Social Identities and Intergroup Emotions: The Background of Forgiveness Attitudes and Political Reparation in Chile

In the context of the Chilean political reconciliation process, the present study conceptualizes and tests a meditational model that examines the relational pattern established between social identities (national and political) and attitudes toward political forgiveness and reparation, mediated by intergroup emotional factors (anger, empathy, trust, guilt, and shame). The model predicts that social identities are associated with forgiveness and reparation through the proposed emotional processes. A purposive sample of 225 students of 6 universities of Santiago who identify with the right and 264 who identify with the left voluntarily took part in the study. The results partially supported the predicted meditational role played by intergroup emotions in the relationship of identities with forgiveness and reparation, with different relational patterns being observed in the left and right-wing groups. In the former, empathy and anger were significant mediators of forgiveness, while in the latter, only empathy was a significant mediator of intergroup forgiveness and reparation. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are addressed.