Personal Emotions, Emotional Climate, Social Sharing, Beliefs, and Values Among People Affected and Unaffected by Past Political Violence

Personal Emotions, Emotional Climate, Social Sharing, Beliefs, and ValuesAmong People Affected and Unaffected by Past Political Violence

Manuel CárdenasUniversidad de Valparaíso

Darío PáezUniversidad del País Vasco

Bernard RiméUniversité Catholique du Louvain

Ángeles BilbaoPontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

Domingo AsúnUniversidad de Valparaíso

Beliefs, emotions, and perception of socioemotional climate were analyzed in peopleaffected and unaffected by past political violence in Chile (N � 1278). Compared withunaffected people, affected people reported a more positive attitude toward transitionaljustice procedure, were better informed, were more likely to reject an attitude offorgetting about the past, regarded institutional apologies as less sincere and effective,judged the current social climate as less positive, reported higher negative emotionsrelated to the past, and showed less purpose in life. No differences were found forforgiveness or for outcomes of the transitional justice procedures or Truth Commis-sions, such as documentation of the truth or creation of an inclusive collective memory.Across groups, a negative view of forgiveness and a positive view of Truth Commis-sions dominated the picture. However, compared with nonvictims, victims also re-ported more pride and were more likely to endorse Universalist values, and thissuggested that victims were subject, simultaneously, to a long-term negative impact ofpast events and a process of posttraumatic growth.

Keywords: Truth and Reconciliation Commission, emotional climate, attitude toward the past,posttraumatic growth, political violence

Traumatic events, and in particular collectiveviolence, can have long-term effects on politicalattitudes (Laufer & Solomon, 2011; Manzi,Helsper, Ruiz, Krause, & Kronmüller, 2003), onpersonal emotions (Punamaki, 2011), on social

beliefs (Janoff-Bulman, 1992), and on emo-tional climate (De Rivera & Paez, 2007). Anillustration of this is the powerful emotionalclimate of sadness, fear, and anxiety that per-sisted in Chile for years after general AugustoPinochet seized power in 1973, killing a thou-sand people and jailing a hundred thousand (DeRivera, 1992). People were afraid because ev-eryone knew that it would be dangerous to talkabout certain things in public. Even people withrightist “politically correct” attitudes knew thatthey had to be cautious, because the policesometimes made “mistakes.” Such an atmo-sphere strongly affected emotional relationshipsin Chile. People could neither speak about theirrelatives who had disappeared nor publicly statetheir political opinions. The ubiquitous fear re-sulted in social isolation. It prevented peoplefrom knowing the state of mind of those aroundthem and precluded organizing political oppo-

Manuel Cárdenas and Domingo Asún1, Department of●●●, Universidad de Valparaíso; Darío Páez, Department of●●●, Universidad del País Vasco; Bernard Rimé, Depart-ment of ●●●, Université Catholique du Louvain; AngelesBilbao, Department of ●●●, Pontificia Universidad Católicade Valparaíso.

Preparation of this article was facilitated by a grant FON-DECYT N° 1110776 from Chilean National Funds of Sci-entific research, and Grants Psi 2011-26315 from the Span-ish Ministry of Scientific Research and UFI 11/04 from theUniversity of the Basque Country UPV/EHU.

CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS ARTICLE should beaddressed to Manuel Cárdenas, Blanco 951, CP 2340000,Valparaíso, Chile. E-mail: [email protected]

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Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology © 2014 American Psychological Association2014, Vol. 20, No. 3, 000 1078-1919/14/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pac0000038

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sition against the regime. This negative emo-tional climate prevailed until the end of thedictatorship (De Rivera & Páez, 2007) andprobably still has negative effects today. Thepresent study sets out to examine associationsbetween people’s personal and social emotionsand beliefs and their degree of exposure to themilitary dictatorship repression that occurred inChile between 1973 and 1989.

Two “Truth Commissions” (TCs) were cre-ated in Chile for the purpose of documenting thecollective violence that occurred under Pi-nochet’s dictatorship. The aim of the so-called“Rettig Commission” or National Commissionfor Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) in 1991was to provide as complete a picture as possibleof the most severe human rights violations per-petrated by state agents. Its purpose was tocollect information so as to identify individualvictims (people detained or disappeared, politi-cal prisoners executed, and people tortured todeath), to discover their fate, to propose com-pensation measures for their families, and torecommend legal and administrative measuresfor preventing future human rights violations(Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconcili-ación [NCTR], 1991). The so called “ValechCommission” or National Commission for Po-litical Imprisonment and Torture (NCPIT) wascreated to identify people who, without beingkilled, were imprisoned and tortured by stateagents for political reasons (Comisión Nacionalde Prisión Política y Tortura [NCIPT], 2004),and to propose compensation measures forthem. The President of the Republic publishedthe reports of these two commissions in 1991and in 2004, respectively. President Aylwinheaded in 1991 the petition for institutionalapologies for the abuse perpetrated. The NCTRand NCIPT jointly established that 3,197 deathshad occurred for political reasons in Chile, al-most all at the hands of the armed forces or ofthe police (detained-disappeared or executedwithout trial). In addition, the NCPIT reportedmore than 40,000 confirmed cases of politicalimprisonment, and/or torture (this figure in-cludes cases documented by the National Cor-poration for Reparation and Reconciliation, seeComisión Nacional de Reparación y Reconcili-ación [NCRR], 1996). As regards social re-sponses to the reports of these TCs, opinionstudies (Centro de Estudios Públicos [CEP],1991, 2004) showed that citizens regarded them

as both necessary, and truthful. However, themajority of people also believed that they mightcontribute to reopening old wounds. Most citi-zens already had knowledge of at least a part ofthe facts reported, were in favor of compensa-tion measures for victims, and felt emotionallyaffected by the gravity and cruelty of the eventsreported. A great majority believed that, evenafter 30 years, the sociopolitical conflict had notbeen overcome, and reconciliation had not beenachieved, as this objective could be achievedonly by punishing the guilty (CERC, 2003,2004, 2006).

