Rethinking intractable conflict: The perspective of dynamical systems.

Vallacher, Robin R.; Coleman, Peter T.; Nowak, Andrzej; Bui-Wrzosińska, Lan

doi:10.1037/a0019290

Cited by 156 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is perhaps tiie defining conflict of the current era and has joined the category of conflicts that are considered intractable (see Vallacher, Coleman, Nowak, & Bui-Wrzosinska, 2010). Thus, anything tiiat can affect the attitudes of tiie parties in this conflict and their willingness to accept compromises for the sake of peace is potentially important.…”

Section: Israelis and Palestinians: Attitudes Toward Each Other And Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindsets and human nature: Promoting change in the Middle East, the schoolyard, the racial divide, and willpower.

Dweck¹

2012

American Psychologist

342

187

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Debates about human nature often revolve around what is built in. However, the hallmark of human nature is how much of a person's identity is not built in; rather, it is humans' great capacity to adapt, change, and grow. This nature versus nurture debate matters-not only to students of human nature-but to everyone. It matters whether people believe that their core qualities are fixed by nature (an entity theory, or fixed mindset) or whether they believe that their qualities can be developed (an incremental theory, or growth mindset). In this article, I show that an emphasis on growth not only increases intellectual achievement but can also advance conflict resolution between long-standing adversaries, decrease even chronic aggression, foster cross-race relations, and enhance willpower. I close by returning to human nature and considering how it is best conceptualized and studied.

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Section: Israelis and Palestinians: Attitudes Toward Each Other And Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindsets and human nature: Promoting change in the Middle East, the schoolyard, the racial divide, and willpower.

Dweck¹

2012

American Psychologist

342

187

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“…When the population changes, for example, through the highly popular radio programs in East Africa to be described later, their new attitudes and actions are likely to affect the leaders. However, changes in the population may be latent (Vallacher, Coleman, Nowak, & Bui-Wrzosinska, 2010) until evolving conditions allow their expression. If the attitudes, beliefs, and values of those at a middle level-such as media or church leaders-change, they in turn can influence both leaders and the population.…”

Section: Developing More Positive Attitudes Tov^ard the "Other"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Building a peaceful society: Origins, prevention, and reconciliation after genocide and other group violence.

Staub

2013

American Psychologist

129

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The 20th century was a century of genocide and other great violence between groups within societies. Already at the beginning of the 21st century, there have been mass killings, civil wars, violent conflict, and terrorism. This article summarizes influences that tend to lead to intense group violence. It then considers prevention, stressing early prevention--and reconciliation as an aspect of prevention--and focusing on central principles and practices. The principles include developing positive orientations to previously devalued groups; healing from past victimization and promoting altruism born of suffering; moderating respect for authority; creating constructive ideologies; promoting understanding of the origins of violence, its impact, and avenues to prevention; promoting truth, justice, and a shared history; and raising inclusively caring, morally courageous children. Practices related to all of these are also discussed. The article stresses the role of progressive change, that is, of psychological, behavioral, and social evolution, in both extreme violence and positive relations between groups; the role of passive bystanders in the unfolding of violence; and the role of active bystandership in the prevention of violence, in the promotion of reconciliation, and in the development of harmonious societies. It emphasizes psychological processes but notes the importance of creating societal institutions. The author cites findings from both laboratory research and case studies, reviews interventions and their evaluation in Rwanda, and points to the need for further research.

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“…In these situations, the actor's cognition is marked by different possible perceptions or interpretations, and a clear course of action is therefore missing (Hirsh et al, 2012). Given the absence of a strong attractor, the actor is likely to be sensitive to external perturbations such as primes, which may inform the emergence of a new stable behavioral attractor, thus lowering cognitive entropy in the process and allowing cognition to remain functional in meeting situational demands (Stephen et al, 2009b; Dixon et al, 2010; Vallacher et al, 2010). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Priming 2.0: Enter a Dynamical Systems Perspective

Krpan

2017

Front. Psychol.

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On a daily basis, people are exposed to numerous stimuli, ranging from colors and smells to sounds and words, that could potentially activate different cognitive constructs and influence their actions. This type of influence on human behavior is referred to as priming. Roughly two decades ago, behavioral priming was hailed as one of the core forces that shape automatic behavior. However, failures to replicate some of the representative findings in this domain soon followed, which posed the following question: “How robust are behavioral priming effects, and to what extent are they actually important in shaping people's actions?” To shed a new light on this question, I revisit behavioral priming through the prism of a dynamical systems perspective (DSP). The DSP is a scientific paradigm that has been developed through a combined effort of many different academic disciplines, ranging from mathematics and physics to biology, economics, psychology, etc., and it deals with behavior of simple and complex systems over time. In the present paper, I use conceptual and methodological tools stemming from the DSP to propose circumstances under which behavioral priming effects are likely to occur. More precisely, I outline three possible types of the influence of priming on human behavior, to which I refer as emergence, readjustment, and attractor switch, and propose experimental designs to examine them. Finally, I discuss relevant implications for behavioral priming effects and their replications.

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Rethinking intractable conflict: The perspective of dynamical systems.

Cited by 156 publications

References 74 publications

Mindsets and human nature: Promoting change in the Middle East, the schoolyard, the racial divide, and willpower.

Mindsets and human nature: Promoting change in the Middle East, the schoolyard, the racial divide, and willpower.

Building a peaceful society: Origins, prevention, and reconciliation after genocide and other group violence.

Behavioral Priming 2.0: Enter a Dynamical Systems Perspective

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