Chapter 13: Conflict & Peace

Social traps

a situation in which conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing its self interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

Mutual destructiveness

both parties engage in behaviors that harm each other and the relationship

Examples of social traps

prisoner's dilemma and tragedy of the commons

Prisoner's dilemma

a particular "game" between two captured prisoners that illustrates why cooperation is difficult to maintain even when it is mutually beneficial

Tragedy of the commons

situation in which people acting individually and in their own interest use up commonly available but limited resources, creating disaster for the entire community

Both games (prisoner's dilemma and tragedy of the commons) have features in common:

- fundamental attribution error

- non-zero-sum games

Fundamental attribution error

tempt people to explain their own behavior situationally but their partner's behavior dispositionally

Non-zero-sum games

- With cooperation, both can win

- with competition, both can lose

Ways to resolve social dilemmas (communication, small groups, regulations)

- regulation: safeguarding the common good

- making the group small, so that each person feels more responsible and effective and identify more with the group's success

- communicating effectively

- change the payoffs

- appealing to altruistic norms

Mediation, arbitration, and bargaining are all forms of

communication

Mediation

negotiation to resolve differences conducted by some impartial party

Arbitration

settling a dispute by agreeing to accept the decision of an impartial outsider

Bargaining

seeking an agreement to a conflict through direct negotiation between parties

Perceived injustice

when people perceive that they are not getting what they deserve (bias plays into this)

Attribution biases with perceived injustice

- self-serving bias and self-justification

- fundamental attribution error

- preconceptions

- groups polarize

- groupthink

- ingroup bias

- persistent negative stereotypes of the outgroup

Misperception

an incorrect understanding of something

Mirror-image perceptions (in regard to misperception)

reciprocal views of each other often held by parties in conflict (i.e. each party may view itself as moral and peace-loving and the other as evil and aggressive)

Sherif's Robbers Cave study

- competition -> conflict

- superordinate goals -> cooperation