Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
GISAME, Facultad Nacional de Salud Pública, Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA), Medellín, Colombia.
J Interpers Violence. 2022 Jun;37(11-12):NP9295-NP9319. doi: 10.1177/0886260520983258. Epub 2020 Dec 18.
Strong group identities arise in intergroup conflict scenarios and perpetuate sectarian violence even in post-conflict scenarios. In particular, out-group negative implicit associations are predictors of decreased intergroup forgiveness, as well as increased distrust and aggression against the out-group. Thus, the presence of implicit intergroup (i.e., ex-combatants and victims) biases seems to be a relevant factor in post-conflict scenarios. Here, we aimed to explore whether negative biases toward the out-group are boosted by (a) previous exposure to conflict violence or (b) identification with an armed violent group. One hundred and twenty-eight participants, 65 ex-combatants from Colombian guerrillas and 63 victims of the armed conflict, were assessed with a modified version of the implicit association test (IAT). Our results revealed that the victim group showed a significant negative bias against ex-combatants. However, no bias toward the out-group (i.e., victims) or in-group favoritism was observed in the ex-combatant group. Similarly, we found that IAT scores were not associated with sociodemographical variables (i.e., sex, years of education, or type of dwelling), the levels of combat exposure, victimization armed-conflict-related experiences, or child abuse antecedents. Our results showed an unexpected lack of in-group bias in ex-combatants, potentially triggered by the effect of current demobilization and reintegration processes. Thus, negative associations with the out-group will persist in the framework of societal condemnation of the out-group. In contrast, these negative biases will tend to be abolished when entering in conflict with larger societal reintegration processes. The results reinforce the idea that reintegration may benefit from interventions at the societal level, including all actors of the conflict. In addition, our findings highlight the importance of implementing victim interventions aimed at reducing stigma and revengeful actions in spaces of collective disarmament.
强烈的群体认同会在群体间冲突的情境中产生，并在冲突后延续宗派暴力。特别是，对群体外的消极内隐联想是减少群体间宽恕、增加对群体外的不信任和敌意的预测因素。因此，内隐群体间（即前战斗人员和受害者）偏见的存在似乎是冲突后情境中的一个相关因素。在这里，我们旨在探索对群体外的消极偏见是否会因（a）先前接触冲突暴力或（b）对武装暴力团体的认同而增强。我们评估了 128 名参与者，包括 65 名来自哥伦比亚游击队的前战斗人员和 63 名武装冲突的受害者，他们使用内隐联想测试（IAT）的修改版。我们的结果表明，受害者群体对前战斗人员表现出明显的消极偏见。然而，在前战斗人员群体中，没有观察到对群体外（即受害者）或群体内偏好的偏见。同样，我们发现 IAT 分数与社会人口学变量（即性别、受教育年限或住所类型）、战斗暴露水平、与武装冲突相关的受害经历或虐待儿童的前身无关。我们的结果显示，前战斗人员群体中出人意料地缺乏内群体偏见，这可能是当前复员和重返社会进程的影响所致。因此，在社会对群体外的谴责框架内，与群体外的消极关联将持续存在。相比之下，当进入与更大的社会融合进程发生冲突时，这些消极偏见将趋于消除。这些结果强化了这样一种观点，即融合可能受益于社会层面的干预措施，包括冲突的所有行为者。此外，我们的研究结果强调了实施旨在减少集体解除武装空间中耻辱感和报复行为的受害者干预措施的重要性。
