This study asks whether monuments to victims of authoritarian regimes — specifically Stolpersteine in Germany — can promote greater tolerance. Using a pre-registered survey experiment that exposed respondents to pictures of Stolpersteine, the authors examine emotional reactions and several attitudinal and quasi‑behavioral tolerance measures. The paper’s central contribution is evidence about immediate emotional responses to this form of victim commemoration and how those responses relate to measured tolerance.
Pre-registered survey experiment Emotional responses measured Mixed attitudinal results
Data and methods
The authors ran a pre-registered survey experiment in which treated participants were shown pictures of Stolpersteine, small memorials commemorating individual victims of the Nazi regime. The abstract reports survey-based outcome measures that include emotional reactions (negative and positive emotions) and several attitudinal and quasi‑behavioral indicators of tolerance. The design is described as a survey experiment; the abstract does not report sample size, sampling frame or additional measurement details.
Main findings
Exposure to Stolpersteine, according to the abstract, "strongly increased negative emotions and reduced positive ones." Results for attitudinal and quasi‑behavioral tolerance outcomes are described as mixed and potentially limited by ceiling effects. The authors report a positive effect on tolerance for only one minority group — the one that showed low tolerance in the control group — and no statistically significant effects for other groups.
- Stronger negative and weaker positive emotional reactions after viewing Stolpersteine.
- Mixed evidence on tolerance measures, with a positive effect only for a single low‑tolerance minority in the control group.
