Compassion for enemy militants?: A case study

Abstract

In stark contrast to detailed studies of negative emotions, peacebuilding scholar-practitioners pay scant attention to the social psychology of positive emotions that are critical for the long-term transformation of relations among conflict actors. I offer results from one case study of compassion, the first of its kind, of a group of 23 young people from conflict-ridden countries who were enrolled in a 2-year peace education program called Rondine. All of the research participants exhibited compassion for the civilians who suffered from the effects of the violence. Most of them exhibited compassion even for the militants who caused such violence.