Collective Memory as Tool for Intergroup Conflict: The Case of 9/11 Commemoration

Collective Memory as Tool for Intergroup Conflict: The Case of 9/11 Commemoration

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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 virginia mill works tobacco road acacia 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 deauville michel germain perfume 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.