Transcript Ethical ideologies and attitudes toward national group narratives

Ethical Ideologies and attitudes towards national group narratives
Ayalon Ariel
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Abstract
Main Hypothesis:
Which beliefs are related to an acceptance of the narrative of
one group as well as the narrative of the ‘opposing’ or 'other' group?
The current study explored the relationships between ethical
ideologies (Forsyth, 1980) and attitudes of Israelis towards their own
collective narrative and towards the collective narrative of the
Palestinians (Sagy, Adwan & Kaplan, 2002). The main hypothesis was
that relativism would be related to an acceptance of both collective
narratives. A community sample of 543 self-selected participants
completed online questionnaires. Analyses of the data showed that
relativism was correlated positively with feelings of pride towards both
national narratives, thus supporting the main hypothesis. However,
relativism showed no correlation with perceptions of legitimacy of
either narrative. Further analyses showed that perceptions of
legitimacy of the Palestinian narrative were predicted by an interaction
between ethical ideologies and level of religiosity. The conclusion was
that considering relativism and ethical ideologies may prove to be
useful when trying to design interventions that aim to promote
acceptance of adversary collective narratives in an ethnic conflict.
Increased relativism beliefs would be related with
increased acceptance of both Israeli and Palestinian
collective narratives: Cognitively they will perceive both
(Israeli and Palestinian) narratives as legitimate;
Emotionally they won’t feel anger towards these different
accounts of history
Sample:
A community sample of 543 self-selected Israeli-Jewish
participants completed online questionnaires (Ayalon, 2009):
Gender:
• Male 31%
• Female 69%
Religiosity:
• Secular 64%
• Traditional 21%
• Religious 12%
• Ultra-Orthodox 3%
Age Groups:
• 10s 17%
• 20s 50%
• 30s 20%
• 40s 8%
• 50s+ 5%
Forsyth (1980) – Ethical Ideologies
Results:
Individual variations in approaches to moral judgment and
behavior may be conceptualized in terms of two basic dimensions:
relativism and idealism. Forsyth recommends a four-fold
classification based on both dimensions:
Low Relativism:
Accept universal
Moral codes
High Relativism:
Reject universal
Moral codes
Low Idealism:
Harm is sometimes
Necessary
Exceptionist
High Idealism:
Avoid Harm
Absolutist
Correlations between moral dimensions and attitudes towards
groups narratives
Israeli Narrative
Palestinian Narrative
Idealism
Relativism
Idealism
Relativism
Legitimacy
.06
.00
-.04
.01
Empathy
.11
-.03
-.01
.16
Anger
.09
.23**
.12
.11
Pride
.23**
.20**
.10
.31**
** p < .000
Subjectivist
Situationist
Perceptions of legitimacy of the Palestinian narrative
By ethical ideologies and religiosity
30
Secular
Traditional
Religious
F = 2.18; p = 0.044
25
Sagy et.al. (2002) – Attitudes toward national narratives
Inter-group relations provide different narratives and meanings to
historical events that are perceived to be a meaningful part of the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict. For example, the two narratives concerning
the 1948 war were introduced in the following questions:
** Many Jewish Israelis view the 1948 war (the war of independence) as
an important event which symbolize their capacity for survival and
independence. How do you feel about their attitude?
** Many Palestinians view the 1948 war (the war of independence) as a
disaster for them. How do you feel about their attitude?
Participants were asked to indicate their degree of agreement with a
statement indicating to what extent they perceive the view presented as
legitimate. They were also asked to indicate their emotional responses their degree of empathy, pride and anger towards the narrative
presented. Responses were on a scale of 1 (very untrue) to 5 (very true).
20
15
Situationist
Absolutist
Subjectivist
Exeptionist
Conclusions:
(1) Relativism is directly correlated with the emotional
component of the attitudes towards both national narratives
thus should be useful on interventions aimed at easing
tensions between the groups.
(2) Ethical Ideologies are related to the cognitive component
of the attitudes toward national narratives through more
complex patterns.
Forsyth, D.R. (1980). A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 39, 175-184.
Sagy, S., Adwan, S. & Kaplan, A. (2002). Interpretations of the Past and Expectations for the
Future Among Israeli and Palestinian Youth. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 72 (1), 26–38.
Ayalon, A. (2009). Midgam Project. Retrieved (09/01/2009), from Midgam Project Website:
http://www.midgam.com/info.asp