Effect of attribution on the emotions and behavioral intentions of third-party observers toward intergroup discriminators during the COVID-19 pandemic

The global outbreak of novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 has caused intergroup discrimination associated with the disease to become increasingly prominent. Research demonstrates that the attitudes and behaviors of third-party observers significantly impact the progression of discrimination incidents. This study tested a parallel mediating model in which the attribution tendencies of observers influence their behavioral intentions through the mediating effect of the emotions of anger and contempt. The first two studies confirmed the proposed model with discrimination incidents reported against “returnees from Wuhan” and “returning workers from Hubei.” Study 3 further manipulated the attribution tendencies of observers, providing empirical evidence for the causality from attribution tendencies to emotions, confirming the validity of the model. These findings enrich the cognitive (attribution)–emotion–action model, further enhancing our understanding of the role of third parties in intergroup conflicts, with implications for the management of people’s emotions and behaviors in social crises.

Where the Blame Lies: Unpacking Groups Into Their Constituent Subgroups Shifts Judgments of Blame in Intergroup Conflict

Whom do individuals blame for intergroup conflict? Do people attribute responsibility for intergroup conflict to the in-group or the out-group? Theoretically integrating the literatures on intergroup relations, moral psychology, and judgment and decision-making, we propose that unpacking a group by explicitly describing it in terms of its constituent subgroups increases perceived support for the view that the unpacked group shoulders more of the blame for intergroup conflict. Five preregistered experiments ( N = 3,335 adults) found support for this novel hypothesis across three distinct intergroup conflicts: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, current racial tensions between White people and Black people in the United States, and the gender gap in wages in the United States. Our findings (a) highlight the independent roles that entrenched social identities and cognitive, presentation-based processes play in shaping blame judgments, (b) demonstrate that the effect of unpacking groups generalizes across partisans and nonpartisans, and (c) illustrate how constructing packed versus unpacked sets of potential perpetrators can critically shape where the blame lies.

Challenges for Society

The theories laid out step by step in the preceding chapters are not only of intrinsic scientific interest; they are also potentially of great practical use. Using the UK government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic as an example, this chapter begins by exploring various ways in which attention to our three kinds of interacting landscapes might enable us to tackle various collective action problems more effectively. It then considers how insights from the study of imagistic group bonding could be used to prevent or resolve intergroup conflicts, whether by defusing groups bent on violence or by rechannelling their extreme loyalty to the group in more peaceful and consensual ways. Moving from this to the problems posed by populism and polarization in large groups, attention then turns to the role of the doctrinal mode in fuelling dissent and the breakdown of cooperation, but also its potential to help us coordinate positive action on global issues, such as the climate crisis, more effectively than ever before.

Perceptions of Three South African Primary School Principals on the School – Based Violence

This paper investigated the perceptions of three selected South African primary school principals based in Jabulane - Soweto on School-based Violence (SBV).The qualitative research approach was used with participants purposively selected from three primary schools. The study was based on the interpretive paradigm, and as such the semi-structured interviews were conducted with the selected school principals. The data collected from participants was analysed and categorised into themes. The collected data gave the participants’ perceptions on the role of intergroup conflicts, and how it perpetuates school-based violence. The paper is underpinned by Social Conflict Theory. Received: 5 August 2021 / Accepted: 15 September 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021

Emotional Processes in Intractable Conflicts: Integrating Descriptive and Interventionist Approaches

Intractable intergroup conflicts are extreme, prolonged, and violent forms of intergroup conflict, which involve unique socio-psychological dynamics. As such, they offer challenges in using widely established and successful approaches to intergroup relations and harmony. One approach which has gained growing attention in this context addresses the role of emotions as an avenue to changing attitudes, behaviors and even support for policies in intergroup intractable conflicts. The role of emotional processes in conflicts can be studied from two very different perspectives. The first is a more descriptive one, in which scholars examine the role played by individuals’ and groups’ emotional experience in conflict situations. The second perspective, which has gained increasing attention in the recent decades, is a more interventionist one, focusing on the way emotional change (or regulation) can promote conciliatory attitudes and behaviors among the conflict's involved parties. The following chapter offers for the first time an integrative model, bringing together both the descriptive and the interventionist approaches. Put differently, this model encapsulates both the role of emotional experiences in preserving and perpetuating conflicts, and the potential role of emotion regulation in contributing to conflict resolution.

