Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Explaining Interethnic Aggression In Israel

这个项目将为种族政治研究中最紧迫的问题之一提供初步答案：什么是种族间身体侵略的个体决定因素？它试图解释为什么一个人在面对来自种族外群体成员的威胁时，会对身体攻击做出反应，而另一个人却不会。这个问题的答案的重要性怎么强调都不为过：我试图解释的那种低水平的身体种族间侵略（即骚乱、小团体和个人层面的种族间侵略），困扰着世界上越来越多的国家。这种类型的侵略可能在以色列最为普遍，以色列是本项目的重点。为了改进解决冲突的努力，促进多民族社区更加和平，我们必须了解是什么驱使个人决定进行种族间的实际侵略。该项目将分析以色列最大的两个族群：犹太以色列人和阿拉伯以色列人（仅限于18岁以上）之间的互动。以及拥有本州公民身份的老年人)。在收集了2000-2008年间这些民族成员之间的攻击事件的数量和类型的定性和定量数据后，研究人员将邀请来自以色列各地的600名大学年龄的年轻人分层样本参加调查和实验。这项调查将收集个人层面的数据，用于评估各种试图解释种族间侵略的假设。在接受调查四周后，这些人将被邀请到一个研究实验室参加实验，以安全地收集种族间的攻击数据。由此产生的侵略数据将与调查结果和定性数据一起进行分析，以得出最终结论。在以色列内部，大多数防止种族间侵略的组织性尝试都是基于奥尔波特？S的“接触假说”，即个人不会攻击那些与他们有相当多接触的人。因此，各种类型的“种族接触”联络小组遍布全国。然而，许多活动家和学者目前怀疑这些团体是否会减轻侵略。本项目着眼于超越“接触”的因素，以确定激发种族间侵略的因素，希望更全面地了解这些动机将为组织制定政策和计划提供新的方向，以改善或取代这些群体。一旦该项目在以色列完成，它也将在其他国家和背景下运行。

This project will generate preliminary answers to one of the most pressing questions in the study of ethnic politics: What are the individual determinants of physical interethnic aggression? It seeks to explain why one individual reacts with physical aggression while another does not when faced with what both perceive to be a threat from a member of the ethnic outgroup. The import of answers to this question cannot be overstated: Low-level physical interethnic aggression of the type I seek to explain (i.e. riots, small-group, and individual-level interethnic aggression), plagues an ever-increasing number of countries worldwide. This type of aggression is perhaps nowhere more present than in Israel, the focus of this project. To improve conflict resolution efforts and to promote more peaceful multi-ethnic communities, we must understand what drives the individual decision to engage in physical interethnic aggression.The project will analyze the interactions between Israel's two largest ethnic groups: Jewish-Israelis and Arab-Israelis (restricted to those 18-yrs. and older who have citizenship within the state). After gathering both qualitative and quantitative data on the number and type of aggressive incidents between members of these ethnic groups during the years 2000-2008, the researcher will invite a stratified sample of 600 university-aged young adults from around Israel to participate in a survey and an experiment. The survey will gather individual-level data that will be used to evaluate various hypotheses that seek to explain interethnic aggression. Four weeks after taking the survey, these same individuals will be invited to a research lab to participate in the experiment to safely gather interethnic aggression data. The resulting aggression data will be analyzed alongside the survey results and qualitative data to reach final conclusions.Within Israel, most organizational attempts at preventing interethnic aggression rest on some variation of Allport?s "contact hypothesis," the idea that individuals will not aggress against those with whom they have considerable contact. As such, "ethnic encounter" contact groups of various types dot the country. However, many activists and scholars currently doubt that these groups mitigate aggression. This project looks beyond "contact" to identify factors that motivate interethnic aggression in the hope that a more complete understanding of these motivations will provide organizations with new direction as they craft policies and programs to improve or replace these groups. Once the project is completed in Israel, it will be run in other countries and contexts as well.