Group-based humiliation : does it exist and what are the consequences?

Abstract

Humiliation is a negative, self-conscious emotion that is experienced because of a psychological discrepancy between an individual’s self-concept and how s/he perceives others as viewing him/her. The questions addressed in the present research were whether humiliation can be experienced as a group-based emotion, what are the emotional and behavioural consequences, and what role does ingroup identification play? In line with the intergroup emotion theory (Smith et al., 2007) and related research, three experiments were conducted to address these questions. The results showed that participants reported to feel humiliation on behalf of a humiliated ingroup member. The results further implied that the behavioural responses such as withdrawal and revenge to group-based humiliation depend on the accommodating emotions such as shame and anger. The results addressing the role of ingroup identification were rather ambiguous. The implications of the present research are outlined in detail with regard to the current discourse on intergroup emotions.