The imposition of a curfew by the Dutch government in 2021, aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, sparked widespread unrest and violent protests across the Netherlands. This article examines how mayors publicly communicated about the anticurfew riots, focusing on their articulation of the government-citizen relationship in various leadership roles. We apply a relational model to assess the extent to which mayors acknowledged rioters as community members, a perspective that proves critical for reestablishing cooperative contact. Our content analysis of 719 newspaper articles finds that mayors communicated considerably more inclusively than is often assumed of public authorities and reveals a complex leadership style that crucially combines strict law enforcement with interpersonal empathy. While strongly condemning violent behavior on the one hand, mayors predominantly acknowledged rioters as authentic community members at the same time and expressed a desire for dialogue. These findings challenge the conventional belief that public authorities typically distance themselves from rioters and position them outside of society in an attempt to delegitimize and depoliticize riots. Dutch mayors' more nuanced relational response offers valuable insights for developing effective de-escalation communication strategies, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and addressing underlying social grievances in citizen-government relationships.
This study presents the first confirmatory factor analysis of the Peace Attitudes Scale, originally developed to assess five dimensions of peace-related attitudes. Data were collected from 923 Italian adults. The original five-factor structure showed poor fit and multicollinearity. A revised three-factor model-sociopolitical peace, personal peace, and ecological peace-demonstrated excellent fit indices (comparative fit index = .96, root-mean-square error of approximation = .049) and high reliability (composite reliability >.80). A second-order factor model confirmed that the three dimensions converge into a higher order latent construct representing general peace attitude. Measurement invariance was also evaluated and found to be satisfactory. The findings provide empirical support for a parsimonious yet comprehensive model of peace attitudes and offer a reliable tool for evaluating peace-oriented values in educational, clinical, and social contexts. The revised Peace Attitudes Scale is psychometrically robust and theoretically grounded, capturing key intrapersonal, interpersonal, and ecological dimensions of peace. Implications for peace psychology and intervention programs are discussed.
Peace education has long been seen as a central pillar of peacebuilding in postconflict societies. Challenging divisive prejudices and stereotypes is essential if disputant communities are to resolve their differences and live in peaceful coexistence. Many Cypriot peacebuilding civil service organizations (CSOs) are specifically focused on peace education as their main form of peacebuilding and reconciliation. Their aims are to design peace education programs, which involve intergroup contact between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, in addition to revising mainstream curricula to ensure it prioritizes intergroup trust and empathy. However, their objectives are increasingly stifled by nationalist administrations which are increasingly hostile to any form of peace education. They use the education curricula as their main platform to propagate a "blame game" narrative that solely blames the "other" community for the island's conflict and division. Authorities increasingly interfere with peace education programs, which can include preventing participation, as was recently the case with the flagship "Imagine" program. Often missed in existing literature is how Cypriot CSOs have attempted to overcome and adapt to these challenges, notably by exploiting political loopholes which permit them to continue organizing peace education activities. One example has been to design "critical thinking" programs which illustrate to young people that the island's history is subject to competing interpretations (while CSOs cannot directly challenge the mainstream curriculum, they can emphasize that multiple narratives exist). While the adaptations may not be perfect, this article demonstrates that they enable CSOs to continue making an effective peace education contribution in difficult contextual circumstances.
History education that focuses on multiperspectivity and enhances empathy for different perspectives can play a role in promoting reconciliation in a (post) conflict context. Historical empathy has long been part of history education, with the aim of better understanding the actions of people from the past and citizenship goals as taking other perspectives of people in the present and enhancing empathy. Teaching sensitive history during and after conflict situations is, however, challenging for teachers. This study aimed to contribute to the knowledge of how history teachers can foster empathy in history lessons about (post) conflict and polarized situations using eyewitnesses. It examined how two Dutch history teachers in the Netherlands implemented lesson units about the Israel-Palestine conflict that were designed according to six design principles for teaching empathy in history class. We studied teachers' experiences, their considerations for their pedagogic actions and choices, and their concerns. The study involved a four-lesson unit in five classes (N = 97), with eyewitnesses playing a central role. These included guest speakers from an Israeli and Palestinian background (who lived there and return regularly to their families) and individuals featured in a documentary. Data were collected through video recordings (20 lessons), written observation memos, and teacher interviews. Findings show the design principles gave teachers concrete tools to teach empathy, offering flexibility for individual teaching styles. However, two principles require special attention: awareness of positionality and handling multiperspectivity. While implementing multiperspectivity is demanding, it holds promise for enhancing students' empathy. Public Significance Statement History education that focuses on multiperspectivity and enhances empathy for different perspectives can play a role in promoting reconciliation in a (post) conflict context. This study investigated how history teachers implemented design principles in a lesson unit on the Israel-Palestine conflict focused on teaching empathy. The study has shown that the combination of working with eyewitnesses and design principles provided teachers with concrete tools to teach empathy and that awareness of positionality and handling multiperspectivity require special attention.
