The Impact of Perceived Perspective-Taking on Stigma Reduction Against an Ex-Terrorist

In this work, we aimed to assess the role of a former terrorist's acceptance of society's concerns over an extraordinary crime of terrorism, termed perceived perspective-taking, in alleviating stigma against the ex-terrorist among a sample of Indonesian citizens. A correlational survey in Study 1 (N = 256) revealed that stigma positively corresponded with discrimination against an ex-terrorist, suggesting the urgency of finding a strategy to tackle the stigma. Study 2 (N = 786) showed that perceived perspective-taking was significantly and negatively correlated with such stigma. Study 3 (N = 1173) was an experiment confirming the effect of perceived perspective-taking in reducing participants' stigma against an ex-terrorist. Study 4 (N = 524) extended Study 3, showing that participants' feelings of hope for the reintegration of an ex-terrorist significantly mediated the effect of perceived perspective-taking in reducing stigma. Another finding in Study 4 revealed that low levels of self-other overlap, more so than high levels of self-other overlap, strengthened the effect of perceived perspective-taking in reducing stigma. Overall, these empirical findings highlight the importance of an ex-terrorist's ability to empathise with society's perspectives, which may help foster positive views of society members towards the ex-terrorist.