Reducing prejudice and promoting positive intergroup attitudes among elementary-school children in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Focusing attention on others' negative emotions reduces the effect of social relationships on children's distributive behaviors

The present study investigates whether directing five- to six-year-old children's attention to hypothetical resource recipients that included familiar and non-familiar people would affect their favoritism toward a familiar person, as reflected in how they allocated resources. In Experiment 1, we instructed participants to give one of several stickers to another person or keep all the stickers for themselves. Under the control conditions, participants more frequently gave stickers to friends than to non-friends. However, when asked about others' emotions, they distributed stickers equally among friends and non-friends. Therefore, focusing on others' thoughts reduced participants' favoritism toward friends. Experiment 2 tested whether focusing on both emotional valences would affect favoritism toward a familiar person, as reflected in children's resource distribution choices. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, except we asked participants about the other person's emotional valence. When asked about others' negative emotions, participants distributed the stickers equally between themselves and others. However, when asked about others' positive emotions, they distributed more stickers to friends than to non-friends. Neither others' emotional valence nor group status affected the perceived intensity of their emotion or the participant's emotional state. These results suggest that children's favoritism toward friends can be reduced by encouraging them to think about others' negative emotional states.

What motivates adolescent bystanders to intervene when immigrant youth are bullied?

Pathways to bystander responses were examined in both generalized and bias-based bullying incidents involving immigrant-origin victims. Participants were 168 (M_age  = 14.54, 57% female) adolescents of immigrant (37.5%) and nonimmigrant backgrounds, who responded to their likelihood of intervening on behalf of either an Arab or Latine victim. Models tested whether contact with immigrants and one's desires for social contact with immigrant-origin peers mediated the effects of individual (shared immigrant background, and discriminatory tendencies) and situational (inclusive peer norms) intergroup factors on active bystander responses. Findings indicated that desires for social contact reliably mediated effects across both victims; however, contact with immigrant peers was only associated with responses to Latine victims. Implications for how to promote bystander intervention are discussed.

Do Adolescents Intervene in Intergroup Bias-based Bullying? Bystander Judgments and Responses to Intergroup Bias-based Bullying of Refugees

This study examined 587 Turkish adolescents' (M_age  = 13.14, SD = 1.61) judgments and bystander responses towards hypothetical intragroup interpersonal (Turkish victim) and intergroup bias-based (Syrian refugee victim) bullying. Intergroup factors and social-cognitive skills were assessed as predictors. Findings revealed that adolescents were less likely to see bullying as acceptable and less likely to explicitly support the bully in intragroup interpersonal bullying compared to intergroup bias-based bullying. Further, adolescents with higher theory of mind and empathy were more likely to evaluate intergroup bias-based bullying as less acceptable and more likely to challenge the bully. Adolescents' prejudice and discrimination towards refugees were predictors of bystander judgments and responses to intergroup bias-based bullying. This study provides implications for anti-bullying intervention programs.

Spreading positive change: Societal benefits of meditation

Research over the past decades has revealed a variety of beneficial effects of meditation training. These beneficial effects span the levels of health and well-being, cognition, emotion, and social behavior. Around the same time, sociologists have shown that traits and outcomes on the individual level have the potential to spread in communities over three or more degrees. This means, for example, that changes can spread from one person to the next, and on to yet another person. Here, we propose that meditation-induced changes may likewise spread through the social networks of meditation practitioners. Such spreading may happen by positively influencing others through prosocial actions, improved cognitive functioning, and increased positive affect. Positive affective states and their underlying physiological correlates may also be shared in the literal sense. We argue that the spreading of positive meditation effects could provide the basis for collective responses to some of the urgent challenges we face in our current time and society and call for future meditation research to examine the phenomenon.