As far as justice is concerned, more than 700trials of agents of the dictatorship were held,and most of those responsible for human rightsviolations were convicted (Lira, 2010; Fun-dación de Ayuda Social de las Iglesias Cristi-anas [FASIC], 2012). Material and symbolicreparatory actions were carried out (see Lira,2011). Efficient restorative actions, such as of-ficial apologies, require them to be perceived assincere, and not as mere justifications or ex-cuses (Staub, 2005). Those who express apol-ogy must be representative and must have thesupport the national or social ingroup (Kadian-gandu & Mullet, 2007). In addition, compensa-tion actions must be associated with such apol-ogies (Gibson, 2004). Some studies, amongthem some carried out in Chile, have suggestedthat perpetrator group members are in favor ofapologies and of forgetting-based forgiveness,whereas victimized group members were morecritical of apologies, more reluctant to forgive,and more in favor of remembering the past andclaiming for reparations (Manzi & González,2007; Manzi, Ruiz, Krause, Meneses, Haye, &Kronmüller, 2004; Mullet, Pinto, Nann, Ka-giangandu, & Neto, 2011; Rimé, Kanyangara,Yzerbit, & Páez, 2011). These observationssuggest that victims or affected people will bemore critical of the TCs’ activities, and partic-ularly of apologies and forgiveness, than will bethe case for nonaffected people.

Research has also shown that, by comparisonwith nonaffected people, those who had beenaffected by political violence—in Chile (Páez,Basabe, & González, 1997), in the BasqueCountry (Páez, Espinosa, & Bobowik, 2012), orin Rwanda (Kanyangara, Rimé, Philippot, &Yzerbit, 2007)—perceive a more negative emo-tional climate (EC). EC reflects the predominantcollective emotions and moods perceived as

2 CÁRDENAS, PÁEZ, RIMÉ, BILBAO, AND ASÚN

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shared by members of social groups such asnational communities. Moreover, ECs surviveafter the social events that have evoked them. Aperiod of collective violence and dictatorshiphas long-term effects on EC. Kanyangara et al.(2007) observed that many years after the cli-max of collective violence in Rwanda, negativeeffects persisted, and they stated: “Emotionalharms in the Rwandese society are still far frombeing repaired. A complex emotional climateprevails involving at one and the same timefeelings of anger, resentment, shame, sadness,and distrust” (p. 388). Thus, we predict thatcompared with nonvictims, victims of collectiveviolence in Chile will report a more negativeemotional climate in the country.

As regards individual responses to past col-lective violence, victims are generally morelikely to suffer mental health problems in rela-tion to their past experience. There is indeedextensive literature confirming that exposure totrauma and collective violence correlates withsubsequent distress, low vitality, demoraliza-tion, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), andsymptoms of anxiety and depression (Brown,2003; Lyons, 1991; Norris, Slone, Baker, &Murphy, 2006; Pedersen, 2002; Shaw, 2003).Thus, 8 years after the South African Truth andReconciliation Commission, the past experienceof collective violence during the Apartheid pe-riod was still related to higher levels of distress,and of PTSD symptoms (Stein, Seedat, Ka-miner, Herman, Sonnega, & Williams, 2008).Victims of collective violence not only experi-enced sadness, helplessness, and anger becauseof their wounds, but also felt humiliated. Theirmoral image and dignity had been dramaticallythreatened (“they killed us like animals”), andthese experiences still leave traces in the formof survivors’ guilt and shame (Hayner, 2001;Martin-Beristain, Páez, Rimé, & Kanyangara,2010). For instance, compared with perpetra-tors, victims of collective violence in Rwandareported much higher levels of sadness, fear,disgust, anxiety, and shame (Kanyangara et al.,2007). In the case of Latin America, and spe-cifically of Chile, more than 16 years after theperiod of collective violence, direct victims, ascompared with nonaffected persons, reportedgreater emotional impact of remembering thepast and more frequent social sharing, rumina-tion, and re-evaluation of the past, but alsogreater inhibition of these memories (Páez,

González, & Basabe, 1997). Studies haveshown that the social sharing of emotions am-plifies those emotions (Rimé, Finkenauer, Lu-minet, Zech, & Philippot, 1998). However, aftera collective trauma, sharing emotions helps toreconstruct positive social beliefs and EC, andto enhance posttraumatic growth, and the per-ception of collective emotions such as solidarity(Rimé et al., 2011). Thus, we can expect thatpeople who were exposed to collective violencein Chile would show higher personal emotionalactivation on remembering past collective vio-lence, as compared to nonvictims. They are alsolikely to show higher levels of emotional shar-ing of past events. It is expected that sharingwould reinforce their emotional reaction, butwould also stimulate positive social beliefs andthe perception of a positive EC.

