Intergroup forgiveness and peacemaking processes: citizens’ well-being and the Italian Years of Lead open wounds

The existing literature indicates that people who experience terror and social trauma are likely to develop shattering assumptions about the world, which negatively affect their social well-being. Researches also indicate intergroup forgiveness is an effective strategy to deal with social trauma. The issue of the Italian social wounds about its terrorist season, the so called Years of Lead (YoL), represents an opportunity to discuss about intergroup forgiveness and peacemaking processes. We tested the meditational relations between the three most severe social wounds referred to YoL - that beforehand we found they affected the sample across generation -, intergroup forgiveness toward terrorists and toward the State, and social well-being.