Abstract
During protracted intractable conflicts, society members develop a sociopsychological infrastructure that leads to selective and biased information processing, obstructing the penetration of new information that may facilitate peacemaking. To validate a process model that depicts the functioning of these barriers, we conducted a study among 207 Israeli Jews, focusing on the effects of long-term barriers on information processing. After measuring these barriers, we introduced an invented peace proposal and gave participants the option of processing additional information concerning its implications using the Decision Board Platform. Aided by this platform, we conducted an in-depth analysis of information acquisition strategies and found that four general worldviews (i.e., traditional and universal values, incremental theory, and authoritarianism) were associated with the ethos of conflict, which in turn was associated with the general amount and type of information processed. The theoretical and applied implications are discussed.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 93-119 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | Journal of Conflict Resolution |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 19 Feb 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study has been funded by a grant from The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, as well as a grant from the Israel Science Foundation, rewarded to the second and third authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2013.
Keywords
- ethos of conflict
- intractable conflict
- psychological barriers