Exposure to traumatic events shatters basicassumptions or social beliefs, which leads ex-posed people to show a less benevolent view ofthe social milieu and a view of the self as lessworthy (Catlin & Epstein, 1992; Janoff-Bulman, 1992; Pedersen, 2002). Foa, Ehlers,Clark, Tollin, and Osrillo (1999) found thatpeople affected by trauma and suffering from aPTSD syndrome manifest a significantly lessbenevolent view of the social milieu than thosewho are unaffected, or affected by trauma butwithout PTSD. These observations suggest thatpeople who have experienced a strong traumaticexperience and who currently show high levelsof traumatic symptoms would report more neg-ative social beliefs. On the other hand, recentliterature on trauma has shown that in additionto the widely acknowledged negative effects ofstressful events, about two thirds of people af-fected by collective violence or trauma alsoreport positive personal as well as social lifechanges (see the meta-analytic reviews by Hel-geson, Reynolds, and Tomich (2006) and byPratti and Pietrantoni (2009)). For instance, ex-posure to collective violence was simultane-ously associated with PTSD symptoms andposttraumatic growth in an Israeli study (Laufer& Solomon, 2011). Moreover, research hasshown that people with a past of sociopoliticaltrauma report stronger social values than thosewho were not affected—this applying particu-larly to people with strong ideological beliefs(Punamaki, 2011; Vázquez & Páez, 2011). Ex-amples of growth or of positive changes aftercollective trauma include increased agreement

3ATTITUDES TOWARD TRANSITIONAL PROCESS IN CHILE

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with transcendence values (benevolence anduniversalism) and an upsurge in some positiveemotions such as pride in one’s own and others’positive reactions and hope related to reparatoryactivities such as TCs (Peterson, 2006; Vázquez& Páez, 2011). Thus, exposure to collectiveviolence is expected to erode social beliefs butalso to be related to positive emotions and pos-itive values.

The general purpose of the present study wasto assess the impact of level of exposure to pastcollective violence (direct victim, indirect vic-tim, and nonaffected respondents) on attitudestoward NCTR and NCPIT, on the perception ofemotional climate and on social beliefs. Thehypotheses of the study are as follows:

Hypothesis 1: Victims are expected to bemore receptive to TCs’ activities, reportingbroader knowledge, greater agreementwith NCTR goals and higher social sharingabout the Commissions.

Hypothesis 2: Victims are expected to bemore critical than nonvictims in their ap-praisal of official apologies, and to be morerejecting of social forgetting andforgiveness.

Hypothesis 3: Because exposure to collec-tive violence has a long-term negative im-pact on evaluation of the social and emo-tional climate, direct victims, comparedwith nonvictims, are expected to evaluatethis climate more negatively.

Hypothesis 4: The emotional impact ofTCs and the remembering of past violencewill be greater for victims, who will showhigher levels of emotion, of social sharingand of inhibition of emotion in relation tothis past violence.

Hypothesis 5: Exposure to collective vio-lence is predicted to have a long-term neg-ative impact on social beliefs, and to erodeone’s sense of purpose in life. At the sametime, however, it is predicted to fuel post-traumatic growth, and to reinforce the en-dorsement of Universalist values (Univer-salist values is understanding, tolerance,caring about welfare of all people, andnature).

Method

Sample and Procedure

The sample consisted of 1,278 participants,629 men (49.2%) and 649 women (50.8%), withages ranging from 18 to 90 years (M � 39.66years, SD � 17.36). Data were collected in thecountry’s most populous urban areas: Santiago(26.1%), Valparaíso (30.8%), Concepción (14.4%), and Antofagasta (28.7%). Participantswere unqualified blue collar workers (8.1%),qualified blue collars, white collars (14.9%),executives or self-employed (22.7%), retired (4.3%), housewife (7.8%), students (24.6%), orother (17.6%). The instrument was applied byspecially trained university students. Althoughthis was not a random sample, it was stratifiedso as to reflect the population ratios for sex anddifferent age groups in each city (National In-stitute of Statistics, 2002). The conveniencesample included volunteers who met the definedrequirements for different age groups and sex.Once participants had agreed to participate inthe study and signed a consent letter informingthem of its goals and guaranteeing confidenti-ality and anonymity (ethical criteria were thoseof the National Commission of Science andTechnology), they completed the paper-and-pencil questionnaire individually. Data werecollected between October 2010 and July 2011.

Measures

The questionnaire covered the following setsof variables.

Sociodemographic information and expo-sure to past violence. Respondents first an-swered questions about their age, gender, city ofresidence, and occupation. Next, their experi-ence of past collective violence was examinedthrough questions aimed at differentiating be-tween “direct victims,” “indirect victims,” andpersons “unaffected” by political violence.These categories were derived from respon-dents’ answers to the two following questions:“Do you consider yourself a victim of the vio-lence perpetrated by the state or its agents be-tween 1973 and 1989?” (Yes/No) and “Arethere any victims of state violence or its agentsbetween 1973 and 1989 among your familymembers or close friends?” (Yes/No). Partici-pants who responded affirmatively to the first

4 CÁRDENAS, PÁEZ, RIMÉ, BILBAO, AND ASÚN

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question or to both questions were categorizedas direct victims, those who responded affirma-tively only to the second question were consid-ered as indirect victims, and those who re-sponded negatively to both questions wereconsidered as “unaffected.”

