A day that america will remember: Flashbulb memory, collective memory and future thinking for the Capitol riots

This study investigates the effect of collective identity on inter-subjects similarity of representations in memory for a public event. Here, we assessed the memories of the Capitol riots which happened in Washington on January 6th, 2021. Seventy Belgian and seventy-nine American citizens took part in an online study, in which they freely recalled the unfolding of Capitol riots and answered questions regarding their memory. Inter-subjects similarity of recalled details were analyzed using a schematic narrative template (i.e., the event, the causes and the consequences). The results revealed that representations of the event and its causes were significantly more similar among Belgian relative to American participants, whereas Americans’ representations of the consequences showed significantly more similarity than Belgians’ ones. Also, as expected, Americans reported more flashbulb memories than Belgians. Together, the findings suggest that the content of a memory for a public event shows similarity across individuals and is influenced by their sense of national/collective identity