One Big Happy Family Perceptions of Inter-Group Relations between Jewish and Arab Nursing Students within and Outside a Natural Joint Environment

Abstract

The study focuses on perceptions of inter-group relations among Jewish and Arab nursing students in Israel. The study aimed at discovering whether these perceptions were affected by the environment in which they were examined. The results show that environment has an impact on perceptions of intergroup relations. In a natural environment where cooperation between individuals from different social groups is necessary, the relations were perceived as harmonious. On the other hand, in an environment that emphasizes the unique identity of each group, the relations were perceived as conflictual. These findings can be explained as reflecting the one big happy family perceptual bias. This bias may provide a basis for understanding inter-group conflict intervention processes among groups in conflict that operate together. The findings have professional implications for intervention processes implemented among heterogeneous multicultural teams in conflict situations.