This brief report examines how educators frame violent, racialized histories and why those choices matter for reconciliation. Interviews with eight U.S. educators (secondary teachers, university faculty, and public history practitioners) identified five flexible framings: somber, positive, neutral or expository, refutational, and student directed. Grounded in peace psychology, these framings map onto reconciliation-relevant mechanisms, including acknowledgment of harm, humanization, reduced defensiveness, and civic trust. The report highlights refutational teaching from conceptual change research: activating a common misconception, refuting it with evidence, and offering a plausible alternative while preserving student agency. Participants described clearer student understanding and lower defensiveness when lessons began with carefully designed refutations, especially where misinformation was common. Practical guidance is offered for matching frames to context. Limitations include a small, purposive sample and interview data; classroom studies should test these framings for conceptual change and reconciliation-relevant outcomes. Public Significance Statement Teaching about violence and racism in history is emotionally demanding, and students often bring misconceptions shaped by incomplete or misleading narratives. This article describes practical ways educators, including public historians, frame violent and racialized histories, including refutational teaching that corrects misconceptions without shaming students, to support constructive dialogue and outcomes linked to reconciliation such as acknowledgment, humanization, and civic trust.
This article examines civic engagement education among youth in Israel, focusing on how formal and nonformal educational contexts shape civic learning and participatory orientations. It highlights the importance of structured opportunities in fostering democratic attitudes. The study involved 1,168 participants aged 14-18, including 810 Jewish (69.3%) and 358 Arab (30.7%) youth. Using a civic engagement questionnaire, the research assessed six measures of engagement, revealing that Jewish youth reported higher levels than Arab youth, reflecting existing structural and educational disparities. Youth council members demonstrated the highest engagement overall, regardless of ethnicity. Participation had a more substantial impact on Arab youth's civic engagement, particularly at the level of perceived civic efficacy and participatory orientations, suggesting that structured involvement can be especially transformative for minority populations. Differences were also noted in electoral participation, civic justice, and political expression, mirroring cultural and educational disparities between minority and majority groups in Israel. The findings emphasize the importance of early civic education for fostering democratic values and participation, and conceptualize civic engagement primarily as a process of civic learning rather than as a direct behavioral or peacebuilding outcome. They also underline the particular relevance for Arab youth, whose unique needs and cultural backgrounds call for inclusive, equitable civic education as a means to promote social cohesion. This research informs strategies for expanding nonformal civic education within Arab communities and contributes to an international understanding of how civic education can bridge social divides in multicultural societies.
Existential risks to contemporary society have evolved dramatically. Concerns about nuclear annihilation, climate catastrophe, disruptive/malign technologies, and artificial intelligence (among other threats) remain prominent. Concurrently, trust in major U.S. institutions has plummeted in recent decades, and social and political discord remain heightened. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between existential risk (as operationalized by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Doomsday Clock) and trust in U.S. institutions over the past several decades using national polling data. Results indicate meaningful relationships between Doomsday Clock settings and trust in television news and newspaper media, all three branches of government, the police, organized religion, and big business (where clock settings closer to midnight are associated with decreased trust). No relationships were observed between Doomsday Clock settings and trust in the public schools, medical system, banks, military, criminal justice system, or organized labor. In aggregate, these findings demonstrate how existential threat may differentially influence the perception of, and confidence in, major U.S. institutions-especially those more heavily relied upon in the context of threat. These patterns also point to how confidence in core institutions may reflect the broader health and integrity of society, which in turn have important implications for the fundamental operations of democracy.
