Empathising with the enemy: emotion regulation and support for humanitarian aid in violent conflicts

Considering that negative intergroup emotions can hinder conflict resolution, we proposed integrative emotion regulation (IER) as possibly predicting conciliatory policies towards outgroups in violent conflict. Two studies examined Jewish Israelis' self-reported IER, empathy, liberal attitudes,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition and emotion 2017-12, Vol.31 (8), p.1511-1524
Main Authors: Roth, Guy, Shane, Noa, Kanat-Maymon, Yaniv
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attitudes
Conflict (Psychology)
Conflict resolution
Egalitarianism
Emotion regulation
Emotional regulation
Emotions
Empathy
Ethnic Violence - psychology
Female
Group identity
Humanitarian aid
Humans
integration
intractable conflicts
Israel
Male
Minority groups
reappraisal
Relief Work
Religiosity
Young Adult
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Summary:Considering that negative intergroup emotions can hinder conflict resolution, we proposed integrative emotion regulation (IER) as possibly predicting conciliatory policies towards outgroups in violent conflict. Two studies examined Jewish Israelis' self-reported IER, empathy, liberal attitudes, and support for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Study 1 (N = 298) found that unlike reappraisal Jewish Israelis' ability to explore emotions (e.g. IER) promoted concern for others' emotions (empathy), which in turn predicted support for humanitarian aid (while controlling for education level, and religiosity). Study 2 (N = 291) replicated this mediation model, additionally confirming that liberal attitudes (upholding equal, fair treatment for minorities) moderated the relation between IER and support for humanitarian aid. Thus, IER linked more strongly with humanitarian support when the commitment for liberal egalitarian beliefs was high. Preliminary results hold important theoretical and practical implications regarding the potential to empathise with outgroup members in intractable conflicts.
ISSN:0269-9931
1464-0600
DOI:10.1080/02699931.2016.1237348