Intergroup Sentiments, Political Identity, and Their Influence on Responses to Potentially Ameliorative Proposals in the Context of an Intractable Conflict

Abstract

Two studies examined the association of particular sentiments and political identities with Jewish-Israeli students’ responses to a generic plan to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and to narrower proposals for cooperative undertakings. Three composites—hatred/anger, compassion/empathy (reverse-coded), and guilt/shame (reverse-coded), and also a global composite combining these three sets of sentiments, were generally associated with negative responses to those plans and negative attributions about the wisdom and patriotism of supporters of those plans. Most of the associations between the global sentiments composite and the relevant responses continued to be statistically significant even after controlling for participants’ political identity. The interaction between the relevant sentiments and the putative authorship of one of the proposals was also investigated. Issues of generalizability, replicability, robustness, and of the relevance of mediational analysis, as well as implications for conflict resolution and potential directions for future research are addressed in a concluding discussion.

Emotions and Emotion Regulation in Intractable Conflict: Studying Emotional Processes Within a Unique Context

“…Accordingly, two individuals holding different ideologies will respond differently to an emotion‐eliciting event because they differently appraise that event. Empirical findings support this approach, with ideology leading to differences in emotional reactions, through the mediation of appraisal processes (Halperin & Gross, ; Halperin, Pliskin et al., ; Kahn, Liberman, Halperin, & Ross, in press). Similarly, adherence to beliefs of the Ethos of Conflict has been found to lead to varying levels of discrete emotions, such that higher adherence to the ethos leads to stronger fear, anger, and hatred experiences in response to information about Palestinian intentions (e.g., Halperin, ).…”

Support for Leader's Decisions in Conflict and Negotiation: Women Do Not Benefit From Relevant Expertise While Men Do

“…Participants were then asked to evaluate the proposal generated by the team headed by Boaz/Dana, which concerned the allocation of water resources in the area (based on Kahn, Liberman, Halperin, & Ross, ; see the online supporting information), by responding to four items: “If this proposal would be presented in a referendum, to what extent would you support it?”; “To what extent do you think that the average Israeli would support this proposal?”; “If you were an external advisor to the negotiations, to what extent would you recommend Israel to accept this proposal?”; and “In your opinion, to what extent is this proposal good for Israel?” ( α = .86). All items were rated on a scale ranging from 1 ( not good at all ) to 5 ( very much ).…”

“…Participants were then asked to evaluate the proposal generated by the team headed by Boaz/ Dana, which concerned the allocation of water resources in the area (based on Kahn, Liberman, Halperin, & Ross, 2016; see the online supporting information), by responding to four items: "If this proposal would be presented in a referendum, to what extent would you support it? "; "To what extent do you think that the average Israeli would support this proposal?…”

Facilitating emotional reappraisal in conflict transformation

“…The constructionist view regards particular emotions as neither inherently negative nor positive in terms of their effect on conflict transformation (Bodtker & Jameson, ; Nair, ). Emotions such as anger, fear, or guilt can have either a positive or negative effect depending on their interpretation or context (Halperin, ; Halperin et al, ; Kahn, Liberman, Halperin, & Ross, ; Kenworthy et al, ; Lindner, ; Retzinger & Scheff, 2000). The idea of emotional regulation or appraisal has increasingly been used to describe the ability to reinterpret emotions so that they have a positive effect on conflict transformation processes (Lindner, ).…”

“…The vast majority of research on emotional regulation has been carried out through experimental studies involving the manipulation of specific emotions or cognition in carefully controlled experimental settings and simulations (Jameson et al, ; Halperin, ; Halperin et al, ; Kahn et al, ; Maiese, ; Shapiro, , ). It has yielded rich and promising results for the guidance of conflict transformation.…”