Public support for political apologies for slavery: generational and educational differences

Over the past years, the issue of how to deal with the colonial past and whether or not to make formal apologies for its colonial wrongdoings has become highly contested in former colonising countries such as the Netherlands. This study explores how a former colonising country’s population deals with its colonial past by examining support for political apologies for slavery, just before the Dutch government actually made these apologies. We find that support for political apologies for slavery is rather low among the Dutch population without a migration background. To which cohort one belongs affects support for political apologies, with younger cohorts being more supportive. Rather different from other studies on intergroup attitudes, educational attainment does not straightforwardly affect support for political apologies. By contextualising support for apologies relative to support for multiculturalism, we highlight the unique dynamics of attitudes towards political apologies.