Empathizing with the Enemy: Emotion Regulation and Support for Humanitarian Aid in Intergroup Conflicts

棘手的群体间冲突是人类面临的最严重挑战之一。尽管这种冲突会引发强烈的负面情绪，但直到最近，研究人员才开始探索情绪体验的调节，以此作为促进我们对这些冲突的理解的一个方面。到目前为止，实证研究主要集中在单一的情绪调节策略上，即情绪疏远。关于情感疏远的影响的证据好坏参半：它减少了负面情绪，增加了对冲突发展的希望，但不影响对遭受苦难的外部群体成员的同理心。然而，移情具有特别强的潜力，可以促进对包括和解在内的其他群体成员的积极行为。因此，该项目试图测试另一种情绪调节策略的潜力，即综合情绪调节(IER)。IER涉及(A)对一个人的情绪状态的差异化意识和(B)根据一个人的目标努力理解它们。它已被证明在人际冲突中非常有效。目前的项目是在以巴冲突和德国人与难民之间关系的背景下测试IER的影响。更准确地说，它将检验(A)IER是否导致对遭受苦难的外部群体成员的外部群体定向同理心和对人道主义援助的支持，(B)外部群体代表的复杂性是否在这一过程中发挥作用，以及(C)在行为公正的内部动机较弱的个人中，IER相对于情感疏远的好处是否特别强烈。这些假设将在实验和纵向上得到验证，同时将IER的效果与情感疏远的效果进行比较。总体而言，拟议的项目将有助于理解群体间冲突中的情绪调节，并提供在这些背景下的干预措施所依据的知识。

Intractable intergroup conflicts are one of the most serious challenges humanity is facing. Despite the intense negative emotions that such conflicts elicit, only recently have researchers begun to explore the regulation of emotional experiences as an aspect that may promote our understanding of these conflicts. Empirical research has so far focused on one single emotion regulation strategy, namely emotional distancing. Evidence regarding the impact of emotional distancing is mixed: it reduces negative emotions and increases hope with regard to the development of the conflict, but it does not influence empathy towards suffering outgroup members. However, empathy has a particularly strong potential to facilitate positive behavior towards members of other groups including reconciliation. Therefore, the proposed project sought to test the potential of another emotion regulation strategy, namely integrated emotion regulation (IER). IER involves (a) a differentiated awareness of one's emotional states and (b) a striving to understand them in the light of one’s goals. It has been shown to be highly effective in interpersonal conflicts. The current project set out to test the impact of IER in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the relation between Germans and refugees. To be more precise it will be tested (a) whether IER leads to outgroup directed empathy and support for humanitarian aid toward suffering outgroup members, (b) whether the complexity of the outgroup representation plays a role in this process, and (c) whether the benefits of IER compared to emotional distancing are particularly strong among individuals with a weak internal motivation to behave unprejudiced. These hypotheses will be tested experimentally and longitudinally while comparing IER’s effects to the effects of emotional distancing. Overall, the proposed project will contribute to the understanding of emotion-regulation in the context of intergroup conflict and provide knowledge upon which interventions in these contexts can be based.