In this presentation, Visualising Peace student Mathias Katsura discusses some of the scholarship he has been reading about the affective impact of storytelling in peace-building. He discusses what is missing from current approaches, reviews a series of case studies where effective use of narratives has helped to underpin key steps in conflict cessation/resolution and peace-building, and outlines some key takeaways about ‘winning the mind, winning the day, and winning the peace’. Below the video, you can find a summary of the publications he discusses. These are also available in our Visualising Peace Library.
Raevsky, Andrei. 1996. Managing Arms in Peace Processes: Aspects of Psychological and Intelligence, 1-14. Geneva: United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. Link: https://www.unidir.org/sites/default/files/publication/pdfs/disarmament-and-conflict-resolution-project-managing-arms-in-peace-processes-aspects-of-psychological-operations-and-intelligence-131.pdf.
This source is a short publication written by Andrei Raevsky as part of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research’s Disarmament and Conflict Resolution Project. The report focuses on the integration of intelligence collection activities as well as psychological operations, aimed at conveying specific messages to target audiences with the goal of influencing behaviour, in international peacebuilding efforts amidst the apex of UN humanitarian interventions in the 1990s. Despite its seemingly technical focus, Raevsky offers a basic introduction of the purpose of psychological operations (PSYOPS) based on first-hand testimony from civilian and military peacebuilding practitioners; perhaps most interestingly, he also addresses the hesitancy of UN authorities to engage in PSYOPS, which are oftentimes viewed as the responsibility of the media or the work of manipulative authoritarian regimes, and identifies this stigma as a driving factor behind the absence of systematic public information and strategic messaging campaigns in most peace operations. Raevsky also speaks to another pervasive misconception surrounding the employment of PSYOPS: though oftentimes conflated with military deception, PSYOPS are most effective when they are truthful, with efforts by peacebuilders to employ manipulation or deceit only resulting in them being viewed as an untrustworthy actor at best and a potential combatant at worst. In this sense, psychological operations constitute the ‘voice’ of a peacebuilding force, serving to not only explain its aims and means but to also establish the foundations of dialogue with the local populace critical to constructing a relationship centred on trust and reciprocity.
Bilali, Rezarta and Johanna Vollhardt. 2013. “Priming effects of a reconciliation radio drama on historical perspective-taking in the aftermath of mass violence in Rwanda.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49, no. 1: 144-151. Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.08.011.
This source is an article written by peace and violence psychology specialists Rezarta Bilali and Johanna Vollhardt for the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The piece summarises the key conclusions of an experiment conducted in post-genocide Rwanda, examining the impact of a radio drama series on individual propensities for perspective-taking, or the willingness to consider a former adversary’s understanding of a historical conflict. Perspective-taking has been shown to contribute to the reduction of prejudice by evoking sentiments of guilt within an in-group for harm inflicted on an out-group; Bilali and Vollhardt offer an effective summary of perspective-taking as an indicator of intergroup forgiveness in post-conflict settings such as Chile and Northern Ireland, before introducing psychological barriers which hinder its development. Among these are a heightened sense of threat or fear when confronted with a former adversary’s experiences, which reduce an individual’s willingness to listen and resulting in continued closed-mindedness. This article then introduces a novel experiment which sought to leverage the Musekeweya radio soap opera program, meaning ‘New Dawn’, to promote perspective-taking between divided ethnic groups. Both authors summarise the program’s basic plot and explain the character of Batamuriza, who seeks to re-establish bonds between her fictional village and an adversarial community in the aftermath of violent conflict. The study’s key finding was that by ‘priming’ individuals with phrases, references, and questions by Batamuriza, participants formed mental connections between their attitudes towards an opposing ethnic group’s perspectives and the bridging character of Batamuriza, effectively reducing inter-group mistrust by encouraging individuals to serve as bridge-builders themselves through historical perspective-taking. Bilali and Vollhardt’s research, thus, offers an isolated, albeit fascinating, example of the powerful fusion of mass media narratives and psychology to overcome the cognitive and behavioural barriers to post-conflict peacebuilding.
