Conflict and Peacemaking

What is Conflict?• A perceived incompatibility of actions or goals. • A strong disagreement between people, groups,

etc., that results in an angry argument. • Conflict occurs when one party decides that the

way things are is not okay and seeks change, but that change is not agreed to by the other party.

What Creates Conflict?

1. Social Dilemmas

2. Competition

3. Perceived Injustice

4. Misperception

There is a perceived breach of faith and trust between individuals.

There is unresolved disagreement that has escalated to an emotional level.

There is miscommunication leading to unclear expectations.

There are personality clashes. There are differences in acquired values. There is underlying stress and tension. There are ego problems.

1. Social Dilemmas • Is a situation in which an individual profits from

selfishness unless everyone chooses the selfish alternative, in which case the whole group looses.

Example:

1.The prisoner’s dilemma

2.The tragedy of the commons

Social Trap- A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing its self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior.

Non – Zero – Sum Games

- Games in which outcomes need not to sum to zero. (With cooperation, both can win; with competition, both can loose) – Also called Mixed – Motive Situations.

Resolving Social Dilemmas

1.Regulation

2.Small Is Beautiful

3.Communication

4.Changing the Payoffs

5.Appeals to Altruistic Norms

To summarize, we can minimize destructive entrapment in social dilemmas by

establishing rules that regulate self-serving behavior, by keeping groups small, by allowing people to communicate, by

changing payoffs to make cooperation more rewarding, and by invoking

compelling altruistic norms.

2. Competition

• In Muzafer Sherif’s (1966) experiment, win-lose competition had produced intense conflict, negative images of the out-group, and strong in-group cohesiveness and pride.

3. Perceived Injustice • “That’s unfair!” “What a rip-off!” “We deserve better!”• Such comments illustrate conflicts produced by perceived

injustice.

But What is Justice? • People perceived justice as equity – the distribution of

rewards in proportion on individuals’ contribution (Walster & others, 1978).

My outcomes = Your outcomes

My inputs Your inputs

• Implication of Equity Theory – is that the more competent and worthy people feel (the more they value their inputs), the more they will feel under benefited and thus eager to get even (Ross & others, 1971).

• Intense social protests generally come from those who, perhaps after being educated, believe themselves worthy of more than they are receiving.

“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” – Karl Marx

4. Misperception True

Incompatibility

Misperception

• Many conflicts contain a core of truly incompatible goals surrounded by a larger exterior of misperception.

Seeds of MisperceptionSelf-serving

Bias

Lead individuals and groups to accept credit for their good deeds and shuck responsibility for bad deeds.

Self-justify

Inclines people to deny the wrong of their evil acts that cannot be shucked off.

Fundamental Attribution

Error

Each side sees the other’s anger as reflecting an evil personality.

Preconceptions

One then filters the information and interprets it to fit one’s preconceptions.

Polarize

Groups polarize these self-serving, self-justifying, biasing tendencies.

Groupthink

One symptom of groupthink is the tendency to perceive one’s own group as moral and strong, the opposition as evil and weak.

In-group Bias

The mere fact of being in a group triggers an in-group bias.

Stereotype

Negative stereotypes, once formed, are often resistant to contradictory evidence.

MisperceptionMirror-Image Perception

• Refers to the reciprocal views of one another often held by parties in conflict.

Shifting Perceptions

• If misperceptions accompany conflict, then they should appear and disappear as conflicts wax and wane.

• The same process that creates the enemy’s image can reverse that image when the enemy becomes an ally.

How can peace be achieved?

1. Contact

2. Cooperation

3. Communication

4. Conciliation

1. Contact• Desegregation- The process of ending the separation of two groups

usually referring to races.

Example: (Cairns & Hestone, 2002) experiment on mixing the White and Black in a small conference they had.

• We will be most likely to befriend people who differ from us if their out-group identify is initially minimized – if we see them as essentially like us rather than feeling threatened by their being different.

• Friendship is a key to successful contact.

2. CooperationCommon External Threat

Having a common enemy unifies groups.

Superordinate Goals

Goals that unite all in a group and require cooperative effort.

Cooperative Learning

Where in a given situation everyone in a group learned something new and beneficial to them.

3. Communication1. Bargaining – seeking an agreement through direct negotiations

between parties.

2. Mediation – an attempt by a neutral third party to resolve a

conflict by facilitating communications and offering suggestions.

• Integrative Agreements – win-win agreements that reconcile both

parties’ interests to their mutual benefit.

3. Arbitration – resolution of a conflict by a neutral third party who

studies both sides and imposes a settlement.

4. Conciliation• GRIT “Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in

Tension Reduction”- The basic idea is that one side can initiate de-escalation by making a small, unilateral (one-sided) concession to the other side, and at the same time, communicating a desire or even an expectation that this gesture will be matched with unequal response from the opponent does response from the opponent. If the opponent does respond positively, the first party can make a second concession, and a “peace spiral” begins.

The End =)