Real social change implies shifts in power-relations between social groups within a society, but also changes in shared values and renegotiation of assumptions about what is considered legitimate and just. Reparation of previously oppressed groups plays a pivotal role in reconciliation and peaceful transmission of power and status. We will discuss the role of reparation and its link to collective guilt in the social change processes in post-Apartheid South Africa and contrast it with research on collective guilt that is usually conducted in societies in which perpetrator groups are still in power. Results of two correlational and one experimental study show that collective guilt of white South-Africans leads to support of reparation of black South-Africans for atrocities committed under Apartheid ruling, but this link is weakened or even eliminated by the experience of the racial ingroup’s status loss. The conclusion is that results that have established a link between collective guilt and support of reparation might not be generalizable to contexts of actual social change. Finally, we will discuss preliminary research on reparation demands by the former victim group in the same intergroup context and how it relates to people’s racial identification and aspirations.

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Collective guilt, relative group status, social change