Promoting positive intergroup attitudes using persona dolls: A vicarious contact intervention program in Israeli kindergartens

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a vicarious contact intervention program for improving knowledge and attitudes of Jewish-Israeli secular and religious children regarding their ingroup and three outgroups: secular/religious Jews, Ethiopian-descendant Jews, and Arabs. One hundred and nine kindergartners participated in a four-week intervention, in which experimenters introduced to them four persona dolls representing the different groups. Accompanied by stories, children were exposed to the dolls’ individual and group characteristics, and to positive encounters between the dolls. A pre- and post-test battery assessed the intervention’s effects on children’s intergroup knowledge and attitudes. Findings revealed an increase in children’s knowledge of the groups, improvements in religious children’s attitudes towards Arabs, and in both secular and religious children’s willingness to sit closer to Ethiopian-descendant children. These findings highlight the potential of indirect contact for reducing intergroup bias in young children living in multicultural and conflict-ridden societies.

What reduces prejudice in the real world? A meta-analysis of prejudice reduction field experiments

Despite advances to promote acceptance and equity in many countries, prejudice remains a significant social problem. Promoting intergroup harmony requires knowledge about what works to reduce prejudice in community settings. This meta-analysis of field experiments reveals the most effective intervention types and conditions for reducing negative attitudes towards minority groups in real-world settings. Across 69 intervention arms and 24,378 participants, results reveal that prejudice reduction interventions are effective at improving attitudes towards minority groups in real-world settings (d = 0.51, 95% CI [0.33; 0.68]). The prediction interval was -0.90 to 1.92. In this case, the prediction interval was particularly wide because of the high degree of heterogeneity detected in effect size. Subgroup analyses indicate that less commonly explored approaches, such as perceived variability, may have larger effect sizes than contact-based interventions. Still, more research is needed to confirm the effects of these less-researched approaches. Additionally, results show that interventions are more effective for school and college cohorts than for adults, and that the effects of prejudice reduction interventions endure over time.

Relationship between Everyday Discrimination and Substance Use among Adolescents in Northern Chile

Substance use is a public health problem that affects the normal physical, neurological, and psychological development of adolescents. Apparently, discrimination is an important variable for explaining the initiation and continued use of alcohol and marijuana. Since most research focused on discrimination based on factors, such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender faced by minority groups, studies on discrimination faced by the general population remain scarce. This cross-sectional study described the relationship between everyday discrimination and alcohol and marijuana use-related behaviors among Chilean adolescents. It included 2330 students between 12 and 20 years of age from educational establishments in the city of Arica. To evaluate substance use, specifically alcohol and marijuana, the Child and Adolescent Evaluation System (SENA) was used. The Everyday Discrimination scale was used to evaluate discrimination. Age and everyday discrimination can predict up to 11% of the variance in substance use. Reducing the incidence of everyday discrimination may help reduce heavy alcohol and marijuana consumption among adolescents.

Bystander responses to bias-based bullying and retaliation: Is retaliation perceived as more acceptable than bias-based bullying?

The current study examined intergroup-related and social-cognitive correlates of bystanders' acceptability judgements and their responses to bias-based bullying of immigrant peers and to possible retaliation for the bullying. Participants included 179 immigrant-origin and non-immigrant-origin youth (M_age  = 13.23; SD = 1.55; 79 immigrant-origin youth). Participants' bystander judgements and responses to bullying and retaliation were examined via a hypothetical scenario. Further, participants' intergroup attitudes towards immigrants and their social-cognitive skills were evaluated. ANOVA results showed that immigrant-origin youth judged bullying as less acceptable and retaliation as more acceptable compared to non-immigrant-origin youth, documenting that group membership is related to adolescents' judgements. A similar pattern was observed in active bystander responses. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that immigration background, intergroup process in the context of immigration, and social-cognitive skills predict bystander responses to bullying and retaliation. This study provides important implications for anti-bullying intervention programmes to overcome the negative consequences of retaliation in the escalation of aggressive behaviours.

