Research project Uncovering the role of emotion norms in conflict transformation
Emotions play a crucial role in intergroup conflicts by motivating support for aggressive or conciliatory policies and behaviors.
Extending the predominant focus on personally experienced emotions in previous studies, this project aims to examine the role of emotion norms – i.e., people’s perception of the prevalence or desirability of emotions in their groups related to a specific event or issue – in shaping conflict-related attitudes.
Project description
We will address three key research questions.
First, we will examine how emotion norms relate to personal emotions and support for conflict-related policies, and whether they affect policy attitudes over and above the impact of personal emotions and other types of social norms.
Second, we will examine how emotion norms develop over time and how they are affected by conflict-related events.
Third, we will test whether changing people’s perception of emotion norms can influence personal emotions and foster support for constructive conflict-related policies.
We will address these questions with comparative research in eleven conflict-affected societies, six with an ongoing conflict (Colombia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Israel, Turkey, and India) and five in a post-conflict stage (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Thailand, and Northern Ireland).
We will employ correlational and experimental approaches, and a quasi-experimental approach drawing on temporal variation to study the prevalence, impact, and causes of emotion norms with large nationally representative or diverse samples of respondents.
The main project members connected to Stockholm are presented in the "Project members" tab below.
Additional project members and collaborators:
Eran Halperin, Hebrew University
Eva Fernández, University of Geneva
Mesfin Gebremichael, University of Missouri
Rakshi Rath, Krea University
Blerina Kellezi, Nottingham Trent University
John Dixon, Open University
Iris Žeželj, University of Belgrade
Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, Prince of Songkla University
Yasemin Açar, St Andrews University
Maria Chayinska, University of Messina
Project members
Project managers
Sandra Penic
Senior Researcher and Project Manager
Members
Erik Bojerud
PhD Student
Sabina Cehajic-Clancy
Professor
