Helping Intergroup Relations

The effects of apology and perceived status relations on willingness of Israeli-Arabs to seek help from Israeli-Jews.

“…Fifth, although our findings are consistent with previous work on the IHSR model (Nadler & Halabi, 2006, 2015) and on intergroup apology (Blatz et al, 2009) and offer insight into the factors that shape how Israeli-Arabs respond to potential assistance from Israeli-Jews, the implications to the dynamics of intergroup relations generally remain unclear. One reason is that the particular relationship between Jews and Arabs, commonly described as intractable conflict, involves, groups with a long history of tension and conflict with unique historical, cultural, and religious elements, which could potentially limit the generalizability of our research to other forms of intergroup relations.…”

“…Previous research has emphasized the role of reciprocal negative acts in the escalation of intergroup tensions, but the absence of engagement in prosocial ways may also increase intergroup conflict. The present research, which bridges work on the intergroup helping as status relations (IHSR) model (Nadler & Halabi, 2006, 2015) and on intergroup apology (Blatz et al, 2009), examined this process in terms of the orientations of Israeli-Arabs, a lower-status group in Israel, toward Israeli-Jews, the higher-status group. The present research extends the current understanding of the dynamics of the relations between Arabs and Jews in Israel by investigating how the nature of an offer of help and the perceived nature of intergroup relations operate jointly to determine the willingness of Israeli-Arabs to seek assistance from Israeli-Jews.…”

“…According to the IHSR model (Nadler & Halabi, 2006, 2015), offers of assistance by members of a high-status group to members of a low-status group are often used strategically to enhance the dependency of the low-status group and thus reinforce its subordinate position. As a consequence, members of lower-status groups may respond negatively to prosocial overtures by members of a higher-status group—even when these acts are motivated by sincere intentions to help—and resist opportunities to seek assistance from higher-status groups (Alvarez & Van Leeuwen, 2011; van Leeuwen, 2017).…”

“…According to the IHSR model (Nadler & Halabi, 2006, 2015), higher-status group members often help lower-status group members to affirm the superior position of their group. For members of lower-status groups, help from a higher-status group can be perceived as a manipulative tool to increase the dependency of the lower-status group (Nadler & Halabi, 2006).…”

“…When social conditions are unstable (vs. stable), lower-status groups may see greater opportunity to improve their group’s relative status, which autonomy-oriented help can promote and dependency-oriented assistance might inhibit (Halabi et al, 2012). However, when status relations between groups are stable and helping exchanges are perceived to have a less instrumental role in group status relations, members of lower-status groups are generally as open to dependency-oriented as autonomy-oriented help from higher-status group members (Nadler & Halabi, 2015). While Halabi et al (2018) found initial support for this reasoning, the present research investigated this hypothesis in a different way—involving a different context, paradigms, and operationalizations of independent and dependent variables.…”