Differential positioning in the character of universal history: a general population study of Argentina.

SOSA, F .; DELFINO, G.; ZUBIETA, E.

Conferencia; XII International Conference on Social Representations; 2014

Social Representations of History have the function to explain to a social group it´s reality and justify attitudes and behaviors to the challenges of the present. To reach these RS, studies focus on analyzing how groups recall, forget and reconstruct the knowledge of the historical past, assuming that even when remembering is an individual process is influenced by the social context that conditions the way reality is perceived and interpreted (Moñivas, 1994). Also memory is not uniform shared within each society due to representations are associated with particular social groups and positions (Moscovici, 1988). Liu and Hilton (2005) argue that while the historical events taught lessons, they do not embody values just because historical figures are responsible for their transmission. It is trough consensus on heroes and villains in the history of the world that values ​​and accomplishments humanity aspires are transmitted and rejected. In this frame, a correlational group differences study, non- experimental design was carried out with the overall objective of identifying differential positions in aroused feelings of 24 universal history characters by a cluster analysis. A non-probabilistic intentional sample of Buenos Aires city general population was used (369 participants; Age = 36.20, SD = 11; 44.3% men and 55.7 % women). Data was gathered with a modified version of the questionnaire constructed by Liu et al (2005). Participants were grouped into 4 groups based on their ranking in the variables: relevance of religion in life, nationalism and ideological positioning. The analysis of groups dendrograms throw out two major clusters: the former composed by characters rated with positive feelings called "Heroes", and the later integrated by characters with negative feelings named "Villains". In a second step a k -means cluster analysis was run to differentiate participants based on their ideological position, relevance given to religion in life and nationalism. Consensus in the assessment of 14 characters show up and dissent in assessing feelings of 10 characters. Following heroes and villains logic, findings exhibit a high level of consensus on the positive feelings aroused by scientific and humanitarian personalities such as Einstein and Mandela, and negative feelings generated by political leaders related to wars of the twentieth century as Hitler and Bush. When introducing variables such as relevance of religion in life for participants, and their ideological positioning, anchoring process reflects a dissent within consensus in figures of Fidel Castro and Pope John Paul II.