Economic contact in service encounters between groups in protracted conflict (original) (raw)
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This article presents a paradigm of process evaluation of intergroup contact interventions that has two objectives: (a) to classify intergroup encounters by their ideology and (b) to define and apply criteria that evaluate the quality of intergroup interaction, focusing on symmetry between members of both groups in active participation in the encounter. This paradigm was applied to evaluate 47 encounters programs between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs that were classified into two major approaches-those that emphasize coexistence and similarities between the sides and those that emphasize conflict and confrontation. Equality in participation of Jewish and Arab participants was found in the vast majority (89%) of programs. However, symmetry between Jewish and Arab facilitators varied and was higher in programs including confrontational elements. This article presents a paradigm for evaluating intergroup contact interventions that focuses on symmetry or equality in the interactions between the two groups in these encounters This paradigm is applied here to evaluate a sample of 47 different programs of planned encounters between Jews and Arabs in Israel that were conducted in the year 1999-2000 and supported by the Abraham Fund for Jewish-Arab coexistence. The first part of the article presents the conceptual
American Psychologist, 2013
We propose that intergroup contact provides an effective means by which to reduce, resolve, and prevent conflict of all kinds, including violent conflict. We review the vast literature on the effectiveness of intergroup contact and discuss when and how it reduces prejudice. We also discuss key features of successful interventions, highlighting examples from conflict zones around the world. Rather than accepting, as some scholars do, that conflict is inevitable, we argue that intergroup contact, in its various forms, can play a pivotal and preemptive role in conflict prevention. We suggest that a blunt application of contact theory, particularly when groups are of unequal status, can have some unfortunate consequences, and contact interventions can, and should, be designed to overcome these pitfalls. We argue that, ultimately, contact is a powerful tool that needs to be used alongside other means of conflict reduction, resolution, and prevention in order to frame sound public policy and build lasting peace.
Customers’ coping with interpersonal conflicts in intra and inter-cultural service encounters
AMS Review, 2013
Customers may alter their conflict style depending on their cultural values' orientations and whether the adversary belongs to their group or not. This paper provides crosscultural insight into the psychological mechanisms that shape different styles of customer's coping with interpersonal conflicts. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, the paper extends the framework of appraisal-emotions coping to different cultural-situational contexts and develops a set of theorydriven propositions. The insights from this conceptual paper suggest that within inter-cultural encounter contexts, an interpersonal conflict may lead to confrontative coping, for both allocentric and idiocentric customers. However, in the case of an intra-cultural encounter, the allocentrism trait may weigh against the pursuit of any conflict and therefore may increase the tendency of non-confrontational coping, while the idiocentrism trait is more likely to encourage adopting confrontative tactics regardless of the group belongingness of the frontline service employee.
Intergroup contact and intergroup conflict
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 2014
Intergroup contact theory is enjoying a renaissance; positive contact does reduce intergroup prejudice, but intergroup contact has generally been studied in relatively benign settings. With a number of countries either still experiencing or having just emerged from periods of pervasive intergroup animosity, contact theory is, nowadays, being put to its most stringent test as contact theorists try to uncover ways in which intergroup conflict can be reduced and reconciliation fostered. This article draws on research conducted at the Oxford Centre for the Study of Intergroup Conflict in countries including South Africa, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, and Bosnia. We report on our efforts to add to the emerging body of literature by (a) exploring the possible roles that direct and extended contact play in (post-) conflict societies; (b) asking when we might-or might not-expect contact to positively affect more demanding outcomes (such as intergroup trust and forgiveness); and (c) by investigating the processes by which contact achieves these outcomes. We then outline a research program that aims to further study both the benefits and limitations of intergroup contact in societies that are immersed in or emerging from protracted intergroup conflict.
International Journal of Intercultural Relations
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2024
Although numerous studies have documented the robust effect of positive intergroup contact experiences in reducing prejudice and improving positive attitudes towards outgroups, intergroup contact theory is still expanding and developing. In contribution to this expansion, the current studies tackled four caveats extending the literature on widely studied angles of intergroup contact and bringing in the contribution of novel emotional mediators in contact effects. First, we examined whether contact experiences also related to social change indicators beyond prejudice, namely, attitudes towards personal and general mixing. Secondly, we included both positive and negative forms of intergroup contact in the majority of the studies we report. Thirdly, we introduced outgroup respect and understanding as novel emotional mediators of contact effects. Finally, we investigated variations of our hypothesized path models in several intergroup contexts across 6 countries and 21 studies (total N = 12,859), a) looking at interethnic and interreligious contact among advantaged and disadvantaged groups, b) tackling different forms of contact such extended contact, close friendships, and secondary transfer effects, and c) testing for longitudinal effects. We have shown evidence that positive experiences with outgroups are positively related to pro-mixing attitudes, via increased levels of outgroup respect and also outgroup understanding, the latter being observed in inter/ethnoreligious contexts. We discuss these findings in light of other recent advancements within the larger framework of intergroup contact research.