70
Michał Bilewicz, Anna Stefaniak, Marta Witkowska
tant remembering about the past is for shaping the knowledge of where our group comes from, where it is going, and what its role in the world is. James Liu and Denis Hilton, referring to the concept of Bronisław Malinowski, proposed the notion of a “charter” as the most important part of a socially shared vision of history.1 Such a charter provides a clear interpretative key with respect to current events and relations with others.2 Therefore, memory ensures not only a sense of continuity in time and belonging, but also a sense of control – conviction of the knowledge of rules which in the future can prevent one from taking wrong decisions or danger lurking on the part of former adversaries. Memory plays a special role in creating and maintaining a positive assessment of a group. Founding myths, i.e. stories which make the essence of the group and confirm its achievements in the fields important to its image, allow meeting the need for its positive self-assessment.3 This involves both a tendency to present one’s own group in a favourable light, and the occurrence of systematic errors and distortions in the content of our social memories.4 Identification with a group has an impact on which historical events get remembered and what their interpretation is.5 Maria Lewicka showed that identification with a group may also increase memory bias, 1
J.H. Liu, D.J. Hilton, “How the past weighs on the present: Social representations of history and their role in identity politics”, British Journal of Social Psychology 44 (2005), pp. 537–556; B. Malinowski, Myth in Primitive Psychology, WW Norton, New York, 1926, as cited in: Liu, Hilton, “How the past weighs”. 2 J.H. Liu, M.S. Wilson, J. McClure, T.R. Higgins, “Social identity and the perception of history: cultural representations of Aotearoa/New Zealand”, European Journal of Social Psychology 29 (1999), pp. 1021–1047. 3 H. Tajfel, J.C. Turner, “An integrative theory of intergroup conflict”, in: The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, eds. W.G. Austin, S. Worehel, CA: Brooks/Cole, Monterey, 1979, pp. 33–47. 4 N.R. Branscombe, D.L. Wann, “Collective self-esteem consequences of outgroup derogation when a valued social identity is on trial”, European Journal of Social Psychology 24 (1999), pp. 641–657; R. Luhtanen, J. Crocker, “A collective self-esteem scale: Self-evaluation of one’s social identity”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18 (1992), pp. 302–318; R.F. Baumeister, S. Hastings, “Distortions of collective memory: How groups flatter themselves”, in: Collective Memory of Political Events. Social Psychological Perspective, eds. J.W. Pennebaker, D. Paez, B. Rimé, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah (NJ), 1997; M. Lewicka, “Historical ethnic bias in urban memory: The case of central European cities”, Magazine for Urban Documentation: Opinion + Theory 2008, pp. 50–57; M. Lewicka, “Historical ethnic bias in collective memory of places: Cognitive or motivational?”, in: Perspectives on Thinking, Judging, and Decision Making, eds. W. Brun, G. Keren, G. Kirkebøen, H. Montgomery, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 2011, pp. 262–273; M. Lewicka, Psychologia miejsca, Scholar, Warszawa, 2012. 5 Liu, Hilton, “How the past weighs”.