The Role of Immigration Background, Intergroup Processes, and Social-Cognitive Skills in Bystanders' Responses to Bias-Based Bullying Toward Immigrants During Adolescence

This study examined how intergroup processes and social-cognitive factors shape bystander responses to bias-based and general bullying. Participants included sixth and ninth graders (N = 179, M = 13.23) who evaluated how likely they would be to intervene if they observed bullying of immigrant-origin and nonimmigrant-origin peers. Adolescents' grade, intergroup attitudes, and social-cognitive abilities were evaluated as predictors of bystander responses. Nonimmigrant-origin adolescents reported that they expect they would be less likely to intervene when the victim is an immigrant-origin peer. Furthermore, participants with more intergroup contact and higher theory of mind were more likely to expect they would intervene in response to bias-based bullying. Findings have important implications for understanding factors that inform antibullying interventions that aim to tackle bias-based bullying against immigrants.

Social relations between students from two groups in conflict: Differences in stereotypes and perceived social distance between Jewish and Arab nursing students

BACKGROUND

The heterogeneous nature of the nursing profession generates encounters between members of different groups. Thus, nursing education should include programs focusing on cultural sensitivity to enhance cultural competence. Due to the ongoing conflict between Arabs and Jews, Israel is an appropriate setting for examining cultural sensitivity programs.

AIM

This study explores how Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Israeli nursing students studying together perceive their social relations by examining attribution of stereotypes (positive and negative) to members of the other group and willingness to engage in social interactions with individuals from the other group.

SETTING

The Department of Nursing at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College.

PARTICIPANTS

180 Jewish and Arab nursing students at two different points in their studies, beginning students and those at more advanced stages.

METHODS

The students completed questionnaires examining their perceptions of the social relations between the two groups. The questionnaires measured stereotypes and perceptions of social distance regarding members of the other social group.

RESULTS

More positive stereotypes and fewer negative stereotypes were found among the Jewish students than among the Arab students. Nevertheless, the Jewish students exhibited less willingness to reduce social distance. No differences were found between beginning students and advanced students with respect to stereotypes, though advanced students expressed greater willingness to reduce social distance than did beginning students.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings show that perceptions of social relations are influenced by two different contexts: the students' specific context (joint studies and joint work in the future) and the broader general context of relations between the groups. The findings indicate that programs aimed at developing cultural sensitivity and improving relations in a divided society should provide differential responses for each group and should focus on willingness to cooperate and reduce social distance rather than attempting to eliminate stereotypes.

Dialogue intervention to youth amidst intractable conflict attenuates stress response to outgroup

Encounter with outgroup has been shown to elicit physiological stress response and when outgroup is perceived as threatening to one's own family and community, stress is higher. In such contexts, becoming familiar and learning to empathize with the other side may reduce stress. Building on the long-lasting Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we developed an eight-week group intervention focused on dialogue and empathy and tested it within a randomized controlled trial. Eighty-eight Israeli-Jewish and Arab-Palestinian adolescents (16-18 years) were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. Before(T1) and after(T2) intervention, one-on-one interaction with outgroup member was videotaped, cortisol levels assessed five times during a 2.5-hour session involving exposure to outgroup stimuli, and adolescents were interviewed regarding national conflict. Intervention reduced cortisol response to social contact and reminders of outgroup (F = 4.92, p = .032, Eta² = 0.109). This HPA-activity suppression was defined by two pathways. First, intervention had a direct impact on cortisol decrease; and second, intervention increased youth's behavioral empathy during one-on-one interaction with outgroup member and this empathic response mediated the effect of intervention on cortisol reduction. Adolescents' belief in the potential for reconciliation at T1 predicted greater empathy at T2. Our study provides the first evidence-based intervention for youth growing up amidst intractable conflict and demonstrates its impact on adolescents' physiological stress response to outgroup. Results contribute to research on the neurobiology of ingroup/outgroup relations, highlight the key role of dialogical empathy and social interactions for interventions targeting youth, and emphasize the importance of enhancing motivation for social inclusion for initiating positive behavioral and physiological processes. Clinical Trials Registry (NCT02122887; https://clinicaltrials.gov).