Level of information, social sharing, globalattitudes toward the Commissions, and eval-uation of the Commissions’ outcomes.Participants were asked whether they knewabout the work of the Commissions: “Do youknow about the activities of the NCTR?” (Yes/No) and “Do you know about the activities ofthe NCPPT?” (Yes/No). Four questions adaptedfrom studies on social sharing (Rimé, 2005)enquired about the extent to which respondentstalked about past events (“Did you ever feel theneed to talk about past violence?) and about theCommissions’ activities (“Have you ever spo-ken with people around you about the NCTRsince the publication of its report?), and alsoabout the extent to which they had inhibitedsuch communication (“Are there aspects of thepast violence you have never talked about withanybody?”) (“Are there aspects of the past vio-lence you do not want to talk about at all?”).The response scales ranged from 1 � Not at allto 4 � A great deal. Reliability across the fouritems was found to be satisfactory (� � .85).

Next, participants’ global attitudes toward thework of the TCs was examined using the fol-lowing item adapted from Gibson (2004):“Would you say that you: Strongly approvewhat the NCTR has done/ Somewhat approve/Somewhat disapprove/ Strongly disapprove.” Asimilar item was then proposed with regard tothe CNPT. In view of the consistency of theanswers (� � .92), the two items were aver-aged. For the evaluation of the Commissions’outcomes, four more items adapted from Gib-son (2004) were then proposed: “The NCTR isoften said to have several important jobs.Would you say that it has done an excellentjob/pretty good job/pretty bad job/poor job: (a)“Letting families know what happened to theirloved ones” (i.e., aim of providing truth aboutvictims), (b) “Helping to create an inclusivehistory integrating the ‘two nations’ or opposedgroups in a common narrative” (aim of creatinga comprehensive history), (c) “Helping bringingperpetrators to judgment” (aim of punishmentof the guilty), and (d) “Ensuring that humanrights abuses will not happen again in the coun-

try (aim of guaranteeing that it will not happenagain). Items 1, 3, and 4 were repeated withreference to the NCPPT. Response optionsranged from 1 � Poor job to 4 � Excellent job.A global evaluation index was computed fromthe answers to these seven items, (� � .89).

Evaluation of the State’s apologies and so-cial forgiveness. Three questions assessed re-spondents’ views on the sincerity of the State’sapology (“Do you consider the President’s apol-ogy and message about the NCTR as sincere?”),its effectiveness in improving empathy (“Doyou consider that the President’s apology andmessage about the NCTR strengthened inter-group empathy and understanding of the suffer-ing endured?”), and in promoting intergrouptrust (“Do you think that the President’s apol-ogy and message about NCTR reinforced mu-tual confidence between groups?”). The re-sponse options ranged in each case from 1 �Not at all/None to 4 � A great deal. A globalindex assessing apology sincerity and effective-ness was created. Reliability was satisfactory(� � .82). An additional question assessed so-cial forgiveness (Kadiangandu & Mullet, 2007;Mullet et al., 2011) (“With respect to the periodof past national collective violence, do you con-sider that people who were affected by pastviolence can forgive those who inflicted thisviolence on them?”), with response optionsranging from 1 � Not at all to 7 � Completely.Finally, two items (adapted from Gibson, 2004)examined respondents’ respective dispositionsto social remembering and to forgetting. “Weare interested in your opinion about the follow-ing two statements regarding this country’spast”: (a). “When it comes to this nation’s past,we must learn from the mistakes that were madeto avoid making the same errors again”; (b) “It’sbetter not to open old wounds by talking aboutwhat happened in the past.” A 4-point responsescale anchored by 1 � Completely false and 2 �Completely true was used.

Perceived socioemotional climate. Respo-ndents’ perception of the socioemotional cli-mate of their country was assessed using twodifferent instruments. First, four items extractedfrom the Emotional Climate scale (Páez, Ruiz,Gailly, Kornblit, Wiesenfeld, & Vidal, 1997a)were used to evaluate the positive (“I think thatin general people trust their institutions” and“People manifest solidarity and mutual help,feel solidarity in general”) and negative emo-

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tional climate (“I think that in general peoplefeel anger, hostility” and “I think that peoplefeel sadness, apathy”). A Likert-type responsescale was used, with anchors 1 � Not at all/None to 5 � A great deal. Additionally, eightitems from the Climate Dimension Scale (DeRivera, 1992) were used to assess the percep-tion of emotional climate. Respondents wereasked how far they agreed with the followingstatements: (a) “People in the country feel se-cure that there is enough food, water, medicine,and shelter for themselves and their families,and that they will continue having these goods”;(b) ”People feel unsafe because of a degree ofviolence that prevents them from living peace-fully“; (c) “People feel that the various politicalgroups in this country trust each other and willwork together for the progress of the country”;(d) “People from different political, ethnic andreligious groups trust each other in this coun-try”; (e) “People are afraid at the perspective oforganizing peaceful public meetings to protest”;(f) “People are afraid of saying what they reallythink because it could be dangerous”; (g) “Peo-ple have hope because things in this country areimproving”; (h) “Lack of hope in this country issuch that many people want to leave.” A Likert-type response scale was used, ranging from 1 �Total disagreement to 7 � Total agreement.Reliability for the scale was � � .82. A princi-pal components factor analysis on these itemsfollowed by a VARIMAX rotation yielded twodimensions explaining together 54.1% of thetotal variance. The first of these dimensions(35.8%) had high loadings for items 1, 3, 5, and6, and thus represented a dimension of Confi-dence-Hope (� � .75), whereas the second one(18.3%) had high loadings for items 2, 4, 7, and8, and was interpreted as a dimension of Fear-Despair (� � .62).

