From Portuguese colonial representations to racist endorsement: Investigating correlational and causal paths

Abstract

Dominant social representations of history play a central role in shaping how societies interpret the past and regulate intergroup relations in the present. Yet empirical evidence on how historical narratives causally influence racist beliefs remains limited. Drawing on the Social Representations of History framework, the present research examines how dominant and counter-representations of colonial history relate to the endorsement of biological and cultural racism. Focusing on the Portuguese context, where colonial history is often narrated through a positive and benevolent lens grounded in the ideology of Luso-tropicalism—the belief that Portuguese colonialism was uniquely tolerant and benign—we investigate both correlational and causal pathways linking these representations to racist attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 216), using data from CRONOS-2, part of the European Social Survey Round 10, we show that endorsement of Luso-tropicalist beliefs predicts higher levels of both biological and cultural racism, above and beyond age and education. In Study 2 (N = 220), we experimentally manipulated representations of colonial history using three conditions: a positive representation derived from a textbook, a negative representation, and a neutral control. Results indicate that biological racism was significantly lower when colonial history was presented in a negative frame compared to a combined positive and neutral representation, while no significant differences emerged for cultural racism. Together, findings from Study 1 and Study 2 provide novel evidence that counter, negative representations of colonial history can attenuate racist beliefs. By integrating correlational and experimental evidence, this research contributes to broader debates on social representations of history as political projects with enduring consequences for contemporary intergroup relations.