Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Effect of Anger and Sadness on Vengeance: A Laboratory in the Field Experiment in East Jerusalem

这个研究项目解决了一个具有核心学术和政策重要性的问题：情绪——尤其是愤怒——如何影响个人关于冲突和复仇的决定？心理学、政治学和经济学的最新研究表明，情绪会影响政治和经济决策。冲突是困扰研究人员和政策制定者的一个特殊领域。问题仍然存在：为什么个人、团体和国家会选择参与代价高昂的暴力冲突，而可以想象，和平协议可能会给双方带来更理想的结果？一些学者认为，宗教和文化差异可以解释大多数现代冲突。然而，这样的研究并没有充分解释为什么个人动机在冲突内部和冲突之间会有所不同；它还倾向于将情绪视为非理性的冲动。该项目旨在克服现有研究的不足，为研究愤怒和悲伤对复仇的影响提供一个新颖、严谨的框架。考虑到围绕以色列-巴勒斯坦冲突的情绪及其感知到的棘手性，它代表了一个探索愤怒如何影响报复行为的重要案例。该项目将审查东耶路撒冷的两个巴勒斯坦社区，这些社区在不同程度上受到定居活动和房屋拆除的影响。调查人员将在每个城市招募大约72名年龄在28岁以上的巴勒斯坦人（即第二次起义开始以来的投票年龄），他们将在当地社区中心参加决策实验。受试者将随机配对，并告知他们所在社区即将建立的犹太人定居点。然后，他们将被随机分配到一项治疗中，该治疗要求他们描述和解中最让他们生气或悲伤的事情。关键的兴趣在于，愤怒相对于悲伤如何影响受试者在假设分配不同数量的钱给他们的伴侣的假设“惩罚”时的决定。如果受试者只关心挣多少钱，他们就不应该“为复仇而付出”。该项目建立在研究人员2010年7月在南区以色列社区进行的实验基础上，这些社区不同程度地受到来自加沙地带火箭弹的影响。该实验使用了类似的协议和情感治疗。初步研究结果表明，愤怒和悲伤对“为复仇付出代价”的决定有相反的影响：在受火箭弹袭击最严重的社区，愤怒减少了惩罚，而在受火箭弹袭击较少的社区，愤怒增加了惩罚。这个项目不仅讨论了关于报复行为来源的学术辩论，而且还做出了一些更广泛的贡献。情感在冲突中所扮演的角色，大多是在国际关系的调查层面，或在美国大学校园实验室的冷静环境中探索的。这个项目试图对一个非常重要的人口和政策问题进行实验室实验的控制。在巴勒斯坦社区以及国际社会的许多成员看来，东耶路撒冷的定居点和房屋拆除都是和平的主要障碍。这项研究将有助于决策者和学者更好地了解定居点和拆除对巴勒斯坦社区的情感和行为影响。最后，该项目增进了对暴力侵害平民如何影响情绪和不满的普遍理解，从而促进稳定和发展。

This research project tackles a question of central scholarly and policy importance: how do emotions--particularly anger--affect individuals' decisions about conflict and vengeance? Recent work in psychology, political science, and economics has shown that emotions influence both political and economic decisions. Conflict is one particular area that has puzzled researchers and policymakers alike. The question remains: why do individuals, groups, and nations choose to engage in violent, costly conflict, when conceivably, a peaceful agreement could yield a preferred outcome for both parties? Some scholars believe that religious and cultural differences explain most modern-day conflicts. Yet such research does not adequately address why individual motives vary within and across conflicts; it also tends to treat emotions as irrational urges. This project seeks to overcome the shortcomings of extant work and provide a novel, rigorous framework for studying the impact of anger and sadness on vengeance.Given the emotions surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict and its perceived intractability, it represents an important case to explore how anger influences vengeful behavior. This project will examine two Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem that have been affected to varying degrees by settlement activity and house demolitions. The investigator will recruit roughly 72 Palestinian subjects in each city over the age of 28 (that is, of voting age since the beginning of the Second Intifada) who will participate in a decision-making experiment at a local community center. Subjects will be randomly partnered and informed of a pending Jewish settlement in their community. They will then be randomly assigned to a treatment that asks them to describe what makes them most angry or sad about the settlement. Of key interest is how anger relative to sadness influences subjects' decisions on hypothetical allocations of varying amounts of money to the supposed "punishment" of their partner. If subjects only care about how much money they earn, they should not "pay for vengeance." This project builds on the researcher's July 2010 experiments in the Southern District Israeli communities affected to varying degrees by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The experiment used a similar protocol and emotional treatment. Preliminary findings suggest that anger and sadness have opposing effects on the decision to "pay for vengeance:" in the community most affected by rocket fire, anger decreased punishment, whereas in the less affected community, anger increased punishment.This project not only speaks to scholarly debates on the sources of vengeful behavior but also makes several broader contributions. The role that emotions play in conflict has mostly been explored at the survey level in international relations, or in the dispassionate setting of a laboratory in campuses in U.S. universities. This project seeks to bring the control of a laboratory experiment to a population and policy question of great importance. Both settlements and house demolitions in East Jerusalem are viewed within the Palestinian community, and by many members of the international community, as a major obstacle to peace. This study will help policymakers and academics better understand the emotional and behavioral effects of the settlements and demolitions on the Palestinian community. Finally, the project enhances general understanding of how violence against a civilian population influences emotions and grievances in order to foster stability and development.