1. 100 years after: What is the relation between pacifist attitudes and social representations of the Great War?
- Author
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Christine Flassbeck, Chiara Volpato, Denis Hilton, Tibor Pólya, Valérie Rosoux, Resit Kislioglu, Pierre Bouchat, Andreea Ernst-Vintila, Sylvain Delouvée, Geneviève Warland, Olivier Klein, Alice Krenn, Laurent Licata, Susanne Bruckmüller, Nebojša Petrović, Laurence Van Ypersele, Federica Durante, Inna Bovina, Silvia Mari, Jean Louis Tavani, Heinrich Ammerer, J. Christopher Cohrs, Christian G. Allesch, Istvan Csertó, Chantal Kesteloot, Moscow State Regional University., Laboratoire de Psychologie : Cognition, Comportement, Communication (LP3C - EA1285), Université de Bretagne Sud (UBS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Institut Brestois des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société (IBSHS), Université de Brest (UBO), Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile-Architettura, Ambientale (DICEAA), Università degli Studi dell'Aquila (UNIVAQ), Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale (LAPPS), Université Paris Nanterre (UPN)-Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8), Groupe de recherche en économie mathématique et quantitative (GREMAQ), Université Toulouse 1 Capitole (UT1), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC (GREGH), Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherches en Psychologie Cognition et Communication (CRPCC EA 1285), Université de Bretagne Sud (UBS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-MEN : EA1285-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES), Università degli Studi dell'Aquila [L'Aquila] (UNIVAQ.IT), Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie (CLLE-LTC), École pratique des hautes études (EPHE)-Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8), Centre d'Etudes de Populations, de Pauvreté et de Politiques Socio-Economiques / International Networks for Studies in Technology, Environment, Alternatives, Development (CEPS/INSTEAD), Centre d'Etudes de Populations, de Pauvreté et de Politiques Socio-Economiques / International Networks for Studies in Technology, Environment, Alternatives, Development, École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis (UP8)-Université Paris Nanterre (UPN), Bouchat, P, Licata, L, Rosoux, V, Allesch, C, Ammerer, H, Bovina, I, Bruckmüller, S, Cohrs, C, Csertő, I, Delouvée, S, Durante, F, Ernst- Vintila, A, Flassbeck, C, Hilton, D, Kesteloot, C, Kislioglu, R, Krenn, A, Mari, S, Petrović, N, Pólya, T, Tavani, J, van Ypersele, L, Volpato, C, Warland, G, Klein, O, and Università degli Studi dell'Aquila = University of L'Aquila (UNIVAQ)
- Subjects
Social representation ,WWI ,05 social sciences ,[SHS.PSY]Humanities and Social Sciences/Psychology ,Gender studies ,Pacifist Attitude ,Pacifism ,Europe ,Attitude ,Social Representations of the Great War ,Political Science and International Relations ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Sociology ,Relation (history of concept) ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,M-PSI/05 - PSICOLOGIA SOCIALE ,050104 developmental & child psychology - Abstract
In this article we use a social representational perspective on a large sample of European students to consider the interplay between pacifist attitudes and representations of World War I (WWI). WWI gave rise to pacifist movements across the globe. Across 10 European countries (N = 1,347 undergraduate students), we invited participants to report the first 5 words that came to their mind when thinking about this event and measured their level of pacifism. Analyses of the reported words revealed the presence of seven lexical classes corresponding to 2 main perspectives on WWI. The first main perspective was characterized by "analytical" representations of the war, with a focus on the places and actors of WWI. The second perspective highlighted negative emotions and appraisals associated with war. Overall, we found that the pacifist attitudes we analyzed were associated with a view of the conflict in terms of negatively valanced words, both at the emotional level and in terms of concrete consequences. Conversely lower pacifist attitudes were linked with an emphasis upon weapons. The present results help fill a gap in the literature on attitudes toward peace and war by evidencing their interplay with the way individuals view war. These findings allow us to establish a connection between mainstream, individualcentered approach to attitudes relying on individual premises and social representation theory. Moreover, in line with historical scholarship, these results suggest that a common interpretational framework underlies a view of the conflict associated with the pacifist wave that emerged 100 years ago and current pacifist attitudes. Finally, the present study is the first large scale psychology study of the social representations of the Great War.
- Published
- 2019
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