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Challenge 14
We must find better ways to
REDUCE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESISTANCE TO NEW CONFLICT APPROACHES
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People are very reluctant to change the ways in which they approach conflict. They are resistant to contrary opinions and to the possibility that they might be wrong. This leads people to "stay the course," even when the result is clearly harmful. In order to be implemented, positive new approaches must include effective "face saving" components. People find it very difficult to change the way in which they approach
conflict. In part, this is because of the human tendency to avoid the painful
process of admitting mistakes; it is also partially due to our reluctance to
challenge peer group pressures and risk the social ostracization that comes from
a failure to conform to group norms. It also stems from habit, and the tendency to do what we do because that's how we've always done it. ("To a hammer, all the world is a nail.")
Another very severe impediment to change is the trauma that past violence has wrought. That trauma, which often involves severe psychological and physical injury (see Unrightable Wrongs) as well as continuing deprivation, affects the way in which people think. These factors make simple exhortations to "get over it" unworkable. Rather, people need to be helped to overcome their fear, their hate, and their trauma, and to slowly reconcile themselves with the "other."
We know quite a bit about a few approaches (e.g., truth commissions,
war crimes tribunals), but we don't know much about other approaches for getting
over extreme stress. What is going on — both on the individual level and on the
group, community, or even national levels — to help parties heal from such stress?
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Framing: What We Now Know
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We know a fair amount about the pyschology of serious conflict and ways to deal with it. This includes an understanding of the way people come to understand and define what is happening (which conflict theorists refer to as "framing,") and an understanding of ways that people can be encouraged to "reframe" the conflict situation in ways that are more conducive to constructive engagement and/or transformation. We also have a significant amount of knowledge regarding the emotions that are generated by destructive conflicts, and how these emotions cycle back to exacerbate the conflict and make it more intractable and destructive. Finally, there is a lot known about about the psychology of trauma and how to get beyond it.
Articles on framing include:
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- Frames, Framing, and Reframing Frames are the way we see things and define what we see. Similar to the way a new frame can entirely change the way we view a photograph, reframing can change the way disputing parties understand and pursue their conflict.
- Interests, Rights, Power and Needs Frames The way parties view or "frame" their own interests, needs, rights and power can determine whether a conflict becomes intractable or not.
- Cultural and Worldview Frames People from different cultures often have such radically different worldviews that what seems like common sense to one side, is anything but sensible to the other.
- Process Frames To a hammer, all the world is a nail. People tend to apply their own skills to working out a conflict, i.e. someone in the military pursues military solutions, diplomats pursue diplomatic solutions, and mediators pursue mediation. While this is usually a sensible division of labor, it can also distort choices if people from one procedural frame dominate the process and other options are not considered.
- Competitive and Cooperative Approaches to Conflict This set of materials explores these two different approaches to conflict and the results of pursuing one or the other.
- Identity Frames Identity frames include ideas about who one is, what characteristics they share with their group(s) and how they do and should related to others. These frames are frequently sources of conflict.
- Stereotypes / Characterization Frames Stereotypes are simplified, and often highly inaccurate, images of the motivations and behaviors of others. When in error, they can lead to and escalate conflicts.
- Enemy Images In Rwanda, the Tutsis were referred to as the enemy, cockroaches and rats. These extreme enemy images paved the way for the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide.
- DelegitimizationDelegitimization refers to the negative stereotypes used to describe an adversary. Delegitimization is one of the major forces that feeds violence and prevents a peaceful resolution.
- Dehumanization has the power to justify society's most violent and terrible impulses. If outsiders such as the Jews in Germany or the Tutsis in Rwanda are seen as less than human, then this clears the way to commit atrocities against them.
- Ethos of Conflict A community's ethos is its shared beliefs, goals and identity. Communities in an intractable conflict expand that ethos to explain their approach to the conflict. A community's ethos strongly affects how destructive the conflict becomes.
- Fact Frames Facts do not speak for themselves. The same information from different sources, or received by different people, can lead to very different conclusions. One's "fact frames" determine what is believed and how that determines one's choices about what to do.
- Worst-Case / Loss-Oriented Frames When confronted with change, it is common for people to look first, and often exclusively, at the risks and potential downsides, while simultaneously under-rating potential benefits.
- Cognitive Dissonance People tend to ignore or "explain away" new information that conflicts with the way they currently think. Such "cognitive dissonance" can have both constructive and destructive effects on conflict.