Firearm violence constitutes a global public health emergency. This integrative review examines risk factors, protective measures, and evidence-based policy recommendations associated with the subject. Thirty-five studies published between 2009 and 2019 were identified through PubMed/MEDLINE, Scientific Electronic Library Online, and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature databases and appraised using Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools. Most research (74.3%) originated from the United States, where firearm homicide rates are 19.5-25.2 times higher than in other high-income nations; international studies contributed 25.7%, enabling comparison of policy outcomes across different regulatory frameworks. Evidence supports the effectiveness of legislative interventions, such as universal background checks, which were associated with a 61% reduction in mortality rates. International evidence reinforces these findings; Australia's 1996 firearm law reforms, implemented following the Port Arthur massacre and including mandatory buybacks, uniform licensing requirements, and restrictions on semiautomatic weapons, reduced firearm deaths by 67% and eliminated mass shooting incidents for 2 decades. Key risk factors included firearm accessibility, male gender, young age, and substance abuse; effective prevention strategies include gender-specific interventions, community violence programs, and domestic violence safety protocols, with findings supporting multisectoral approaches that integrate policy reform with targeted interventions. The 46,728 firearm deaths in 2023 demonstrate a preventable public health crisis that requires immediate evidence-based solutions. Multiple nations have achieved significant violence reduction through comprehensive strategies targeting both immediate risk factors and systemic determinants.
This study investigates whether genocide survivor testimonies reduce dehumanization of the victim group and whether these effects extend to other victimized groups. Focusing on the Holocaust, we assessed perceptions of Jews as the primary group and Palestinians as a potential target of secondary transfer, with Israelis included to test whether participants distinguished them from Jews. Using a quasi-experimental design, 141 psychology students in two courses participated. In one course (n = 76), students watched a 2-h testimony by an Italian Holocaust survivor before completing measures of dehumanization; the other course (n = 65) only completed the questionnaire. Participants in the testimony-exposure condition reported higher levels of perceived humanity toward both Jews and Palestinians. No effects emerged for Israelis, and no correlations were found between their ratings and those of the other two groups. Moderation analyses showed that only participants exposed to testimony displayed secondary transfer, humanizing Palestinians alongside Jews.
This article examines the pedagogical alignment between historical memory education (HME) and historically structured board games (HSBGs), demonstrating how game-based simulations can foster historical empathy and ethical reflection about contested violent pasts. Drawing on peace psychology literature-particularly research on perspective taking, intergroup contact, and reconciliation in postconflict societies-it is argued that HSBGs enact key psychological mechanisms identified in conflict resolution research. Using The Troubles: Shadow War in Northern Ireland: 1964-1998 (Compass Games LCC, 2026) as an illustrative case study, this article aimed to demonstrate how game design principles such as polyvocal narrative structure, ludonarrative consonance, and constrained ethical agency align with HME. HME foregrounds practices of truth telling and nonrepetition, alongside an explicit commitment to recognizing the human status of all parties to conflict (McDaniel et al., 2010; Naul & Liu, 2020). The analysis integrates theoretical frameworks from peace psychology, including contact theory, social identity theory, and trauma-informed pedagogy, to explain how HSBGs create structured conditions for empathy development while mitigating risks of trivialization or retraumatization (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). This article contributes to peace psychology by demonstrating how design-based research in HSBGs instantiates established theories of perspective taking and dehumanization within concrete pedagogical contexts. It argues that affective empathy functions not as an endpoint but as a precondition for ethical engagement with political violence-supporting processes of conflict transformation without presuming reconciliation as inevitable or normatively desirable.
Over the years, numerous arguments have been proposed to explain why it is challenging to resolve intractable conflicts involving occupation. The "living space" approach, embedded within geopolitical and psychological theories, offers a unique perspective on this issue. This article applies the principles of this approach to examine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Geopolitical and psychological theories provide a broader, more generalized framework for understanding such conflicts, addressing motivations such as territorial expansion, resource exploitation, economic advantage, and, notably, the restructuring of national identity. Although Israeli leaders have not explicitly advocated for territorial annexation as a means of expansion, this drive remains latent within the Israeli ethos, as reflected in leadership rhetoric.
The armed conflict in Colombia has had caused deep consequences on the mental health and neuropsychological development of children and adolescents exposed to violence. This study aimed to assess neurocognitive functions and clinical symptoms in children who are victims of the armed conflict compared with nonvictims in Colombia. A cross-sectional correlational design was used with a nonprobabilistic convenience sample of 96 children aged 8-11 years (54 victims and 42 nonvictims). The Child and Adolescent Evaluation System and the Neuropsychological Evaluation for Children were administered. Results indicated that group differences in attention and memory were generally modest and did not consistently reach statistical significance. A statistically significant difference with a moderate effect size was observed in verbal recognition; however, this finding did not extend to other memory measures. Victimized children tended to present higher levels of posttraumatic symptoms, emotional regulation difficulties, and social isolation, although these differences were associated with small to moderate effect sizes. Regression analyses suggested that attentional functioning was independently associated with emotional regulation difficulties. These findings suggest that the impact of armed conflict exposure in middle childhood may be more evident in emotional regulation and adaptive functioning than in isolated neurocognitive task performance.