Maoz, Ifat, Yifat Mor, and Yiftach Ron. 2016. “‘Likes’ for Peace: Can Facebook Promote Dialogue in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict?” Media and Communications 4, no. 1: 15-26. Link: https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v4i1.298.
This source is an academic paper written by three Israeli researchers – Ifat Maoz, Yifat Mor, and Yiftach Ron – based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Department of Communications. The article examines the impact of the ‘Tweeting Arabs’ Facebook page, established and administered by Palestinian citizens to publicise their opinions, highlight a moderate voice, and encourage dialogue between Palestinians and Israeli-Jews. Rooted in the concept of intergroup dialogue, the Tweeting Arabs page seeks to directly challenge the collective in-group narratives, and correspondingly delegitimised out-group perspectives, that have grown entrenched over the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite the complex and technical nature of their analysis, the authors provide a simplified overview of their experiment, which examined patterns in the likes and comments associated with each post, in an accessible and comprehensive manner. They found that, while posts which emphasised the narrative of Palestinian suffering were mostly followed by claims of rejection or allegations of hypocrisy by Israeli-Jews, those which brought up the moderate and peace-seeking Palestinian voice elicited acceptance and sympathy. In one instance, a Tweeting Arabs post condemning the stabbing of two Jewish civilians in a supermarket was met by a positive response, with Israeli-Jews acknowledging that Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians should similarly be held accountable and that the heavy-handed Israeli military response was frequently counter-productive. In doing so, this article highlights the power of mass media platforms such as Facebook to serve as catalysts for dialogue and the exchange of narratives stemming from previously divided parties, a particularly surprising discovery given the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s deep historic roots and the extensive degree of physical separation between both populations. There is undoubtedly potential for these media applications to facilitate the rehumanisation and construction of a more complex image of a supposedly hostile other; at the same time, however, it is also important to remember that the article’s focus remains centred on displays of inter-group understanding through media. Little attention is ultimately paid to whether such digital interactions could, indeed, be translated into a tangible impact on the physical relationship between Israeli and Palestinian citizens.
Hamid, Nafees. 2022. Mass media and persuasion: Evidence-based lessons for strategic communications in CVE, 1-8. London: Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy, and Trends. Link: https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/XCEPT-Briefing-Note_Mass-Media-and-Persuasion-Evidence-based-Lessons-for-Strategic-Communications-in-CVE.pdf.
This source is a briefing note prepared by researcher Nafees Hamid for the Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy, and Trends research programme, an interdisciplinary project based at King’s College London exploring the factors which shape violent and peaceful behaviour. The piece focuses on the employment of strategic communications within deradicalisation campaigns, outlining common misconceptions and summarising key takeaways regarding the efficacy of mass media in countering violent extremism. Though Hamid’s research is situated within the context of terrorism, numerous parallels can be drawn between deradicalisation and other efforts which seeks to address an individual’s propensity to participate in conflict. A central component of the reintegration pillar of disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programmes, for instance, is the need to overcome ex-combatants’ socialisation to violence prior to their re-entry into their former communities. Hamid’s work examines the utility of mass media in this process and addresses a central misconception – that mass media persuasion, alone, can serve as the decisive factor in one’s decision to join or leave a violent extremist organisation (VEO). Individuals are rarely, if ever, motivated to enter or exit such groups by consuming visual, written, or spoken media alone. The power of mass media, instead, lies in its ability to influence perceptions of social norms, which, in turn, can reduce violent propensities. Fundamental shifts in core beliefs require person-to-person interactions; however, such belief changes are not necessary to move someone from a violent trajectory, in which an individual will actively participate in violence, to a non-violent one, where a passive belief in a group’s ideology remains. Ultimately, belief changes are social processes, with free-floating mass media offering an unsuitable, albeit dangerously attractive, substitute for the interpersonal exchanges central to any peacebuilding initiative.
Bothen, Ariel, et al. 2022. Mass Media, Behaviour Change, and Peacebuilding, 4-31. London: Behavioural Insights Team. Link: https://www.bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/211124_MassMedia_EvidenceReview-1-updated-2.pdf.
