY EMOTIONS TO REAL LIFE INTERGROUP CONFLICTS? GROUP-RELATED EMOTIONS ARE HISTORICALLY ANCHORED

The study uses Hungarian national history to test the role of historical context and historically anchored emotions in real-life intergroup conflicts. We used an experimental design with six out-groups (Turks, Russians, Croatians, Serbs, Slovaks and Rumanians). Hungarian subjects (N = 71) were presented with twelve short historical narratives describing two events involving each out-group: one in which the out-group was the perpetrator, one in which it was victim. Dependent variables were emotions ascribed to the in-group, to the out-group and to the subject herself in each situation. Results supported the hypothesis that the historical trajectory (the sequence of positive and negative events or victories and defeats) of the in-group, as it is preserved in collective memory, evokes a specific set of intergroup emotions. The hypothesis that historically trajectory related emotions predict collective emotions that contemporary subjects experience also received support.