Influencing Conflict-Related Emotional Dynamics

人们经常对世界上发生的戏剧性的社会政治事件作出情绪化的反应。当这类事件发生在成熟的民主国家和国内，而不仅仅是在遥远的国家时，情况尤其如此。在许多情况下，表达强烈的情绪可能会与他人产生冲突，并使冲突持续下去，而这些人可能会以截然不同的方式对这些事件做出反应。认识到情绪在群体间冲突中的重要性，导致最近尝试使用心理干预来减少与冲突相关的情绪。初步研究表明，这些努力有助于减少破坏性情绪和促进冲突的解决。然而，通常不可能将干预措施应用于所有人群。相反，干预措施必须适用于人口的一部分或亚组。这个项目考察了减少一个小组的情绪是否会对整个小组的情绪和冲突程度产生持久的影响。该项目的目标是找到优化心理干预和减少有害冲突的方法。三项研究将巴以冲突作为案例研究。第一项研究考察了群体内部消极情绪动态的展开。计算机科学的最新发展被用来创建一个在线网络，允许实时在线互动的检查。第二项研究考察了这些情绪动态是如何被应用于小组不同部分的情绪调节干预所影响的。这将有助于确定干预措施在影响整体消极群体情绪方面发挥最大效用的条件。第三项研究测试了情绪调节干预的长期效果，并评估了这些效果如何受到情绪动态的影响。该研究将为心理干预的可扩展性最大化和实现减少有害冲突的长期目标做出重要贡献。斯坦福社会心理学回答现实世界问题中心（SPARQ）为许多对心理干预感兴趣的组织提供咨询服务，可以促进该项目产生的直接应用。与以色列赫兹利亚跨学科中心的研究人员的合作为实施和传播提供了更多的机会。该项目包括开发一个开源平台，供许多领域的研究人员使用，从而推动其他科学领域的发展。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

People often respond emotionally to the dramatic socio-political events that are taking place around the word. This is especially true when such events are occurring in well-established democracies and at home, and not just in faraway countries. In many cases, expressing strong emotions can create and perpetuate conflicts with others who may be responding to these events in very different ways. Acknowledging the importance of emotions in intergroup conflicts has led to recent attempts to reduce conflict-related emotions using psychological interventions. Initial studies show that these efforts can be helpful in reducing destructive emotions and promoting conflict resolution. However, it is not typically possible to apply interventions to an entire population. Instead, interventions must be applied to a portion or subgroup of the population. This project examines whether reducing a subgroup's emotions can have a long-lasting influence on the overall group's emotions and level of conflict. The goal of the project is to find ways to optimize psychological interventions and reduce harmful conflict. Three studies use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a case study. The first study examines the unfolding of negative emotional dynamics within groups. Recent developments in computer science are utilized to create an online network that allows the examination of real-time, online interactions. The second study examines how these emotional dynamics are influenced by emotion regulation interventions applied to different portions of the group. This will enable the identification of the conditions under which interventions achieve maximum utility in influencing overall negative group emotions. The third study tests the long-term effects of the emotion regulation interventions and assesses how these effects are influenced by emotional dynamics. The research will make an important contribution to maximizing the scalability of psychological interventions and achieving the long-term aim of reducing harmful conflict. Immediate applications resulting from the project can be facilitated by the Stanford Center for Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions (SPARQ), which provides consultation to many organizations interested in psychological interventions. A collaboration with researchers at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel provides additional opportunities for implementation and dissemination. The project includes the development of an open source platform that can be utilized by researchers in many fields, thereby advancing other areas of science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.