Historical Narratives of Victimhood and Support for International Cooperation

• In Event: Legitimzing and De-legitimizing International Cooperation

Abstract

Does a country’s narrative of its role in history affect the way it engages with other countries today? The combined research of conflict studies, behavioral and social psychology suggests it does. A group’s sense of itself as a historical victim has been shown to diminish trust toward former perpetrators, perceived or real, and third persons alike. A narrative of victimhood may thus reduce a country’s willingness to engage in deep forms of international cooperation that require trust in the other’s ongoing cooperative intentions. This paper presents exploratory research on the relationship between victimhood narratives and public attitudes towards international cooperation and, more specifically, European integration. Employing survey experiments in five European countries, we find that exposure to victimhood narratives may indeed reduce a person’s willingness to have its country make more “generous” concessions in negotiations with European partners. This effect is conditioned by a person’s religious beliefs and political leaning.

Author

• Mareike O. Kleine, London School of Economics