The Devoted Actor: Sacred values, identity fusion and intergroup conflict

处理资源和政治冲突的常见方法往往假设对手基于理性的成本效益选择来理解世界。相比之下，对世界各地冲突地区人口的研究表明，许多暴力或棘手的冲突涉及所谓的“忠诚的行动者”，他们往往是暴力行为的驱动力，不是出于成本效益的判断，而是出于对神圣价值观的承诺(例如：“我的价值观是非卖品”；“做正确的事，不计后果)”，一种与团体的融合感，以及对敌对团体动机的一套认知。这项研究的目标是建立一个理论框架，探索人类心理的这些方面是如何相互作用的，并将产生新的见解，有助于回答以下问题：人们如何权衡相互竞争的神圣价值观，以及与他们融合在一起的群体的联系(例如，与家庭或国家)？为什么一些忠诚的演员选择使用暴力，而另一些人则不使用暴力？这项工作的结果可能会扩大减少冲突的可能性，包括反激进主义努力以及跨文化边界上相互冲突的价值观的谈判和裁决。这项研究还有助于建立科学的基础设施，不仅涉及对本科生、研究生和博士后的培训，他们的多样性反映了所研究文化的多样性，而且研究团队还继续与社区进行研究，并促进这些社区成员的研究培训。拟议的研究的目的是了解神圣价值观(SVS)、身份融合理论(IFT)以及对敌对群体的性质和动机的信念如何影响群体间冲突，包括冲突升级为看似棘手的暴力。这涉及开发和测试有关这三种现象如何相互作用的理论，以产生忠诚的行为者，愿意牺牲物质关切和责任给主要参考群体，并为抽象理想(如国家、宗教或意识形态群体)而受苦、死亡和杀戮的人。在美国、约旦河西岸/加沙、摩洛哥和西班牙进行的研究调查了：(A)SVS的身份功能；(B)SVS和身份融合在受到威胁时的互动方式，以影响相互竞争的神圣价值观和身份认同群体之间的道德权衡；(C)关于外部群体的信念在助长暴力的狭隘利他主义，即为内部群体做出自我牺牲方面的调节作用；(D)利用这一知识制定干预措施，促进群体间更具合作性的互动。为此，研究团队聘请了三个学科(社会心理学、政治心理学、人类学)的高级研究人员和学生的互补人才，他们在发展关于SVS、IFT以及道德动机选择在资源和政治冲突中发挥作用的知识方面发挥了主导作用。该方法使用该团队开发的创新的线上和线下行为和自我报告指标，将基础研究和应用研究整合在一起，结合实验室和现场实验、调查和访谈，以便为政策制定者提供“现实世界”的相关性。

Common approaches to resource and political conflicts often assume adversaries understand the world on the basis of rational cost-benefit choices. In contrast, research with populations in conflict zones around the world indicate that many violent or intractable conflicts involve what are called "devoted actors", whose often violent actions are driven not by cost-benefit judgments but by a commitment to sacred values (e.g. "My values are not for sale"; "Do the right thing regardless of the consequences)", a feeling of fusion with the group, and a set of perceptions of the motives of adversary groups. The goal of this research is to create a theoretical framework that explores how these aspects of human psychology interact and will lead to novel insights that will help answer questions such as: How do people trade off competing sets of sacred values, and ties to groups they are fused with (e.g., to family or nation)? Why do some devoted actors choose to use violence while others refrain from violence? The results of this work may expand possibilities for conflict reduction, including counter-radicalization efforts and negotiation and adjudication of conflicting values over transcultural boundaries. The research also contributes to building the infrastructure of science and involves not only training of undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellow whose diversity mirrors the diversity of the cultures studied, but also the research team continues to engage with the communities in the research and to foster the research training of members in these communities.The aim of the proposed research is to understand how sacred values (SVs), identity fusion theory (IFT), and beliefs about the nature and motives of adversary groups influence intergroup conflicts, including their escalation into seemingly intractable violence. This involves developing and testing theory regarding how these three phenomena interact to produce devoted actors, people willing to sacrifice material concerns and responsibility to primary reference groups and suffer, die, and kill for abstract ideals (such as nation, religious or ideological groups). Studies in the United States, the West Bank/Gaza, Morocco and Spain investigate (a) the identity function of SVs, (b) the way SVs and identity fusion interact under threat to influence moral trade-offs between competing sacred values and identity groups, (c) the moderating role of beliefs about the outgroups in facilitating violent parochial altruism, that is, self-sacrifice for the ingroup; and (d) leverage this knowledge to develop interventions that facilitate more cooperative intergroup interactions. To do this, the research team employs the complementary talents of senior researchers and students in three disciplines (social psychology, political psychology, anthropology) who have played leading roles in developing knowledge about SVs, IFT and the way morally motivated choices play out in resource and political conflicts. Using innovative online and offline behavioral and self-report measures the team has developed, the methodology integrates basic and applied research, combining laboratory and field experiments, surveys, and interviews in order to provide "real-world" relevance for policy makers.