How efficacy-based historical narratives can enhance the willingness to engage
in political collective action.

Maria Babińska

University of Warsaw

Historical narratives influence in different ways our society and individuals - we see the world through the lens of our history and historical roles that our nations had. Although Polish collective memory focuses mostly on episodes of historical victimhood there were a lot of events in which Poles were agentic and showed collective efficacy. In the presentation we will show evidence that perhaps emphasizing historical collective efficacy can lead to positive social outcomes. Specifically, in one experimental and two correlational studies we investigated whether and how efficacy based historical narratives can lead to engaging more in collective political action and increase institutional trust. Presented evidence shows that in fact perceiving an event as more related to group efficacy rather than coincidence and international circumstances show potential of enhancing positive change. Emphasizing the agency of the Polish nation contributes to higher trust in democratic institutions and higher willingness to engage in political collective action.