The challenges of social and political psychology in pursuit of peace: Personal account.

Abstract

This article describes the autobiographical story of my professional and intellectual development. It describes sources of my values and begins the story of my doctoral study at the University of Pittsburgh that influenced my approach to making science. Next, the article describes the beginning of my academic career at School of Education of Tel Aviv University. Also the beginning was significantly influenced by the work of Arie Kruglanski who was developing his Lay epistemic theory. The shift of interest in the early 1980s to political psychology opened new avenues for developing theories and empirical research. The climax of this line of work was the development of the general theory of shared societal beliefs and more specific theory of the sociopsychological foundations and dynamics of intractable conflicts. Since the end of the second millennium my efforts have been focused on training graduate students according to developed principles of the "learning community." Public Significance StatementThe article illuminates major themes of of the conflict research as well describes ways of their development. In addition it provides insights about study of conflicts and about the academic practices.

The Informative Process Model as a New Intervention for Attitude Change in Intractable Conflicts: Theory and Empirical Evidence

“…Therefore, it is a major challenge to change these narratives through a non-threatening unfreezing process that will eventually advance conflict resolution. Based on the theory of the psychological foundations and dynamics of intractable conflicts ( Bar-Tal, 2013 , 2019 ), we expected that awareness and understanding of the socio-psychological processes taking place in intractable conflicts, namely the development of conflict-supporting narratives and their implications, would be associated with recognizing the similarities between an ongoing conflict and other conflicts that have been resolved peacefully.…”

Critical debates surrounding the peace and tourism nexus

“…It arises between two or more entities with mutually opposing interests while it requires the presence of resource scarcity as well as behaviour aimed at harming opponents (Mack & Snyder, 1957). Therefore, contradiction between two parties is not adequate for conflict to emerge; rather, it manifests as the overt and coercive behaviour of one party which leads to an attempt of retaliation by the other party (Bar-Tal, 2011). Nonetheless, conflict is not always shown with acts of violence (Boulding, 1962) as some conflicts are passive.…”

Echo chambers, inside and outside academia.

“…We can succeed only by breaking out of rigid specializations and narrow conceptual orthodoxies. This becomes clear when we examine the contributions of those individuals who have succeeded in making the most positive and constructive impact in our field, such as Daniel Bar-Tal, who provides a critical overview of his highly productive life and work (Bar-Tal, 2019). Bar-Tal’s (2019) engaging discussion is followed by five major articles, each providing a valuable empirical report.…”

“…This becomes clear when we examine the contributions of those individuals who have succeeded in making the most positive and constructive impact in our field, such as Daniel Bar-Tal, who provides a critical overview of his highly productive life and work (Bar-Tal, 2019). Bar-Tal’s (2019) engaging discussion is followed by five major articles, each providing a valuable empirical report. Dunwoody and Plane (2019) provide a highly timely assessment of the role that authoritarianism and outgroup threat have on political party affiliation and support for antidemocratic policies.…”