Doctoral Dissertation Research: Intergroup Conflict and Emerging Social Structure

康奈尔大学虽然处于冲突中的团体有时会和平解决他们的争端，但考虑到冲突的代价和和平的好处，冲突往往令人惊讶地持久。先前旨在揭示冲突潜在机制的实验研究表明，冲突有随着时间推移而减少的趋势。这些发现无法解释许多众所周知的冲突的表面上的棘手之处。这个项目试图回答这个问题，首先要注意到，一个团体进一步或减少冲突的能力取决于该团体在其成员中执行规范的能力。具体地说，令人信服的侵略行为需要大多数集团成员表现出战斗的意愿，而令人信服的和平主义表现很快就会被少数咄咄逼人的集团成员破坏。这项研究将社会规范与群体间的冲突联系起来。共同和平倡议假设，在冲突期间，个人更有可能对其群体中不参与冲突的成员进行负面评价和制裁。这种惩罚非捐赠者的更大意愿导致在冲突期间对该集团的贡献更高。因此，群体冲突和社会规范变得自我强化：冲突促进规范的出现，而规范则加剧冲突的强度。研究人员将进行一项实验室实验，让玩家团队通过计算机网络进行互动。这些团队玩的游戏带有激励结构，旨在反映现实生活中观察到的那些结构。球队将被操纵，在与另一支球队发生冲突的情况下玩游戏(冲突条件)，或者只与自己的团队成员互动(无冲突条件)。参与者决定是否参与或退出冲突，以及是否对选择不参与冲突的小组成员进行负面制裁。更广泛的影响。这项研究有助于我们理解群体冲突的潜在机制，从而可能被用来制定新的冲突解决策略。该项目将有助于培训本科生研究助理，为实验环境开发新的软件，并支持该大学的研究生课程。

SES-0526214Michael MacyStephen BenardCornell UniversityWhile groups in conflict sometimes peacefully resolve their disputes, conflict is often surprisingly durable, given the costs of conflict and the benefits of peace. Previous experimental research aimed at uncovering the mechanisms underlying conflict shows a tendency for conflict to diminish over time. These findings do not explain the apparent intractability of many well-known conflicts. This project seeks to answer that question by beginning with the observation that a group's ability further or reduce conflict depends on the ability of the group to enforce norms among its members. Specifically, convincing displays of aggression require a majority of group members to display a willingness to fight while convincing displays of pacifism are quickly undermined by a few aggressive group members. This research links social norms to conflict between groups. The co-PI hypothesizes that during conflict individuals become more likely to negatively evaluate and sanction members of their group who do not contribute to the conflict. This greater willingness to punish non-contributors leads to higher levels of contribution to the group during conflict. As a result, group conflict and social norms become self-reinforcing: conflict promotes the emergence of norms, while norms heighten the intensity of conflict. The investigator will conduct a laboratory experiment in which teams of players interact over a computer network. The teams play games with incentives structures designed to mirror those observed in real-life conflicts. The teams will be manipulated to play the games in conflict with another team (the conflict condition) or interact with their own team members only (the no-conflict condition). Participants make decisions about contributing to or withdrawing from the conflict, and whether to negatively sanction group members who choose not to contribute to the conflict. Broader Impact. The research contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying group conflict, and thereby could possibly be used to develop new strategies for conflict resolution. The project will contribute to training undergraduate research assistants, developing new software for experimental settings, and support for the University's graduate program.