Emotions related to past violence andNCTR activities. Participants rated theiremotional reactions on thinking about the pastevents and the Commissions’ activities: “Towhat extent do you feel the following emotionsin relation to the collective violence period andto NCTR?” They were then shown a list includ-ing three positive emotions (Hope, Happiness,and Pride) and four negative emotions (Sadness,Guilt, Anger, Fear, and Shame). Responsescales anchored by 1 � Not at all and 7 � Agreat deal were used. Reliabilities were satis-

factory for both positive (� � .83) and negativeemotions (� � .79).

Beliefs and values. Two items from thePurpose in Life (PIL) scale (Crumbaugh & Ma-holick, 1964) (� � .67) were used to evaluatethe extent to which participants experience pur-pose in life and the extent to which they act inaccordance with such beliefs (“I believe in areligious or political ideal and through my ac-tions I try to make it a reality”; “I am satisfiedwith my personal and social relationships”). ALikert-type response scale was used, rangingfrom 1 � Completely disagree to 5 � Com-pletely agree. Additionally, adherence to Uni-versalist values was assessed. Universalist val-ues represent transcendence values thatovercome self-promotion and connect people toothers and to the community in general (Davi-dov, Schmidt, & Schwartz, 2008). To assesssuch values, items derived from Schwartz’sPortrait Value Questionnaire 21 (Davidov etal., 2008) were used. Thus, respondents ratedtheir level of similarity to the following charac-ter descriptions: “thinks it important that everyperson in the world be treated equally,” “wantsjustice for everybody, even for people he or shedoesn’t know,” “finds it important to listen topeople who are different from him/her,” and“wants to understand people even when he orshe disagrees with them.” Response optionsranged from 1 � Very similar to 6 � Verydissimilar. Reliability was satisfactory for thetwo scale items measuring Universalism (� �.64).

Results

Exposure to Past Violence

Based upon answers to the two preliminaryquestions examining exposure to past violence,it was found that 304 respondents (24% of thesample) considered themselves as direct victimsof human rights violations perpetrated in Chilefrom 1973 to 1989, whereas 424 respondents(33.4%) reported having victims among theirfamily or close friends and could be categorizedas indirect victims, and the remaining 541 (42.6%) had not been affected by political violenceand were entered in the “unaffected” categoryfor the comparisons to follow. Among the directvictims, the most frequently reported violenceaction was torture (24%), followed by execution

6 CÁRDENAS, PÁEZ, RIMÉ, BILBAO, AND ASÚN

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or disappearance of a direct family member(17.1%), political imprisonment (6.8%), and ex-ile (6.8%). The remaining part of the group ofvictims (46.6%) reported other types of violentacts, such as job dismissal for political reasonsor violent assault at home. Direct victims, indi-rect victims and unaffected respondents werethen compared for age and gender. As regardsage, a significant difference, F(2, 1,268) � 42.87, p � .001, revealed that direct victims wereon average older (M � 46.51, SD � 16.47) thanunaffected respondents (M � 39.38, SD � 17.52), who in turn were older than indirect victims(M � 34.84, SD � 16.04) (all ps � .05 forTukey’s HSD post hoc comparisons). The threegroups also differed significantly by gender,�2(2, 1,270) � 13.45, p � .001, with a lowerproportion of females (41.6%) among directvictims than among indirect victims (53.5%) orunaffected participants (53.8%). Higher expo-sure to violence was associated with greaterinformation, r(1,211) � �.32, negative emo-tions, r � �.28, low positive CEPN climate,r � .22, and high negative CEPN climate, r ��.17. To a lesser extent, such exposure wasalso related to low purpose in life, r � .15,positive global attitude toward CNPPT/CNRT,r � �.09, agreement with Universalist values,r � �.078, positive emotions, r � �.075, allp � .001, and a more critical view of apologiesand outcomes, r � .06 (all rs p � .05).

Information, Social Sharing, and AttitudesAbout the National Commissions

Direct victims, indirect victims and unaf-fected respondents were compared for theirlevel of information about the two NationalCommissions. Age and gender were used ascovariables. ANCOVAS (analysis of covari-ances) and ANOVA (analysis of variances)showed a similar profile, confirming that differ-ences between levels of exposure are not ac-counted for by age and gender. Analysesshowed that direct victims were better informed(M � 1.95, SD � .73) than indirect victims(M � 1.67, SD � .57), who were better in-formed than unaffected persons (M � 1.45,SD � .48), F(2, 1,256) � 73.65, p � .001 (allps � .05 for Tukey’s HSD post hoc compari-sons). The three groups also differed in theirglobal attitude with respect to the Commissions,F(2, 1,183) � 9.31, p � .02). According to

