Prosocial regulation of intergroup relations through moral exemplars: From mechanism to real-life behaviour

Our social perceptions spontaneously divide people into “us” and “them”. In addition, we often believe that “we” are better than “them”. Such perceptions lead to prejudices, intolerance and conflicts.

How to prevent conflict and improve relations between social groups are among the most challenging issues of mankind [1,2].

Psychological science has contributed significantly to understanding intergroup relations using mainly self-reported measures offering limited insights into the specific processes and mechanisms leading to overcoming intergroup biases in real life situations.

Our project aims to overcome these shortcomings by employing a combination of novel laboratory and field experiments to examine how learning about “moral exemplars” – individuals displaying strong pro-social behaviors – positively regulates relations between social groups.

More specifically, we aim to understand emotion regulation processes shaping the outcomes of learning about moral exemplars, identify specific underlying mechanisms, and investigate the changes on real intergroup behavior.

Supported by preliminary findings [3], we expect that learning about moral exemplars will violate peoples’ expectations (triggering “prediction error” signals), causing changes in beliefs, emotions and behavior towards other social groups.

Investigating these processes will produce new insights for a theory on pro-social regulation of intergroup behaviour in societies threatened or affected by conflict.