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National Attachment, Past In-Group Perpetratorhood, and Out-Group Attitudes
Author(s): Balcells, Laia; Dinas, Elias; vanderWilden, Ethan
Date: 2026
Topics: Antisemitism: Attitude Surveys, Surveys, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Methodology, National Identity
Abstract: Exclusionary attitudes are often justified by histories of conflict. A large body of literature explores how making in-group victimhood salient can affect attitudes towards out-groups. Much less, however, has been done to study how episodes in history that position the in-group as perpetrators may reduce or exacerbate animosity towards the victimized group. We fill this gap by studying antisemitism in contemporary Spain. Using a well-powered and pre-registered survey experiment, we prime respondents with the historical expulsion of Jews from Spain in the fifteenth century. The effects of priming this historical episode are conditional on one’s degree of national attachment: respondents who are less attached to the Spanish nation express lower levels of antisemitism in response to the treatment, while those reporting high levels of attachment appear to exhibit a modest backlash. These results update our understanding of how majority populations confront histories that implicate their own group as perpetrators.
Perpetrator Narratives and Antisemitism in Spain, 2024
Author(s): Balcells, Laia; Dinas, Elias; vanderWilden, Ethan
Date: 2024
Topics: Surveys, Antisemitism: Attitude Surveys, Israel: Attitudes to Israel, Attitudes to Jews, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Abstract: Exclusionary attitudes towards out-groups are often justified by historical narratives of conflict. A large body of literature explores how making in-group victimhood narratives salient can affect attitudes towards out-groups. Much less, however, has been done to study how in-group perpetrator narratives may reduce or exacerbate animosity towards a (historically victimized) out-group. This dataset helps to fill this gap by studying antisemitism in Spain. It measures antisemitism and attitudes towards Israel, while also including a survey experiment that randomly assigns respondents into one of three treatment arms related to historical perpetratorhood and out-group victimization. Results from these data have been used in a working paper written by the dataset creators: ‘Do in-group perpetrator narratives reduce out-group animosity? Experimental evidence exploring antisemitism in Spain,’ which documents how historical narratives affect attitudes towards outgroups in Spain.