Overcoming the tribes effect: The overview effect as a means to promote conflict resolution.

Abstract

Building upon relational identity theory (Shapiro, 2010), this article examines 2 competing psychological forces that have substantial power to shape an individual's identity in a conflict situation. The tribes effect is an adversarial mind-set that ossifies the lines of division between parties and leaves them skeptical that peace is a real possibility (Shapiro, 2017). The overview effect, by contrast, is an experience-1st documented through research with astronauts-that expands one's perspective and creates new prospects for resolving conflict (White, 2014). This article elucidates unique attributes of the overview effect that position it as a powerful means for helping disputants overcome the tribes effect, and it presents illustrative ways to induce the experience. Public Significance StatementThis paper aims to advance public understanding about the role of identity in large-scale conflict escalation and resolution. As our world becomes more and more interconnected, there is increased need for theory and practical means to address the complex relationships and identifications intrinsic to contemporary intergroup and intragroup conflict. The present article is the first published one of its kind to build a theoretical linkage between the divisive mindset known as the 'tribes effect' (Shapiro, 2017) with the consciousness-shifting experience called the 'overview effect' (White, 2014), a potent means to expand disputants' relational identities in the service of cooperation.

Worldviews in Conflict: Negotiating to Bridge the Divide

“…Our worldviews are shaped by what happens to us, and the values at their core can change or deepen over time. For example, astronauts viewing the earth from orbit—arguably the most literal “worldview” there is—often return with a deepened appreciation for environmental causes and international peace; the life‐changing experience of space travel transforms these values into defining features of who they are and of their place in the universe (Yaden et al 2016; Shapiro, White, and Shackleton 2019).…”

No borders on a fragile planet: Introducing four lay models of social psychological precarity to support global human identification and citizenship

“…Citizens across the globe, through Earthrise , began to perceive the world in concrete terms as a marble‐like blue planet. White found astronauts in interviews showed a new sense of humanity and identification with the whole of the earth, which he termed the overview effect (Shapiro et al, 2019; White, 1998). Our dynamic sense of a planetary consciousness, however, does not necessarily confine itself to global human identification.…”

The psychological citizen, democracy, and peace.

“…We include two brief research reports in this issue, both exploring concepts that are important in peace psychology. Shapiro, White, and Shackleton (2019) deal with a tension that is central to the work of both research and practicing peace psychologists: the pull of the ‘tribes effect’ which sharpens intergroup divisions and ethnocentric tendencies and the opposite pull of the ‘overview effect’ which expands our perspectives, moves us beyond ethnocentrism, and opens paths to peace. Using this distinction, we can position the research of Isemann, Walther, Solfrank and Wilbertz (2019) as examining what enables some young people to move closer to the ‘overview effect’ and seek to bring about constructive social change, rather than being overwhelmed by the ‘tribes effect.’…”