Trust of demobilized combatants: Overcoming fear or becoming familiar?

Abstract

Background One critical challenge facing postconflict societies concerns the reintegration of former combatants as productive members of society. Public trust in the legitimacy of a peace agreement is a critical component of rebuilding the economic and social foundations of a war‐torn nation. Objectives We argue that the levels of trust of former combatants and confidence in their effective demobilization depend on two critical features of the postconflict environment: fears of insecurity and community engagement. Method We focus our analysis on Colombia and utilize data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project to create a multivariate time‐series analysis of public trust in two groups—leftist rebels and rightist paramilitaries. Results We find that both the fear of former combatants and the level of engagement individuals have in their communities help predict respondent attitudes about trust in former combatants and reintegration. Conclusion Fear and familiarity are key determinants in reintegration of former combatants.

People are scarier than ghosts? Workplace haters and knowledge sharing

“…One of workplace haters, negative gossiper refers to organizational employees who spread some bad comments and criticisms about a particular person when he is not present, including negative work‐related and nonwork‐related negative opinions (Baumeister et al., 2004). This pathological complaining behavior destroys the organizational climate and harmonious interpersonal relationships and also makes others feel distressed, anxious, unwilling to work, loses happiness, and is reluctant to share useful knowledge or information with others (Meernik et al., 2023; Castaneda, Rios, and Duran, 2016; Zou et al., 2020). On the other hand, past literature on organizational behavior has pointed out that two‐faced people in the workplace are a kind of demonic behavior, who always smile on the front and betray behind their backs, which seriously damages colleagues’ friendship (Baumeister et al., 2004; Foster, 2004; Robinson and Bennett, 1995) and also reduces employee job satisfaction, well‐being, and creativity (Wu et al., 2018; Tian et al., 2019), even reduce KS behavior and increase turnover behavior (Grosser, Lopez‐Kidwell, and Labianca, 2010; Zou et al., 2020).…”