Librarians’ Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management in Private University Libraries in South-West and South-South, Nigeria

This study investigates the influence of librarians„ emotional intelligence on conflict management in private university libraries in South-West and South-South, Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. The population comprises 200 librarians in South-West and South-South, Nigeria. Total enumeration technique was used. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was tested for reliability, yielding Cronbach‟s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.87 to 0.95. Descriptive & inferential Statistics were used to analyse the data. The findings revealed that intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflicts as predominant in libraries. Collaborating, accommodating, sharing, avoidance and competing were prevalent techniques for managing conflicts in libraries. Librarians were found to be highly emotionally intelligent. The study concluded that librarians‟ emotional intelligence influenced conflict management. The study recommended that there is a need for private University Libraries to tackle misunderstandings among librarians while at the same time ensuring librarians are constantly emotionally intelligent.

Implications of Protest and Reform for Domestic Governance in Ethiopia

The nexus between protest–transition–reform situated in a larger frame of Ethiopia’s political dynamics anchored in historical narratives and theoretical debates are presented in this paper. Moreover, the genesis and the dynamics surrounding the rolling out of the post-2018 Ethiopia’s transition are examined from the vantage point of prospects for entrenching a stable democratic dispensation in the country. To this end, the political economy approach, along with presenting ethnographic narratives that are pertinent to the subject under study, is used as an analytical lens. Also, document review of journal articles, official and academic reports, internet blogs, and newspaper and other media posts was undertaken to substantiate findings from primary sources. The paper concludes that the ongoing Ethiopian transition unfolded by paving avenues for opening up space for negotiating unsettled issues surrounding state-society relations in a context of a relatively liberalized political economy. However, the envisioned model of transition is constrained by different factors characterized by a split in the ranks of the ruling coalition, intergroup conflicts, and rising unmet expectations that resulted in the absence of peace and stability. Besides, the prevailing weakness of democratic institutions and polarized inter-ethnic relations, the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic stalled the progress of the transition process.

‘How is one supposed to sleep when the Ka‘ba is over there?’

The aim of this article is to present data from the first study using interviews with Swedish hajj pilgrims, conducted during 2016 and 2017 by the Institute for Language and Folklore, Gothenburg; the Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg; Södertörn University, Stockholm; and Gothenburg Univetsity. Among the questions asked within the framework of the project were, for example, how Swedish Muslims experience the hajj; how they prepare for the trip to Saudi Arabia; how the pilgrimage is organized by Swedish Muslim organizations (e.g. hajj travel agencies); whether the pilgrimage is only perceived as a religious journey; and whether the intergroup conflicts and variations that exist among Muslims effect the hajj? The last question will be addressed by focusing on how Swedish Ahmadiyya Muslims are affected by the fact that the Pakistani and Saudi states do not regard them as Muslims.

Third-Party Peacemakers in Judaism

Third-Party Peacemakers in Judaism presents thirty-six case studies featuring third-party peacemakers found within Jewish rabbinic literature. Each case study is explored through three layers of analysis: text, theory, and practice. The textual analysis consists of close literary and historical readings of legends and historical accounts as found within classical, medieval, and early-modern rabbinic literature, many of which are critically analyzed here for the first time. The theoretical analysis consists of analyzing the models of third-party peacemaking embedded within the various cases studies by comparing them with other cultural and religious models of third-party peacemaking and conflict resolution, in particular the Arab-Islamic sulha and contemporary Interactive Problem-Solving Workshops. The final layer of analysis, based upon the author’s personal experiences in years of doing conflict resolution education, trainings, and actual third-party religious peacemaking in the context of the Middle East, relates to the potential practical implications of these case studies to serve as indigenous models and sources of inspiration for third-party mediation and peacemaking in both interpersonal and intergroup conflicts today.