The antinomies of collective political trauma: A pre-theory

Yaacov Y.I. Vertzberger*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination has less of a lasting impact on the Israeli public's political values, beliefs and attitudes than might have been anticipated from the magnitude of the event and intensity of the immediate responses. Why did the assassination have such a short-lived effect? This article considers the puzzle as a specific case of the broader phenomenon of collective political trauma and its consequences for values, beliefs and attitudes held by the mass public toward issues that it associates with the traumatic event. The article offers six deductively inferred hypotheses that describe, explain and link affective, cognitive and behavioral aspects of collectively experienced trauma. These hypotheses form a pre-theory explaining the perseverance of core political cognitions, even in the face of a considerable challenge to their validity and relevance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)863-876
Number of pages14
JournalPolitical Psychology
Volume18
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1997

Keywords

  • Cognition
  • Collective trauma
  • Critical moment
  • Information processing
  • Prime minister rabin's assassination

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