Deeply divided societies are characterized by fractured, hostile and oftentimes violent relationships. A key question for conflict resolvers is how can we get individuals and groups to stop fearing and hating each other and to come together in reconciliation towards building peaceable societies. How, why, when and under what conditions do individuals and groups experience a shift - a positive, qualitative change in the relationship between conflict parties, including changed attitudes toward oneself and the other party, the conflict issues, and the conflict situation as a whole - that paves the way for reconciliation and conflict resolution? This dissertation explores the process of how individuals and groups achieve such a shift through small intergroup dialogues.
This study explores the argument that shift is a dynamic, relational phenomenon that is facilitated by certain conditions and processes at the individual (intrapersonal), transactional (engaging with the other), and situational (small group intervention) dimensions of analyses. The research uses a multi-method inductive and deductive design in three phases: (1) an analysis of the film, The Color o f Fear, to identify indicators of shift and factors that may facilitate shift; (2) interviews with intergroup dialogue participants of pio-choice/pro-life abortion dialogues, race/ethnic dialogues, and Jewish-Palestinian dialogues in the U.S., and with thiid-paity facilitators of intergioup dialogues in a variety of conflict settings to further explore shift and develop a process model of shift; (3) an experimental design that uses a simulated, written intergroup prenegotiation dialogue (no actual dialogue occurs) to compare the efficacy of affective appeals (personal stories) and cognitive appeals (rational explanations) to change attitudes.