- Reframing Bernard Mayer wrote, "The art of reframing is to maintain the conflict in all its richness but to help people look at it in a more open-minded and hopeful way."
Book Summaries
- Frame Reflection: Toward the Resolution of Intractable Policy Controversies
Donald A. Schön and Martin Rein
Reflecting on, and thus questioning, basic assumptions and values may lead to uncertainty. It has been argued that such uncertainty impairs the ability to act and as such has no place in policy practice. Frame Reflection rejects this argument pointing out that reflection could aid in shifting incongruent positions towards congruence and thus intractable conflicts towards resolution.
- The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society
Kenneth Boulding
This is an early work that described what has been come to be known as framing. Although written in the 1950s, this classic still has much to teach us today about how worldviews shape all aspects of our behavior.
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Emotions: What We Now Know
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Severe conflicts lead to (and are exacerbated by) strong emotions. These emotions tend to reinforce the negative behaviors of people on all sides of the conflict, making the conflict more, rather than less, intractable, and often more destructive as well. The following articles discuss these strong emotions, along with how they can be dealt with to obtain more constructive behavioral outcomes.
- Emotions - Negotiation theory often assumes that people in conflict behave rationally, but emotional factors also play a large role in people's attitudes and behaviors. This essay examines the importance of these emotional factors in both conflict assessment and response.
- Anger - Anger can be constructive, but is more often destructive. This essay examines the interplay between anger and conflict and discusses when and how anger should be managed.
- Fear - Fear is both a cause and a consequence of violent and some nonviolent conflicts. It certainly makes conflict resolution more difficult.
- Distrust - Distrust can result in a self-fulfilling prophecy, where every move another person makes is interpreted as evidence to distrust him/her. When the other person reciprocates this sentiment, there is mutual distrust that further fuels the escalation of conflict.
- Guilt and Shame - We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are. Both lead to and are caused by conflict.
- Humiliation - Humiliation is reducing to lowliness or submission. It is theorized to be a major cause of violent and intractable conflicts. The humiliation of the German people after World War I, for example, is frequently seen as a cause of World War II.
- Victim Bias - How can we better mitigate the natural human tendency to ascribe one's own problems to the actions of others rather than their own failings
- Siege Mentality - Many societies believe that other societies have negative intentions towards them. But with the "siege mentality," the situation is far more extreme. They believe that the entire world is hostile toward them.
- Face - From the correspondence between Kennedy and Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis, it is clear that they were trying to end the conflict while retaining their honor or "saving face." Understanding the concept of face is vital to resolving intractable conflict.
Book Summaries on Emotions:
- Making Enemies: Humiliation and International Conflict
Evelin Lindner
This book highlights the critical role of humiliation in escalating and perpetuating destructive conflicts, arguing that humiliation is the "nuclear bomb of emotions." Ways to avoid it, and recover from it are also discussed.
- Revitalizing Political Psychology: The Legacy of Harold D. Lasswell
William Ascher and Barbara Hirshfelder-Ascher
The basic principles of Lasswells work are introduced, including the displacement hypothesis, the triple appeal principle and the self-system. Such concepts help us to understand the psychodynamic roots of seemingly illogical actions and direct our attention to the underlying cause of such actions.
- Entrapment in Escalating Conflicts
Joel Brockner and Jeffrey Rubin
Entrapment is a social psychological process that leads individuals to escalate their commitment to a previously chosen, though failing, course of action in order to justify or 'make good on' prior investments. Entrapment can result from both external influences and internal processes. The book explains this problem and suggests ways in which it can be avoided.
- Another Way: Positive response to contemporary violence
Adam Curle
This book is not new, but its message is still very relevant. Curle argues that much of contemporary violence stems from psychological alienation. Political processes alone cannot end such violence; rather, a "widespread change of heart" is necessary. A model for a peacemaking approach to ending alienation is provided.
- Mediating Dangerously: The Frontiers of Conflict Resolution
Kenneth Cloke
Revealing ones authentic self during mediation not only aids in solving the immediate conflict, but also begins a mutual learning process that reduces future conflict. Such a revelation, though beneficial, is thought to be dangerous and is hampered by both inner psychological limitations and external social structures. The book explores these limitations and suggests ways to transcend them.
- The Persuasion Handbook: Developments in Theory and Practice
James Price Dillard and Michael Pfau, eds.
This book examines how persuasion can be used to reinforce current behavior or change behavior. It examines both the rational and the emotional aspects of persuasion, investigating what makes particular kinds of appeals affective, others not.
Other Resources of Interest:
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