Tukey post hoc comparisons, direct and indirectvictims expressed greater approval of the Com-missions’ work (respectively, M � 2.86, SD �.76 and M � 2.92, SD � .59) than was the caseamong unaffected respondents (M � 2.79,SD � .73). No significant differences werefound between the three groups for their evalu-ation of the Commissions’ outcomes, such asconstruction of an inclusive collective memoryand revelation of the truth. The mean valuesrecorded across groups for these variables sug-gested that, in general, people viewed the Com-missions as unsuccessful for the first goal butsuccessful for the second one. However, thethree groups differed in their evaluation of theCommissions’ aim to support justice by helpingto punish perpetrators, F(2, 1,243) � 4.91, p �.01). According to Tukey post hoc comparisons,direct and indirect victims expressed a less fa-vorable appraisal of the Commissions’ successin attaining this goal (respectively, M � 2.20,SD � .73 and M � 2.26, SD � .73) than was thecase among unaffected respondents (M � 2.37,SD � .73). The three groups also differed intheir evaluation of the Commissions’ goal of theprevention of new human rights violations, F(2,1,240) � 3.06, p � .05: direct and indirectvictims expressed a less favorable appraisal ofthe Commissions’ success in attaining this goal(M � 2.14, SD � .85 and M � 2.23, SD � .82,respectively) than unaffected respondents (M �2.37, SD � .73).

When the three groups were compared forsocial sharing of emotions associated with pastviolence and NCTR activities, a highly signifi-cant effect was observed, F(2, 1,249) � 102.54,p � .001. Inspection of the means revealed thisvariable to be related in linear fashion to thedegree of victimization. Tukey post hoc com-parisons indeed showed that the three groupsdiffered from one another for social sharing,with direct victims showing the highest level ofsocial sharing (M � 2.03, SD � .70) and unaf-fected respondents the lowest (M � 1.46, SD �.46), while indirect victims score was betweenthe two (M � 1.76, SD � .57).

Participants also had to rate the degree towhich they had refrained from talking aboutaspects of past violence. In their response, directvictims obtained a higher average score (M �1.88, SD � .86), F(2, 1,264) � 31.57, p � .001,than indirect victims (M � 1.53, SD � .73) andunaffected participants (M � 1.46, SD � .72),

7ATTITUDES TOWARD TRANSITIONAL PROCESS IN CHILE

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the latter two groups not differing from oneanother according to Tukey post hoc compari-sons. A similar observation was made for thesecond variable, referring to aspects of theirexperience respondents refused to talk about,F(2, 1,260) � 17.20, p � .001. Here again,direct victims obtained a higher average score(M � 1.56, SD � .79) than indirect victims(M � 1.35, SD � .67) and unaffected partici-pants (M � 1.28, SD � .58), the latter twogroups not differing from one another.

Evaluation of the State’s Apologies andSocial Forgiveness

As regards the State’s apologies, direct andindirect victims were significantly less con-vinced of their effectiveness (respectively, M �1.89, SD � .60. and M � 1.98, SD � .56) thanunaffected respondents (M � 2.11, SD � .68),F(2, 1,217) � 11.59, p � .001. However, thethree groups did not differ with regard to beliefin social forgiveness, F(2, 1,260) � 2.12, ns. Asregards disposition to social remembering, indi-rect victims and unaffected respondents en-dorsed the view that “we must learn from themistakes of the past . . .” at a higher level(respectively, M � 3.31, SD � .92 and M �3.36, SD � .79) than did direct victims (M �3.13, SD � .92), F(2, 1,265) � 7.99, p � .001,but direct and indirect victims agreed less withthe view that “it is better not to open old wounds. . .” (respectively, M � 1.69, SD � 1.01. andM � 1.83, SD � .99) than did unaffected people(M � 2.28, SD � 1.10), F(2, 1,265) � 38.45,p � .001.

Perceived Socioemotional Climate

All six variables assessing participants’ per-ception of the socioemotional climate (the fouritems from the Emotional Climate scale and the

two dimensions from the Climate Dimensionscale were submitted to a MANOVA (multi-variant ANOVA) that yielded a highly signifi-cant effect of past victimization, Wilks’ � F(12,2,478) � 8.81, p � .001). Separate ANOVAswere then carried out on each of the six vari-ables, and are reported in Table 1. For four ofthese climate variables (i.e., solidarity, confi-dence, sadness, and Trust-Hope), the threegroups differed significantly from each other,with direct victims expressing a less positiveand a more negative perception, and unaffectedparticipants expressing a more positive and aless negative perception, while indirect victims’score was between the two of them. Indirectvictims and unaffected respondents did not dif-fer from one another for Hostility and for Fear-Despair, in which they scored significantlylower than direct victims.

Emotions Related to Past Violence and theCommissions’ Activities

ANOVAs followed by Tukey post hoc com-parisons showed that emotions associated withpast violence and NCTR activities significantlydiscriminated the three groups. The index ofnegative emotions grouping feelings of sadness,guilt, anger, fear, and shame was higher amongdirect victims (M � 3.61, SD � .70) thanamong indirect victims (M � 3.06, SD � 1.39),for whom it was in turn higher than for unaf-fected participants (M � 2.24, SD � 1.45), F(2,1,206) � 51.89, p � .001. The index of positiveemotions grouping feelings of hope, joy, andpride was higher among direct victims (M �2.55, SD � 1.56) than among indirect victims(M � 2.24, SD � 1.39) and unaffected partic-ipants (M � 2.24, SD � 1.45), F(2, 1,211) �4.99, p � .01 (Table 2).

