Reducing Intergroup Conflict Using a Belief Manipulation

结束长期冲突是一项紧迫的全球挑战。虽然随着时间的推移，难以解决的冲突似乎是不可避免的，但这些冲突是由人发起和维持的;因此，改变人们的心灵和思想是解决这些冲突的关键步骤。本研究评估了一种新的理论为基础的干预，旨在促进更富有成效的情绪和态度的背景下，正在进行的棘手的冲突。该项目扩展了该研究小组的初步工作，该研究表明，教导群体内成员群体没有固定的性质（对群体的增量信念）增加了对对立群体的有利态度，反过来，培养了更大的意愿，以参与可能导致和平的重大妥协。在目前的项目中，研究人员将首次研究这种基于信念的干预在社会背景下的长期影响，在这种背景下，内群体参与者经常暴露于有关外群体的负面信息。研究人员将这种基于信念的干预与观点采择干预（一种常见的冲突解决策略）和应对控制干预进行比较。在参与者被随机分配到三种干预措施中的一种之前（然后立即和六个月后再次），将评估对外群体的态度和情绪，沿着对和解行动的可接受性。研究设计将允许检查这三种干预条件中的每一种的效果的持久性，以及它们在意识形态亚群体面对真实的世界冲突相关事件时的影响。重要的是，焦点干预引入了一种促进冲突解决的新方法，因为没有试图在冲突群体的成员之间建立互动，熟悉，同情或换位思考。相反，重点是促进思维方式的改变。这项研究将对社会产生更广泛的影响，通过测试一种新的方法来解决冲突，不涉及与其他干预措施相关的后勤问题，例如将冲突各方聚集在一起，或者通过明确试图教导棘手冲突中的敌对群体相互同情来冒产生抵抗的风险。如果成功的话，这种基于信仰的新方法可以很容易地广泛传播，并且可以为具有各种意识形态立场和文化特征的人工作。这一办法与许多国内和国际冲突以及旨在防止今后冲突的努力有关。

Ending long-standing conflicts is an urgent global challenge. Although intractable conflicts develop an air of inevitability over time, these conflicts are initiated and maintained by people; therefore, changing people's hearts and minds is a critical step for resolving such conflicts. The present research evaluates a new theory-based intervention designed to promote more productive emotions and attitudes in the context of an ongoing intractable conflict. The proposed project extends preliminary work by this research team, which showed that teaching in-group members that groups do not have a fixed nature (an incremental belief about groups) increased favorable attitudes toward the opposing group and, in turn, fostered greater willingness to engage in major compromises that could lead to peace. In the current project, the researchers will for the first time examine the longer term effects of this belief-based intervention in a societal context in which in-group participants are routinely exposed to negative information about the out-group. The researchers will compare this belief-based intervention to both a Perspective Taking Intervention (a common conflict resolution strategy) and a Coping Control Intervention. Before participants are randomly assigned to one of the three interventions (and then again immediately after and six months later), attitudes and emotions toward the out-group will be assessed, along with favorability toward conciliatory actions. The study design will allow an examination of the durability of the effects of each of these three intervention conditions, as well as their influence across ideological sub-groups as they confront real world conflict-related events. Importantly, the focal intervention introduces a novel way of promoting conflict resolution, in that there is no attempt to create interactions, familiarity, empathy or perspective-taking between members of conflicting groups. Instead, the focus is on promoting a change in mindset. This research will have a broader impact on society by testing a novel approach to conflict resolution that does not involve the logistical problems associated with other interventions, such as bringing parties in conflict together or running the risk of engendering resistance by explicitly trying to teach hostile groups in intractable conflicts to empathize with each other. If successful, this new belief-based approach can be disseminated easily and broadly, and can work for people with a variety of ideological stances and cultural characteristics. This approach has relevance to a large number of intra-national and international conflicts, and to efforts aimed at preventing future conflicts.