The Influence of the Ethos of Conflict on Israeli Jews' Interpretation of Jewish—Palestinian Encounters

Abstract

This study investigates the psychological effects of a set of societal beliefs termed the ethos of conflict, which develops in the context of intractable conflict—as, for example, the Israeli—Arab conflict. The premise was that the ethos of conflict constitutes a type of ideology that serves as a powerful prism through which individuals perceive the reality of an intractable conflict. The study's findings confirmed this premise, showing that participants with a high level of ethos of conflict tended to perceive photos depicting encounters between Jews and Palestinians differently than did those with a low level of ethos of conflict. The former tended to perceive the Palestinians as more aggressive, to blame them more for such attributed aggressiveness, and to explain this perceived aggressiveness more in terms of internal and stable causes. They also tended to stereotype Palestinians more negatively and Jews more positively.

conflict; ethos of conflict; ideology; perceptual-cognitive biases