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What Creates Conflict?
 Social Dilemmas
 Social trap
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Situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally
pursuing its self-interest, become caught in mutually
destructive behavior
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Creates Conflict?
 Social Dilemmas
 The “Prisoners Dilemma”
 “Tragedy of the Commons”
 Fundamental Attribution Error
 Evolving Motives
 Outcomes Need Not Sum to Zero Games
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Creates Conflict?
 Social Dilemmas
 Resolving Social Dilemmas
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Regulation
 Safeguard the common good
Small is Beautiful
Communication
Change the Payoffs
Appealing to Altruistic Norms
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Creates Conflict?
 Competition
 Realistic group conflict
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Win-lose competition
Negative images of the outgroup
Strong ingroup cohesiveness
Pride
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Creates Conflict?
 Perceived Injustice
 People perceive justice as equity

Distribution of rewards in proportion to individuals’
contributions
 If one contributes more and benefits less, he will feel exploited
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Creates Conflict?
 Misperception
 Of other’s motives and goals
 Seeds of misperception
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Self-serving bias
Tendency to self-justify
Fundamental attribution error
Preconceptions
Groups polarize
Groupthink
Ingroup bias
Stereotypes
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Creates Conflict?
 Mirror-Image Perceptions
 Reciprocal views of each other often held by parties in
conflict
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Example
 Each may view itself as moral and peace-loving and the other
as evil and aggressive
 Evil leader–good people illusion
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Creates Conflict?
 Simplistic Thinking
 When tension rises rational thinking becomes more
difficult
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Views of the enemy become more simplistic and stereotyped
 Shifting Perceptions
 The same processes that create the enemy’s image can
reverse it when the enemy becomes an ally
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
How Can Peace Be Achieved?
 Contact
 Does Contact Predict Attitudes?
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Predicts decreased prejudice
 Does Desegregation Improve Racial Attitudes?
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School desegregation
 When Does Desegregation Improve Racial Attitudes?
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Friendship
Equal-status contact
 Contact on an equal basis
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
How Can Peace Be Achieved?
 Cooperation
 Common External Threats Build Cohesiveness
 Superordinate Goals Foster Cooperation

Shared goal that necessitates cooperative effort
 Cooperative Learning Improves Racial Attitudes
 Group and Superordinate Identities
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
How Can Peace Be Achieved?
 Communication
 Bargaining

Seeking an agreement to a conflict through direct negotiation
between parties
 Tough bargaining may lower the other party’s expectations,
but can sometimes backfire
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
How Can Peace Be Achieved?
 Communication
 Mediation

Attempt by a neutral third party to resolve a conflict by
facilitating communication and offering suggestions
 Integrative agreements
 Win-win agreements that reconcile both parties’ interests to
their mutual benefit
 Unravel misperceptions with controlled communications
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
How Can Peace Be Achieved?
 Communication
 Arbitration
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Resolution of a conflict by a neutral third party who studies
both sides and imposes a settlement
 Final-offer arbitration
 Motivates each party to make a reasonable proposal
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
How Can Peace Be Achieved?
 Conciliation
 GRIT

Acronym for “graduated and reciprocated initiatives in
tension reduction”—a strategy designed to de-escalate
international tensions
 Real -World Applications
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.