Very interesting study of the comfort many find in historical denialism and ‘whataboutism’

The published version is paywalled — a preprint is available here: tinyurl.com/4aszsd6h

May be of interest to historians facing this kind of backlash: @alanlester.bsky.social @davidolusoga.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social @anitaanand.bsky.social @sathnam.bsky.social

The results speak to the dangers of obstructive lines of argument used when discussing past acts of violence, and the importance of responsible approaches to history for inter-group relations.

I find that whataboutism not only enables people to avoid confronting ‘uncomfortable’ histories, but actively increases prejudice towards victimised historical outgroups.

I compare the political attitudes of British respondents after learning about violence committed by the British Empire, with and without additional information about Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

I use a survey experiment to study the case of the British Empire, which is often a target for such defensive rhetoric (“at least we weren’t as bad as the Belgians”).

We Could Have Been Worse: ‘Whataboutism’ and Defensive Memory Among Perpetrator Groups - Political Behavior Can exposure to harmful acts committed by other groups obstruct meaningful confrontation with one’s own group history? This paper explores the extent to which favourable inter-group comparison — the i...

I’m excited to see this published in @polbehavior.bsky.social!

When faced with historical harms committed by an ingroup, what is the effect of ‘whataboutism’ — appeals to ‘worse’ harms committed by other groups? 👇

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Very happy that my paper has just been published at @apsrjournal.bsky.social!

Do insurgents help or hurt genocide targets? Contrary to common belief, I find that insurgent presence reduced Jewish victimisation during the Holocaust in France.

Here's what I discovered 👇

1/6

Just published on APSR First View: "Allies of the Weak: La Résistance and Jews in the Holocaust" by Kasia Nalewajko. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...