Healing societies: The impact of social context on intergroup reconciliation

The recent increase in intergroup conflicts emphasize the importance of finding ways how to reconcile members of adversary groups.

Subsequently, social psychologists have developed evidence-based reconciliation interventions aimed at improving intergroup attitudes and behaviours towards outgroups.

Even though intervention effectiveness and outcomes depend on the context in which people live, most empirical research on reconciliation interventions has ignored the impact of the social context.

The overarching aim of this proposal is to systematically examine the influence of theoretically crucial and pre-existing contextual features on effectiveness, processes and durability of reconciliation interventions: a. degree of conflict and perceived threat, b. degree of integration vs. segregation within communities in which people live, c. ethnic majorities vs. minorities, and d. social norms on outgroup treatment.

The project consists of four sequential work-packages.

In WP1 and WP2, I will conduct large-scale longitudinal (online) studies in four European countries affected by conflict.

These studies will test and compare the effectiveness, processes and durability of established (WP1) and context-adapted (WP2) reconciliation interventions on intergroup attitudes and real-life behaviours of ethnic majorities and minorities living in different social contexts.

In WP3 and using field experiments, most effective and context-adapted reconciliation interventions will be incorporated into participants’ real life through intergroup contact and multi-media.

After establishing the impact of the social context in realistic settings and using heterogenous representative samples, in WP4, I will develop and empirically evaluate the first theoretical framework for intergroup reconciliation.

This project will identify effective reconciliation interventions that fit a variety of social contexts and thus provide concrete and effective tools for peace-building agents.