Isfort, Viktoria (2025) War in Palestine and Third-Party Reactions in Germany. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Since the 7th of October 2023, the war in Palestine has escalated, reaching polarised stances even in countries not directly involved in the war. Germany, a country that, due to its responsibility for the Holocaust, has a historically complex relationship with Israel, maintains support both through declaring solidarity and supplying weapons, leading to dissent by the public, which has engaged more frequently in collective action for Palestine. This study investigates how the misalignment between individuals’ views and the perceived governmental and societal stance in Germany on the Israel–Palestine conflict is associated with emotions and normative collective action intentions. Specifically, this research examines anger as a psychological mediator and includes collective Holocaust guilt as a potential moderator. To analyze these associations, a cross-sectional, online survey of 472 German participants assessed perceived misalignment with the government and society, anger toward both, collective Holocaust guilt, and intentions to engage in normative collective action. Findings show that misalignment, both with government and society, is linked to anger and greater intention to engage in normative collective action. Anger toward the government fully mediated the relationship between governmental misalignment and normative collective action intentions. In the case of misalignment with society, this relationship was not mediated by anger directed at society. Additionally, collective Holocaust guilt did not moderate this effect, suggesting that historical guilt does not significantly inhibit political engagement in this context. This study offers insights into the emotional underpinnings of political activism in democratic but constrained contexts. It suggests that perceived institutional misalignment is linked to anger and normative collective action intentions, independent of historical collective guilt.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Borinca, I. and Postmes, T.T. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Aug 2025 09:34 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2025 09:34 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5828 |
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