Cargando…
COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has been described as an unmasking of persistent racialized inequalities linked to South Africa’s oppressive past. However, such observations lack empirical support. Here we examined whether COVID-19 lockdown conditions encouraged greater perceptions of continuing structural ra...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8481112/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34608456 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00073-7 |
_version_ | 1784576612046471168 |
---|---|
author | Fourie, Melike M. Verwoerd, Wilhelm J. |
author_facet | Fourie, Melike M. Verwoerd, Wilhelm J. |
author_sort | Fourie, Melike M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The COVID-19 pandemic has been described as an unmasking of persistent racialized inequalities linked to South Africa’s oppressive past. However, such observations lack empirical support. Here we examined whether COVID-19 lockdown conditions encouraged greater perceptions of continuing structural racism together with motivational and behavioral support for social justice, and whether guilt or empathic concern undergirded such responses. A national sample of White South Africans’ data suggests that the pandemic served as a natural intervention, fostering greater acknowledgement of structural racism and support for redress through increased awareness of historical privilege and guilt in response to Black hardship. Guilt furthermore predicted a social justice motivation in relief efforts, whereas empathic concern predicted only charity motivation. These results suggest that “White guilt” is more consequential than empathic concern in contributing to structural reform but would require longer-term processes to support the translation of its motivational push into sustainable contributions to social justice. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00073-7. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8481112 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84811122021-09-30 COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis Fourie, Melike M. Verwoerd, Wilhelm J. Affect Sci Research Article The COVID-19 pandemic has been described as an unmasking of persistent racialized inequalities linked to South Africa’s oppressive past. However, such observations lack empirical support. Here we examined whether COVID-19 lockdown conditions encouraged greater perceptions of continuing structural racism together with motivational and behavioral support for social justice, and whether guilt or empathic concern undergirded such responses. A national sample of White South Africans’ data suggests that the pandemic served as a natural intervention, fostering greater acknowledgement of structural racism and support for redress through increased awareness of historical privilege and guilt in response to Black hardship. Guilt furthermore predicted a social justice motivation in relief efforts, whereas empathic concern predicted only charity motivation. These results suggest that “White guilt” is more consequential than empathic concern in contributing to structural reform but would require longer-term processes to support the translation of its motivational push into sustainable contributions to social justice. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00073-7. Springer International Publishing 2021-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8481112/ /pubmed/34608456 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00073-7 Text en © The Society for Affective Science 2021 |
spellingShingle | Research Article Fourie, Melike M. Verwoerd, Wilhelm J. COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis |
title | COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis |
title_full | COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis |
title_fullStr | COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis |
title_full_unstemmed | COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis |
title_short | COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis |
title_sort | covid-19 as natural intervention: guilt and perceived historical privilege contributes to structural reform under conditions of crisis |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8481112/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34608456 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00073-7 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT fouriemelikem covid19asnaturalinterventionguiltandperceivedhistoricalprivilegecontributestostructuralreformunderconditionsofcrisis AT verwoerdwilhelmj covid19asnaturalinterventionguiltandperceivedhistoricalprivilegecontributestostructuralreformunderconditionsofcrisis |