The Differential Effects of Hope and Fear on Information Processing in Intractable Conflict

Journal of Social and Political Psychology

Daniel Bar-Tal¹  Roni Porat²  Smadar Cohen-Chen³  Eran Halperin⁴ 

[1] Department of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel;Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel;Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom;School of Psychology, The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel;

关键词: intractable conflict;    emotions;    hope;    fear;    information processing;   

DOI  :  10.5964/jspp.v2i1.230

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Emotional barriers have been found to play a critical role in forming attitudes and behaviors in conflict and peace-making. A major effect of such affective barriers is cognitive freezing, which reduces openness to new information and opportunities to conflict resolution. In the current research, we examined the hypothesis that hope and fear have opposite effects on information processing in such contexts. A time-lagged correlational study with 222 Israeli-Jews was conducted using a new computerized information processing simulator. Results revealed that when faced with an opportunity for peace, long-term hope was associated with acquiring information in favor of accepting the opportunity, whereas fear was associated with acquiring information that was biased towards rejecting the opportunity. Results also showed that both emotions were not associated with the amount of information gathered by participants. Findings have both theoretical and practical implications regarding the differential roles of hope and fear in identifying opportunities for, and promoting, conflict resolution.

【 授权许可】

Unknown