What is it about?
After a war ends, an apology from the other side can mean very different things depending on who delivers it. This research tested two kinds of apology in Kosovo, where Kosovo Albanians experienced devastating losses during the 1998 to 1999 war with Serbia. In one version, people learned that the majority of ordinary Serbian citizens expressed regret for the war. In another, a single government official issued a formal apology on the nation's behalf. Across three studies, the apology from ordinary citizens consistently worked better. It increased people's willingness to have contact with Serbs, made them feel more at peace, and increased support for political negotiation between the two countries. It also reduced the tendency to see one's own group as the only true victim of the conflict. The official government apology, by contrast, barely moved people's attitudes at all, performing about the same as receiving no apology whatsoever.
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Why is it important?
Governments and institutions often issue formal apologies after conflicts, assuming this is the most meaningful way to acknowledge harm. This research suggests that assumption may be misplaced. People seem to find it more credible and more healing when an apology reflects the genuine sentiment of ordinary members of the other group, rather than a statement from a single official speaking on their behalf. For peacebuilding efforts, this points to the value of understanding and communicating grassroots sentiment, not just securing formal diplomatic gestures, when trying to rebuild trust between communities recovering from conflict.
Perspectives
I have long been interested in what actually makes an apology feel real to the people receiving it, especially in a context like Kosovo where the wounds of war are still close to the surface. What struck me most in this work was how little the official apology moved anything. People did not reject it outright, they simply treated it almost the same as silence. It suggests that reconciliation depends less on grand diplomatic gestures and more on whether ordinary people on the other side are seen to genuinely feel something. That is a more demanding standard than a press statement, but also a more honest one.
Dr Islam Borinca
National University of Ireland Maynooth
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Fostering Social Cohesion in Post‐Conflict Societies: The Power of Normative Apologies in Reducing Competitive Victimhood and Enhancing Reconciliation and Intergroup Negotiation, European Journal of Social Psychology, October 2024, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.3116.
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