With growing interest in the study of forgiveness, researchers have identified various factors that influence forgiveness, including some that are particularly relevant to contexts of sociopolitical conflict. The research presented here aimed to develop a self-report measure of factors influencing forgiveness, adapted to victims of the armed conflict in Colombia, based on the Factors Related to Forgiveness Inventory developed by Blatt and Wertheim (2015). For this purpose, we carried out two processes: (1) a rational-analytic process involving translating the original items into Spanish, contextualization into Colombia (including adding further items) and evaluation by expert judges and victims and (2) an empirical process, involving exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of those items. The study included 564 people who had been victims of sociopolitical violence during the Colombian armed conflict, 79.8% identifying as women and 20.2% as men, aged between 14 and 88 years (M = 45.9, SD = 15.1). The inventory demonstrated acceptable confirmatory factor analyses model fit and adequate internal consistency. Based on the results, we propose the Inventory of Factors Influencing Forgiveness, a Spanish language self-report inventory, with 26 items measuring six factors: Mistaken Beliefs About Forgiveness, Malicious Intent of the Offender, Repetition of the Offense, Positive Actions of Offender, Social Influence to Forgive, and Influence of Religious Beliefs, Peace, and Reconciliation. These factors and the reasoning underlying them are then explained. Overall, the tool broadens understandings of forgiveness and can help professionals potentially develop psychosocial and psychotherapeutic intervention strategies.
Recently released reports on the integration of mental health and psychosocial support and peacebuilding by both the United Nations Development Programme and the Inter-agency Standing Committee provide useful analyses of the state of the field and recommended practices. This review provides a comparative analysis of the two documents, including shared areas of emphasis and limitations. Domains of shared focus are developing authentic and trusting cross-sectoral relationships, the importance of early action and long-term engagement, and beneficence. A key challenge is the lack of available theories of change and related empirical evidence to guide important questions about implementation. We recommend an integrative theoretical framework drawing on complexity theory, social ecological theory, and liberation psychology as useful foundational perspectives for articulating more specific programmatic theories of change. We also describe a series of next steps for researchers, practitioners, educators, donors, and policymakers in advancing the integration of mental health and psychosocial support and peacebuilding.
Maintaining hope is challenging in a world of conflict and war. History education can create moral yet ambivalent awareness in linking past events to the present: It may emphasize cyclical violence over time but also highlight resistance, moral courage, and hope toward a peaceful future. While research focuses on historical empathy and resilience, history educators' perceptions and ways to express hope in classrooms are understudied. This study explores how history educators from 12 European countries (N = 17) perceive the role of hope in history education in relation to sensitive topics. Findings reveal that teachers view hope as an important orientation toward the future and indicate how they also aim to express hope by sharing hopeful stories from the past. They see the expression of hope not only as a way to emphasize the potential of a better future but also as a way to stress people's agency in realizing this potential. However, teachers at the same time struggle with historical realities and personal beliefs that may not be so hopeful. Moreover, although hopeful narratives are expressed in the history classrooms, they often remain implicit. We propose that the role of hope in history education deserves more open discussion and further research.
Exclusive victimhood beliefs involve the perception that the ingroup suffers significantly more than the outgroup, whereas inclusive victimhood beliefs recognize mutual adversity. Previous research suggests inclusive victimhood beliefs may foster support for conciliatory policies, but research on their antecedents is scarce. To bridge this gap, we built on studies demonstrating the benefits of emotion regulation in promoting empathy toward outgroup members and supporting reconciliation policies in ongoing conflicts. We tested associations between emotion regulation, empathy, and victimhood beliefs in the context of the Middle East conflict. Specifically, we explored emotion regulation styles, anchored in self-determination theory that may facilitate perceptions of inclusive victimhood. Study 1 (N = 437; Israeli adults) supported the hypothesis that integrative emotion regulation (IER; taking interest in one's negative emotions) would predict inclusive victimhood beliefs through empathy for outgroup members. Study 2 (N = 406) tested whether these associations held when fear related to the conflict was elicited. As in Study 1, we measured IER, empathy, and inclusive victimhood beliefs and compared a fear condition to a neutral control condition (N = 471; Israeli adults). Our findings replicated the positive relations between IER, empathy, and inclusive victimhood regardless of emotion elicitation. This study deepens the understanding of emotional processes in reconciliation and provides insights for conflict resolution interventions.
