Non-Indigenous Canadians’ Attitudes Toward Renaming or Removing Statues as a Reconciliation Strategy

IF 2.2 3区 心理学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL
John Shayegh, Becky Choma, Jorida Cila, Jaiden Herkimer
{"title":"Non-Indigenous Canadians’ Attitudes Toward Renaming or Removing Statues as a Reconciliation Strategy","authors":"John Shayegh,&nbsp;Becky Choma,&nbsp;Jorida Cila,&nbsp;Jaiden Herkimer","doi":"10.1111/jasp.13088","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples has been a named priority for many post-colonial societies. In this context, in August 2018, Victoria City Hall in Canada removed the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, from its grounds; similar events followed across Canada. Research on this issue is lacking but can offer useful insights to researchers and policymakers. To understand how non-Indigenous Canadians respond to renaming or removing statues in the name of reconciliation, we qualitatively analysed online comments posted under news articles reporting the removal of Macdonald's statue (Study 1). Two narratives aimed at delegitimising renaming/removing emerged: depicting the actions as excessive ‘political correctness’ (PC) that represented the values of a powerful, but minority, outgroup of ‘liberal elites’; and depicting the actions as a symbolic threat to the ingroup through notions of ‘rewriting history’. In Study 2, with a Canadian community sample, we investigated anti-PC attitudes and symbolic intergroup threat via rewriting history as predictors of support for reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Given the central role of ideological beliefs in intergroup attitudes, we examined RWA and SDO as predictors of anti-PC attitudes, symbolic threat in the form of rewriting history, and support for reconciliation. Path analysis results showed that RWA and SDO indirectly predicted lower support for renaming/removing via higher anti-PC attitudes and higher symbolic threat. Collectively, this research provides evidence that anti-PC and symbolic threat are important constructs in relation to responses to reconciliation proposals in Canada with potential implications for other post-colonial societies.</p>","PeriodicalId":48404,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Social Psychology","volume":"55 4","pages":"242-257"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jasp.13088","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Applied Social Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.13088","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples has been a named priority for many post-colonial societies. In this context, in August 2018, Victoria City Hall in Canada removed the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, from its grounds; similar events followed across Canada. Research on this issue is lacking but can offer useful insights to researchers and policymakers. To understand how non-Indigenous Canadians respond to renaming or removing statues in the name of reconciliation, we qualitatively analysed online comments posted under news articles reporting the removal of Macdonald's statue (Study 1). Two narratives aimed at delegitimising renaming/removing emerged: depicting the actions as excessive ‘political correctness’ (PC) that represented the values of a powerful, but minority, outgroup of ‘liberal elites’; and depicting the actions as a symbolic threat to the ingroup through notions of ‘rewriting history’. In Study 2, with a Canadian community sample, we investigated anti-PC attitudes and symbolic intergroup threat via rewriting history as predictors of support for reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Given the central role of ideological beliefs in intergroup attitudes, we examined RWA and SDO as predictors of anti-PC attitudes, symbolic threat in the form of rewriting history, and support for reconciliation. Path analysis results showed that RWA and SDO indirectly predicted lower support for renaming/removing via higher anti-PC attitudes and higher symbolic threat. Collectively, this research provides evidence that anti-PC and symbolic threat are important constructs in relation to responses to reconciliation proposals in Canada with potential implications for other post-colonial societies.

非原住民加拿大人对重新命名或移除雕像作为和解策略的态度
对许多后殖民社会来说,与土著人民和解一直是一项明确的优先事项。在此背景下,2018年8月,加拿大维多利亚市政厅将加拿大首任总理约翰·a·麦克唐纳爵士的雕像从其场地上拆除;类似的事件随后在加拿大各地发生。关于这个问题的研究是缺乏的,但是可以为研究人员和政策制定者提供有用的见解。为了了解非原住民加拿大人对以和解的名义重命名或移除雕像的反应,我们定性分析了报道移除麦克唐纳雕像的新闻文章下发布的在线评论(研究1)。出现了两种旨在使重命名/移除雕像合法化的叙述:将这些行为描述为过度的“政治正确”(PC),代表了强大但少数的“自由精英”的价值观;并通过“改写历史”的概念将这些行为描述为对内部集团的象征性威胁。在研究2中,我们以加拿大社区为样本,调查了反政治政治态度和通过改写历史的象征性群体间威胁作为支持与土著民族和解的预测因素。考虑到意识形态信仰在群体间态度中的核心作用,我们研究了RWA和SDO作为反pc态度、以改写历史为形式的象征性威胁和对和解的支持的预测因子。通径分析结果显示,RWA和SDO通过较高的反pc态度和较高的符号威胁间接预测了较低的重命名/删除支持度。总的来说,本研究提供的证据表明,反政治暴力和象征性威胁是加拿大对和解提议的反应的重要构式,对其他后殖民社会具有潜在的影响。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
CiteScore
4.30
自引率
4.00%
发文量
95
期刊介绍: Published since 1971, Journal of Applied Social Psychology is a monthly publication devoted to applications of experimental behavioral science research to problems of society (e.g., organizational and leadership psychology, safety, health, and gender issues; perceptions of war and natural hazards; jury deliberation; performance, AIDS, cancer, heart disease, exercise, and sports).
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信