Published work by a Douglas College Student Alumni. The pursuit of intergroup reconciliation often includes efforts to educate with the goal of fostering empathy. Yet little empirical evidence demonstrates whether and why greater knowledge might increase empathy. In this research, we investigated whether more critical historical knowledge about a harmed outgroup increases empathy for them, and we explored whether perceptions of privity, the extent to which a past harm continues to cause suffering today, account for this relationship. We tested these hypotheses in the context of non-Indigenous Canadians' knowledge of Indian Residential Schools and attitudes about Indigenous Peoples across eight laboratory studies with 1242 non-Indigenous undergraduate students at two Canadian universities. In two studies, participants completed a multiple-choice measure of knowledge. In the remaining studies, we experimentally varied knowledge through brief educational interventions. All studies included measures of empathy, and five studies included measures of privity. Internal meta-analyses indicated that participants with higher levels of critical historical knowledge felt more empathy for the outgroup because they could better see how past intergroup harms continue to cause suffering today. We discuss implications for social and political psychological theory and designing education for reconciliation interventions in Canada and elsewhere.
Published work by a Douglas College Student Alumni. Anti-Indigenous racism is a pressing issue in Canada. Education on historical and contemporary Indigenous topics is a common strategy to challenge such racism. Despite the existence of education-based programmes intended to address anti-Indigenous racism, there is limited evidence that they are effective. To this end, we report the results of two longitudinal experiments (N1 = 639, N2 = 1099) assessing the effect of education on anti-Indigenous racism. In both studies, we assessed the impact of five conditions on Indigenous-related outcomes in samples of non-Indigenous students. All experimental conditions included information on historical and current injustices toward Indigenous people. In some conditions, we added content on individual racism, systemic racism, or both individual and systemic racism. Results indicated that the experimental conditions improved Indigenous-related thoughts, feelings, knowledge and behaviours. Further, the conditions containing systemic racism content outperformed the other conditions. These studies showcase the potential of education to reduce anti-Indigenous prejudice.
