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Collective Memory as Tool for Intergroup Conflict: The Case of 9/11 Commemoration
Hakim, Nader H. Adams, Glenn E.
Hakim, Nader H.
Adams, Glenn E.
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Abstract
We apply a cultural psychology approach to collective memory of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In particular, we considered whether
practices associated with commemoration of the 9/11 terrorist attacks would promote vigilance (prospective affordance
hypothesis) and misattribution of responsibility for the original 9/11 attacks (reconstructive memory hypothesis) in an ostensibly
unrelated context of intergroup conflict during September 2015. In Study 1, vigilance toward Iran and misattribution of
responsibility for the 9/11 attacks to Iranian sources was greater among participants whom we asked about engagement with
9/11 commemoration than among participants whom we asked about engagement with Labor Day observations. Results of
Study 2 suggested that patterns of greater vigilance and misattribution as a function of instructions to recall engagement with
9/11 commemoration were more specifically true only of participants who reported actual engagement with hegemonic
commemoration practices. From a cultural psychological perspective, 9/11 commemoration is a case of collective memory
not merely because it implicates collective-level (versus personal) identities, but instead because it emphasizes mediation of
motivation and action via engagement with commemoration practices and other cultural tools.
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Date
2017
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PsychOpen
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Keywords
Commemoration, Collective memory, 9/11, Cultural psychology
Citation
Hakim, N. H., & Adams, G. (2017). Collective Memory as Tool for Intergroup Conflict: The Case of 9/11 Commemoration. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 5(2), 630-650. doi:10.5964/jspp.v5i2.713