Northern Ireland has a long history of ethnonational tensions, with the recent Brexit referendum heightening tensions of late. Research on identity in Northern Ireland has largely used an ethnonational lens and quantitative approaches, which obscures the complex nature of identity in the region. Using a thematic analysis study of in-depth interviews (n = 50) conducted in Derry-Londonderry in 2017, this study explores how individuals experience and conceptualize identity in the region. This study finds that identity is experienced as fluid, and there may be a shift in the subjective meaning or internal experience of an identity, even when the identity label remains unchanged. Identity is experienced as multifaceted and complex, where it is difficult to distinguish between what were components or facets of an identity and identities themselves, and also around whether an identity was political, social, or neither. Finally, there was an understanding relating to the differing compatibility, interdependence, and intersectionality of identity and that while identities are dependent on identity meaning, this meaning can be molded to fit a belief. By centering participants' own accounts, this study challenges the conventional application of identity models and expands how identity is understood and experienced in intergroup conflict settings.
Political trust is essential for peace in divided societies. In postaccord Northern Ireland (NI), past research has identified differences in political trust among the Catholic and Protestant communities. The present research explored which political institutions are trusted, and by whom, in the NI context. Drawing on the Northern Ireland Life and Times 2022 survey data (n = 968; 373 males, 595 females, aged 18 and over, 537 Protestant, 431 Catholic), principal component analyses identified two factors (with 62.85% cumulative variance explained), one factor trusted mainly by Catholics, which includes the European Union and the Alliance Party, and the other factor trusted mainly by Protestants, which includes the U.K. government (at Westminster) and the NI Executive. This differentiation suggests that political events such as Brexit and the suspension of the NI Assembly have impacted political trust differently in each community. Findings highlight the complexity of political trust and how ostensibly neutral political institutions are perceived in divided societies. Public Significance Statement This study reveals how political trust in Northern Ireland remains divided along community lines, with Catholics and Protestants showing differing levels of trust in key political institutions. These insights help explain how historical and political divisions continue to shape public confidence in governance, with implications for peacebuilding and inclusive policymaking.
Germany is often praised internationally for the way it addresses its perpetrator past. However, the question of how to deal with the era of National Socialism today is highly debated within the country. Using qualitative content analysis, we analyzed open-ended responses from N = 626 German citizens (ages 14-65) on how Germany should engage with the Nazi past. Applying latent class analysis to the content-coded responses, we identified three response classes: those advocating for continued remembrance, those rejecting remembrance and showing ingroup-defensive tendencies, and those supporting remembrance while still engaging in defensive responses, such as relativizing German crimes or attributing them to coercion. We discuss how particularly the finding of the third, ambivalent class extends existing literature on identity protection and collective remembrance by reflecting a commitment to confronting the ingroup’s atrocities, a practice highly endorsed in the country, without fully acknowledging responsibility. Situated beyond the binary of either endorsing remembrance or disengaging from ingroup wrongdoing, this class highlights the complexity of remembrance desires within a society navigating the legacy of mass atrocities.
Given rising antiimmigrant sentiment in the United States, it is increasingly important to further investigate which psychological factors may facilitate helping toward immigrants. In two studies with White Americans (total N = 1,139), we investigated whether (and when) two positive emotions-group-based gratitude and group-based pride-influence benevolent and activism support toward immigrants in the United States. Although previous research on individual-level gratitude and pride suggests that they are distinct emotions, at the group-level, we find that among White Americans, national gratitude and pride clustered together and were statistically indistinguishable. Importantly, this combination of American gratitude-plus-pride had differential effects on helping toward immigrants, depending on two key factors: Political orientation of the perceiver, and the type of support rendered. Among conservatives and moderates, American gratitude-plus-pride was predictive of increased benevolent support. However among liberals, it was related to decreased activism support. Our findings suggest that the impact of group-based gratitude and pride on helping toward immigrants is complex, and contingent upon preexisting dispositions.
