Can Emotion Regulation Change Political Attitudes in Intractable Conflicts? From the Laboratory to the Field

Halperin, Eran; Porat, Roni; Tamir, Maya; Gross, James J.

doi:10.1177/0956797612452572

Cited by 195 publications

(206 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…A successful unfreezing process should increase the individual's openness to previously contradictory views regarding the conflict, the adversary, and the in-group (5). With this challenge, a growing body of research has attempted to identify methods of intervention that can unfreeze deeply rooted conflict-supporting narratives among groups in conflict (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Paradoxical thinking as a new avenue of intervention to promote peace

Hameiri

Porat

Bar‐Tal

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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In societies involved in an intractable conflict, there are strong socio-psychological barriers that contribute to the continuation and intractability of the conflict. Based on a unique field study conducted in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we offer a new avenue to overcome these barriers by exposing participants to a long-term paradoxical intervention campaign expressing extreme ideas that are congruent with the shared ethos of conflict. Results show that the intervention, although counterintuitive, led participants to express more conciliatory attitudes regarding the conflict, particularly among participants with center and right political orientation. Most importantly, the intervention even influenced participants' actual voting patterns in the 2013 Israeli general elections: Participants who were exposed to the paradoxical intervention, which took place in proximity to the general elections, reported that they tended to vote more for dovish parties, which advocate a peaceful resolution to the conflict. These effects were long lasting, as the participants in the intervention condition expressed more conciliatory attitudes when they were reassessed 1 y after the intervention. Based on these results, we propose a new layer to the general theory of persuasion based on the concept of paradoxical thinking.attitude change | psychological intervention I n recent years, the study of intractable conflicts has gained prominence within the social sciences (1, 2). This type of conflict is very difficult to resolve peacefully because it is fueled by socio-psychological barriers that play a key role in this impasse (3, 4). One major implication of these barriers is the tendency to freeze on conflict supporting societal beliefs and attitudes, and thus preserve hostility between the adversaries (5, 6). [Societal beliefs are defined as shared cognitions by society members that address themes and issues that society members are particularly occupied with, and which contribute to their sense of uniqueness (7).]Freezing is characterized by rigidity and close-mindedness, such that information incongruent with the reigning cognitiveemotional structure is likely to be ignored, rejected, misinterpreted, or forgotten, whereas congruent information is accepted as valid (8, 9; see also ref. 10). In fact, cognitive freezing encourages tunnel vision with respect to the conflict and the means to resolve it. Thus, one major challenge for scholars and peace activists is to overcome these deeply rooted socio-psychological barriers by unfreezing the held conflict supporting collective narratives. A successful unfreezing process should increase the individual's openness to previously contradictory views regarding the conflict, the adversary, and the in-group (5). With this challenge, a growing body of research has attempted to identify methods of intervention that can unfreeze deeply rooted conflict-supporting narratives among groups in conflict (11-16).In principle, most current interventions directly provide information th...

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confidence: 99%

Paradoxical thinking as a new avenue of intervention to promote peace

Hameiri

Porat

Bar‐Tal

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Finally, our findings might also carry implications for the study of intergroup relations, more generally. Previous research has shown that the experience of negative emotions leads to more support of aggressive actions towards the adversarial group (Cheung-Blunden & Blunden, 2008;Halperin et al, 2013;Skitka et al, 2006). The current investigation suggests that such emotional experiences may be driven by a desire to strengthen group coherence.…”

Section: Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…Importantly, people can regulate their emotions in both individual (e.g., Gross, 2007;Gross, Richards, & John, 2006) and in group contexts (e.g., Halperin, Pliskin, Saguy, Liberman, & Gross, 2014;Halperin, Porat, Tamir, & Gross, 2013).…”

Section: The Instrumental Approach To Emotion Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Together we cry: Social motives and preferences for group-based sadness

Porat

Halperin

Mannheim³

et al. 2015

Cognition and Emotion

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Group-based emotions play an important role in helping people feel that they belong to their group. People are motivated to belong, but does this mean that they actively try to experience group-based emotions to increase their sense of belonging? In this investigation, we propose that people may be motivated to experience even group-based emotions that are typically considered unpleasant to satisfy their need to belong. To test this hypothesis, we examined people's preferences for group-based sadness in the context of the Israeli National Memorial Day. In two correlational (Studies 1a and 1b) and two experimental (Studies 2 and 3) studies, we demonstrate that people with a stronger need to belong have a stronger preference to experience group-based sadness. This effect was mediated by the expectation that experiencing sadness would be socially beneficial (Studies 1 and 2). We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding motivated emotion regulation and intergroup relations.

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“…This is encouraging in terms of the applied interventions of these results, even though future studies are needed to shed light on such a field. In this vein, some authors have also shown that an emotion regulation strategy that is strongly related to happiness (i.e., cognitive reappraisal; Gross and John 2003) can represent a helpful resource to cope with relevant social issues such as climate change and intractable conflicts (e.g., Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Gross et al 2013;Halperin et al 2013;Halperin 2014;Panno et al 2015). Future studies could test whether well-established interventions aimed at the enhancement of such an emotion regulation strategy might also be effective in coping with the immigration issues (see Halperin et al 2013;Halperin 2014; for more details).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Dominance and Attitude towards Immigrants: The Key Role of Happiness

Panno

2018

Social Sciences

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War, famine, political conflicts and environmental factors (e.g., climate change) have increased the flow of immigrants into several European countries. Immigrants' integration represents one of the most important challenges to our globalized society. Previous research has pointed out that social-dominant people show negative reactions towards immigrants. The present research is aimed at expanding and consolidating previous knowledge about immigrants' research by proposing that: (i) citizens' happiness is related to a favorable attitude towards immigrants; and (ii) social dominance orientation is related to attitude towards immigrants through happiness. In this study, a large sample recruited across different European countries (European Social Survey 2014 data, N = 40,185) has been considered. Measures of social dominance orientation, happiness and attitude towards immigrants have been assessed. Results showed that people's happiness is related to favorable attitudes towards immigrants. Moreover, these results also showed the mediating role of happiness in the relationship between social dominance and attitude towards immigrants. Implications for future studies and policy strategies to support immigrants' integration are discussed.

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Can Emotion Regulation Change Political Attitudes in Intractable Conflicts? From the Laboratory to the Field

Cited by 195 publications

References 24 publications

Paradoxical thinking as a new avenue of intervention to promote peace

Paradoxical thinking as a new avenue of intervention to promote peace

Together we cry: Social motives and preferences for group-based sadness

Social Dominance and Attitude towards Immigrants: The Key Role of Happiness

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