Table 1Comparison of the Three Groups for Their Perception of the Socioemotional Climate

Direct victims Indirect victims Unaffected participants F p �

Solidarity 2.81 (1.10) 3.14 (1.11) 3.34 (1.11) 22.23 .001Confidence 2.24 (.93) 2.42 (.91) 2.72 (1.05) 25.85 .001Hostility 3.21 (.98) 3.01 (1.04) 2.90 (1.10) 8.45 .001Sadness 3.19 (1.09) 2.95 (1.10) 2.71 (1.05) 19.85 .001Trust-hope 2.94 (1.07) 3.13 (1.05) 3.55 (1.21) 33.05 .001Fear-despair 3.68 (1.18) 3.42 (1.16) 3.27 (1.15) 12.12 .001

8 CÁRDENAS, PÁEZ, RIMÉ, BILBAO, AND ASÚN

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Beliefs and Values

The two items assessing purpose in life wereaveraged and submitted to the ANOVA model,followed by post hoc comparison of the threegroups. They revealed direct and indirect vic-tims to have lower purpose in life (respectively,M � 3.85, SD � .80 and M � 3.98, SD � .72)than unaffected participants (M � 4.14, SD �.77), F(2, 1,251) � 14.70, p � .001. Finally,endorsement of universal values was assessedby two items that were averaged. The resultingindex yielded a significant difference betweenthe three groups, F (2, 1,257 � 4.02, p � .02,showing that direct victims endorsed universal-ism at a higher level (M � 5.33, SD � .81) thandid indirect victims (M � 5.28, SD � .82) andunaffected people (M � 5.17, SD � .89) whodid not differ from one another according toTukey post hoc comparisons.

Discussion

The results of this study suggest that theeffects of collective violence in Chile have notbeen overcome and that there is still a long anddifficult road ahead for reconciliation to beachieved. As expected, victims of dictatorshipwere older and in their majority males, sincerepression ended in 1989, was strongest in1973–1977 and in the years of protest 1983–1987, and focused on male activists (NCPIT,2004; NCTR, 1991). In the study sample, 8% ofparticipants reported having been victims ofmaltreatment and torture and 5.7% suffering thedeath of a relative, whereas 2.2% reported po-litical prison, and 2.2% exile. These percentagesmight be biased by a tendency to overreporting,as is common in a survey of this type. However,they are in proportion with the 3,000 political

deaths and some 40,000 torture victims thatresulted from the dictatorship in Chile. It is alsoimportant to bear in mind that that the “regularimprisonment,” which affected some 100,000people during the putsch and the years of protestagainst the dictatorship, habitually includedmaltreatment (NCPIT, 2004; NCTR, 1991).

Direct and indirect victims expressed a morefavorable appraisal of the Commissions’ work,were more substantially informed about theNCTR/NCPIT, and were more likely to rejectthe view that remembering the past could re-open wounds. In accordance with the findingsof previous studies (Gibson, 2004; Manzi et al.,2003, 2004), unaffected respondents were morein favor of the idea of not opening up woundsby recalling the past; on the other hand, directvictims and indirect victims viewed the Com-missions as having been less successful in at-taining their goals of support for justice and ofhelp in punishing perpetrators, and as not hav-ing helped to prevent new collective violence.These results suggest that victims make moreclaims for justice, for stronger punishment of theguilty and for stricter norms against collective vio-lence. However, all groups agreed that the Commis-sions helped with finding out about the truth,though they were less successful in generatingan inclusive collective memory or an integrativeor conciliatory national narrative. As far as out-comes of the TCs and intergroup forgivenessare concerned, no differences were found. Eval-uation of the TCs’ outcomes was uniformlypositive. As regards forgiveness, neither vic-tims, whether direct or indirect, nor members ofthe general population considered that it can beachieved.

Unaffected and indirect victims agreed morethan did direct victims with the opinion that one

Table 2Comparison of the Three Groups for Each Emotion

Direct victims Indirect victims Unaffected participants F p �

Pain 5.33 (1.95) 4.34 (2.06) 3.79 (2.12) 53.56 .001Guilty 1.75 (1.35) 1.52 (1.07) 1.48 (1.07) 5.50 .005Anger 4.94 (2.07) 4.21 (2.02) 3.40 (2.12) 54.24 .001Fear 2.71 (1.76) 2.33 (1.64) 2.05 (1.58) 15.07 .001Shame 3.22 (2.26) 2.91 (2.03) 2.61 (1.91) 11.44 .001Hope 3.06 (1.86) 2.83 (1.79) 2.80 (1.85) 2.10 nsHappiness 2.02 (1.66) 1.81 (1.45) 1.86 (1.49) 1.89 nsPride 2.59 (1.93) 2.14 (1.65) 2.11 (1.61) 8.40 .001

9ATTITUDES TOWARD TRANSITIONAL PROCESS IN CHILE

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should learn from past mistakes. This is at oddswith observations from the survey carried outby Gibson (2004) after the South African Truthand Reconciliation experience. In the Chileancase, however, the statement that “one shouldlearn from past mistakes” could have been in-terpreted as referring to the conflictive period ofPresident Salvador Allende’s left-wing Govern-ment that preceded the military coup. This mayexplain why direct victims, who are usuallyleft-wing oriented people and who identifiedwith the Allende regime, disagreed with thestatement.

