When Going Along Gets You Nowhere and the Upside of Conflict Behaviors

Abstract

The capacity for coordinated action is the foundation of much of humanity's greatest social and cultural achievements. Yet there are conditions under which cooperative behaviors do more harm than good, within and between groups. We review current research from a variety of social science disciplines exploring the oft‐unquestioned ironic effects of cooperative behavior and conversely, the value of social conflict for positive outcomes – e.g., increased creativity and moral behavior, and concrete social change and equity. Recent reviews of prejudice reduction interventions have shed light on the hazards of exclusively promoting positive attitudes and emotions within and between groups. In complement, we focus on cooperative and conflictual behavior and the consequences thereof. To highlight issues researchers and practitioners should consider when developing social interventions, we summarize some of the common ironic effects of cooperative and conflict behaviors. Cooperative behaviors are socially and economically beneficial across a large variety of contexts; however, universal prescriptions for such behaviors may have unintended negative effects, whereas conflict is often requisite for promoting progress.

Gender-empathic Constructions, Empathy, and Support for Compromise in Intractable Conflict

“…Previous findings suggest that the tendency to express more care and higher identification toward one's own group may create hostility and decrease cooperation with the out-group (J. K. Choi and Bowles 2007;Cikara, Bruneau, and Saxe 2011;De Dreu, Greer, Handgraaf et al 2010;De Dreu, Greer, Van Kleef et al 2011). Other findings suggest that heightening the in-group versus out-group competition may decrease willingness to support threatening and costly political compromise in the context of intense conflict through reducing empathy toward the out-group (Cameron and Payne 2011;Cikara and Paluck 2013;Galinsky et al 2008;Shaw, Batson, and Todd 1994;Zaki 2014). The data reported here from our research extend these findings by examining directly and systematically empathy toward opponent reduction as an underlying mechanism that mediates the association between feminine-empathic stereotypes toward one's own group and Jewish-Israeli support for political compromise with Palestinians.…”

Intergroup Schadenfreude: motivating participation in collective violence

“…One crucial condition for acting on behalf of a group in general -and for collective violence in particular -is high identification and coordinated behavior with the ingroup [32,34]. Under certain conditions, group identification can crowd out or become 'fused' with one's individual identity, motivating people to act as representatives of the group rather than individual agents [11].…”

Concept Expansion as a Source of Empowerment

“…The importance of shifting the emphasis in intergroup relations from prejudicereduction to empowering disadvantaged groups is well supported by recent research (for reviews, see Dixon, Levin, Reicher, & Durrheim, 2012;Dovidio, Gartner, & Saguy, 2009; see also Cikara & Paluck, 2013). Particularly when groups are of differing status, fostering harmony (e.g., by making common identity salient or cultivating positive intergroup contact) may have the ironic consequence of reinforcing ideological and structural biases that promote the hierarchical status quo.…”