Explaining Support for Violating Out-Group Human Rights in Conflict: Attitudes Toward Principles of Human Rights, Trust in the Out-Group, and Intergroup Contact

A public atmosphere that supports violating the human rights of out-group members can enable or even encourage enacting such violations. We present a model that explains such support in terms of 2 underlying components: (a) support for violating general principles of human rights (SVHRG); and (b) lack of trust toward the specific out-group. This model was successful (R²=47) in predicting Jewish-Israeli support for violating human rights of Palestinians (SVHRP). Structural equation modeling indicated that, consistent with our hypotheses, SVHRG and distrust of Palestinians each significantly contributed to predicting SVHRP; and contact with Palestinians and religiosity each significantly contributed to predicting trust in Palestinians, with more contact predicting higher trust and more religiosity predicting lower trust.