People who defined themselves as direct vic-tims scored lower on the positive emotionalclimate scales and higher on the negative onesthan did unaffected and indirect victims. Indi-rect victims and unaffected respondents did notdiffer from one another in the negative emo-tional climate dimensions of Hostility and ofFear-Despair, on which they scored signifi-cantly lower than direct victims. Those not af-fected by political violence gave a more favor-able appraisal of the country’s present socialclimate in its positive and negative dimensions.The results of this study seem to suggest theexistence of a long-term association betweenexposure to collective violence and emotionalclimate, and these effects have persisted inChile up to now, more than 20 years after theend of the dictatorial regime of Augusto Pi-nochet, who left power in 1989. In any case, theperceived emotional climate was more negativethan positive in all three groups. The means foranger, for sadness, and for fear were higher thanthose for solidarity, for confidence, and for safe-ty. Such a pattern is usual in less developedsocieties such as those of Latin American coun-tries, whereas countries with a higher quality oflife generally show a positively balanced emo-tional climate (De Rivera & Páez, 2007).

As regards the impact of past political orcollective violence, direct victims reportedhigher levels of positive and of negative emo-tions. They indeed expressed higher levels ofsadness, shame, and anger, but also higher lev-els of hope, joy, and pride. These results supportthe idea of ambivalent effects of traumaticevents. Such events provoke at the same timeanxiety and negative emotions on the one hand,and positive emotions and changes on the other(Vázquez & Páez, 2011). However, the impactof the former is usually stronger than that of the

latter. The results also showed that a climate offear is dominant in current Chilean society, sug-gesting that collective violence induces long-term residual fear, over and above the actualpresence of threat and repression.

With regard to social sharing and inhibition,victims spoke significantly more about theCommissions’ work and the period of violence(1973–1989), followed by indirect victims, andfinally by the unaffected. Moreover, direct vic-tims felt more inhibition of expression withregard to the violence period. These results arecoherent with those of previous studies (Páez etal., 1997), supporting the view that victimsshow greater approach and avoidance coping inresponse to events, as well as a higher level ofemotionality. The greater inhibition observedsuggests the existence of some experientialevents that were not shared with anyone, andthat constitute a kind of private reservoir ofcontent that the person finds it impossible toelaborate adequately (Rimé, 2005). Such si-lence in this regard is frequently found amongvictims of severe violence, and several factorscan account for it. It may be because of socialfactors, including a low perception of justiceand of the effectiveness of institutional repara-tions. However, psychological factors also ac-count for silence. Victims often feel unable tofind appropriate words and sentences for trans-lating their out-of-the-ordinary experience intowords. They fear not being understood, or notbeing believed and validated by the people theytalk to, who can hardly conceive of such anexperience occurring, and who actively protectthemselves from such a perspective. Victims arealso overwhelmed by anxiety at the perspectiveof exposing themselves to the emotions result-ing from the very fact of putting this experienceinto words. In summary, victims often considerthat what they have lived through is simply notcommunicable.

Victims’ reported lower levels of a sense ofpurpose in life (i.e., levels of satisfaction withtheir present social and personal relations). Thismight be regarded as a long-term effect of po-litical repression, confirming the negative influ-ence of collective violence on some aspects ofpurpose in life (Janoff-Bulman, 1992). It is rea-sonable to speculate that the Chilean dictator-ship had powerful negative effects involving therestriction of individuals as social subjects, thedestruction of their links with others and of their

10 CÁRDENAS, PÁEZ, RIMÉ, BILBAO, AND ASÚN

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capacity to trust others, and the introduction offear and lack of confidence in social relations.However, victims also reported a higher en-dorsement of Universalist values. Thus, expo-sure to collective violence could be interpretedas having elicited posttraumatic growth amongvictims, in the sense of a strengthening of somevalues that emphasize self-trascendence andgeneral justice wellbeing (Vázquez & Páez,2011). An alternative interpretation would sug-gest that people high in transcendence valueswould have been more likely to be politicallyactive and, therefore, to become direct victims.

General Conclusion

Given the cross-sectional nature of this study,attributions of causality are limited. Moreover,the conclusions are based on self-reports alone.A negative view of forgiveness was dominant,as was a positive view of TCs. More than 20years after the fall of the dictatorship, peopleaffected by collective violence perceived theemotional climate as less positive, and reportedhigher social sharing, inhibition, and negativeemotions related to the past and lower purposein life. They also reported a more positive atti-tude toward the transitional justice procedureand higher levels of information, they rejected aforgetting of the past and they regarded institu-tional apologies as less sincere and effective.Finally, victims also reported more pride, andagreed more with Universalist values, whichsuggests the simultaneous occurrence of a long-term negative impact of past events and of aprocess of posttraumatic growth among them.

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12 CÁRDENAS, PÁEZ, RIMÉ, BILBAO, AND ASÚN

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Received March 4, 2014Revision received ●●●

Accepted April 29, 2014 �

13ATTITUDES TOWARD TRANSITIONAL PROCESS IN CHILE

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