The effects of crossing ethnic boundaries on the autonomic nervous system in Muslim and Jewish young women in Israel

Exposure to alien inter-group environments can differently effect ethnic groups’ autonomous nervous system, measured by heart rate variability (HRV). Our aim was to evaluate the effect of crossing alien ethnic boundaries on heart rate variability in three selected types of environments. In a field experiment study, we test responses of 72 Muslim and Jewish women to exposure to alien ethnic environments. We measured their HRV in intra and inter-ethnic parks, town centers and residential neighborhoods in Arab and Jewish adjacent towns. The subjects stayed half an hour in each environment. Mixed models were used to evaluate the effects. The results show that for both groups more favorable HRV measurements were demonstrated in intra-ethnic environments as compared to their HRV once crossing ethnic boundaries. The strongest effect in frequency domain (LF/HF) in response to ethnic boundary crossing was observed in the park for Muslims (β:0.65, 95%CI: 0.60–0.70) and for Jews (β: 0.60, 95%CI: 0.57–0.63). Following the eruption of the uprising, the most significant increase in LF/HF in response to ethnic boundary crossing was demonstrated in parks (β: 0.66, 95%CI: 0.60–0.71). In conclusion, both groups are effected by boundary crossing but there are ethnic differences in the autonomic nervous system balance and in response to crossing alien ethnic boundaries. A further study is needed to understand the causes of these differences.

The Capricious Nature of Theory of Mind: Does Mental State Understanding Depend on the Characteristics of the Target?

Using a between-groups design and random assignment, this study examined 214 Turkish children's (M = 11.66 years) mindreading and general reasoning about in-group members (Turks), similar out-group members (Syrians within Turkey) and dissimilar out-group members (Northern Europeans). Children heard four mindreading and four general reasoning stories with in-group or out-group members as targets. Whereas children's general reasoning about three groups was equivalent, accuracy of mental state inferences differed by target with more accurate mindreading of in-group targets compared to both sets of out-group targets. In this Turkish sample, mindreading of Syrian targets was the least accurate. Prejudice and perceived realistic threat predicted lower mindreading. These findings have important implications for understanding how similarity and intergroup processes play a role in children's mindreading.

Is empathy one of the Big Three? Identifying its role in a dual-process model of ideology and blatant and subtle prejudice

In the field of the social psychology of prejudice, John Duckitt's Dual-Process Cognitive-Motivational Model of Ideology and Prejudice has gained a firm grounding over the past decade and a half, while empathy has become one of the most powerful predictors of prejudice, alongside right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. This study integrates empathy into the dual-process model, exploring the effects of this variable, along with the impact of personality and ideological attitudes, on prejudice in both its blatant and subtle forms. A cross-sectional research design was used to collect data from 260 university students by self-report measures. Despite its cross-sectional nature, a pattern of causal relationships was hypothesized according to experimental and longitudinal findings from previous studies. The path analysis results show that in the model fitted to the data, empathy does not have any direct impact on prejudice, although it plays a significant role in the prediction of prejudice towards a particular immigrant group. On the other hand, the dual-process model is confirmed in the explanation of blatant prejudice and, in a weaker and indirect way, of subtle prejudice; sustaining the distinctive nature of these constructs on some differential predictors and paths. In the discussion, this study proposes that when ideological and personality-based variables are both included in the model, general empathy is not so robust in the explanation of prejudice, since some of the empathetic components might become diluted among other covariates. But even so, its indirect effectiveness through personality and ideological attitudes remains relevant.

Changing Conspiracy Beliefs through Rationality and Ridiculing

Conspiracy theory (CT) beliefs can be harmful. How is it possible to reduce them effectively? Three reduction strategies were tested in an online experiment using general and well-known CT beliefs on a comprehensive randomly assigned Hungarian sample (N = 813): exposing rational counter CT arguments, ridiculing those who hold CT beliefs, and empathizing with the targets of CT beliefs. Several relevant individual differences were measured. Rational and ridiculing arguments were effective in reducing CT, whereas empathizing with the targets of CTs had no effect. Individual differences played no role in CT reduction, but the perceived intelligence and competence of the individual who conveyed the CT belief-reduction information contributed to the success of the CT belief reduction. Rational arguments targeting the link between the object of belief and its characteristics appear to be an effective tool in fighting conspiracy theory beliefs.