Peacebuilding Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

In this article, I describe some of my research on caring, helping, active bystandership, and the origins of genocide and collective violence, as a background to interventions in real-world settings aimed to create positive change. They include working with teachers to create classrooms that promote caring and helping; training police to prevent or stop unnecessary harmful actions by fellow officers, and similarly students in schools to prevent harmful actions; promoting reconciliation, using trainings and workshops, and educational radio programs in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo; working to improve Dutch-Muslim relations in Amsterdam after violence; and a number of other projects. In these projects, information and participants' experiences combined to create "experiential understanding." Evaluation studies showed positive effects. These projects and their evaluation show that research-and theory-based interventions can be effective. An initial motivation for this work was my early childhood experience during the Holocaust in Hungary and receiving help from bystanders. Public Significance Statement This review of research, interventions, and applications in real-world settings shows that research on helping behavior and on the origins of great violence by groups can be applied to prevent violence, for example, by police or by students who would bully, and to help groups reconcile after great violence, for example, the genocide in Rwanda. It shows that knowledge gained in research can be used to make a difference in the world. Keywords: evolution of violence and of helping, passive and active bystanders, the roots of genocide, promoting reconciliation in Rwanda, preventing police violence and bullying by students I spent almost all of my professional life, starting in the mid-1960s, studying the roots of goodness (helping, caring about other people's welfare, moral courage, and active bystandership) and the roots of evil (the influences leading to genocide and mass killing, and, to a lesser extent, violent conflict and terrorism). I also engaged in activities both to increase caring, helping, and active bystandership, and to prevent harm and violence and promote reconciliation after great violence. This article is primarily about the applications of research and theory, mainly my own but also others', to real-world settings. It originates from a talk I gave at the National Summit on Violence in November 2016 at the American Psychological Association offices in Washington, D.C. The editor of this journal was present and invited me to write an article describing the "interventions" my associates and I have conducted in varied settings, my experiences along the way, and the lessons I learned, in the hope that it would help others doing similar work. He suggested that I could do this in an autobiographical manner. I begin by considering the roots in my early experience of my lifelong commitment to such work. Next, I briefly describe some of my research and theory, which guided the applications. The applications range from working with teachers to create class-Editor's Note. Continue the conversation by submitting your comments and questions about this article/book review to PeacePsychology.org/ peaceconflict. (The Editor of PeacePsychology.org reserves the right to exclude material that fails to contribute to constructive discussion.) ERVIN STAUB holds a PhD from Stanford, taught and Harvard and is Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the PhD program in the Psychology of Peace and Violence, Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is former President of the International Society for Political Psychology and of the Peace Psychology Division of APA. He has studied the origins of and ways to increase caring, helping, moral courage, active bystandership and altruism born of suffering, and the roots of, or societal, cultural and psychological influences leading to genocide, mass killing and intractable violent conflict and ways to prevent these. In addition to studying these he worked in many real world settings, for example to promote reconciliation after a genocide in Rwanda, improve Dutch Muslim relations in the Netherlands after violence there, training police in active bystandership to prevent fellow officers from doing unnecessary harm, and creating classrooms that promote caring. CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS ARTICLE should be addressed to Ervin Staub,