This source is a discussion paper published by the Behavioural Insights Team, a UK-based consulting firm that is the direct descendant of a Cabinet Office organisation known as the ‘Nudge Unit’, formed in 2010 to apply behavioural science to government policymaking. The piece focuses specifically on the employment of mass media technology, ranging from the Internet to radio stations, to influence the behaviour of target audiences in contemporary peacebuilding efforts. Mass media can reach individuals more widely than any other tool available to government or civilian organisations and, within the context of peacebuilding, offers an invaluable avenue for the representation and dissemination of stories of marginalised groups. The BIT’s research is centred on the impact of storytelling, a primary way in which people create and exchange meaning’. Contemporary technological advancements now mean that these narratives can be transported into the homes and smartphones of individuals across the world, thereby enabling mass media to serve as a vital bridge between conflicted groups. Equally important, however, is the need to remember that media alone is insufficient to fundamentally alter an individual or group’s core beliefs. This article emphasises that mass media campaigns are not to be considered panacea for all instances of intergroup conflict; the assumption that these interventions are capable of unilaterally altering beliefs is flawed, with behavioural changes generally stemming from modified perceptions of one’s social environment. Efforts to address structural violence in Uganda, for instance, employed edutainment videos regarding domestic abuse to increase community willingness to report incidents to local authorities. Such shifts were not due to changes in beliefs regarding the acceptability of violence against women but, instead, from an understanding that, as shown in the videos, reports of abusive behaviour would inevitably trigger intervention. The source, thus, offers a comprehensive and balanced examination of mass media’s utility as a central component in contemporary and future peacebuilding efforts and urges prudence regarding its capabilities, and shortfalls, that are oftentimes ignored in efforts to confront today’s most pernicious problems.
Khan, Anjum, Jose Liht, and Sara Savage. 2014. “Preventing Violent Extremism in Kenya through Value Complexity: Assessment of Being Kenyan Being Muslim.” Journal of Strategic Security 7, no. 3: 1-26. Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26465191.
This source is an academic paper published by three researchers from the University of Cambridge: Sara Savage of the Psychology and Religion Research Group as well as Anjum Khan and Dr. Jose Liht of the IC Thinking Departmental Research Group. The article summarises the results of the first field trial of Being Kenyan Being Muslim, a deradicalisation program targeting individuals vulnerable to insurgent recruitment that exposes participants to the multiplicity of value priorities which violent extremist organisations (VEOs) seek to challenge. Despite its focus on the phenomenon of extremist groups, numerous parallels can be drawn between the employment of narratives by VEOs and other polarised factions in conflict. The power of such narratives lies in their simplicity, explaining the social world as arrayed against an individual’s in-group and offering a pathway to belonging, significance, and a means to address grievances. This simplified worldview results in a decreased level of integrative complexity (IC), a measure of one’s ability to differentiate and integrate multiple perspectives on an issue. Low integrative complexity levels are visible across discourses which precede conflict, with the goal of IC interventions being not to alter an individual’s beliefs but how they think. Despite its technical subject matter, this source offers a comprehensive and accessible summary of an IC intervention. The process began by building an individual’s capacity for differentiation, the ability to perceive multiple viewpoints, before progressing to value pluralism exercises, in which participants practice considering the validity in the values of opposing viewpoint without sacrificing their own principles. Finally, the intervention concludes with an integration exercise, to strengthen one’s capacity to identify linkages between different viewpoints and comprehend why reasonable people can maintain different perspectives. Such interventions are shown to result in a notable increase in participant integrative complexity, offering a proven, low-cost means to addressing the underlying psychological factors that can pull individuals towards polarising ideologies and exacerbate conflict.
Nemr, Christina, and Sara Savage. 2019. Integrative Complexity Interventions to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism, 1-7. New York: Global Center on Cooperative Security. Link: https://www.globalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/GCCS-PB-IC-Interventions-Prevent-Counter-Violent-Extremism-2019.pdf.
This source is a policy brief produced by Christina Nemr and Sara Savage for the Global Center on Cooperative Security, a New York-based research institute specialising in the development of human-rights based policies to address contemporary security challenges. Though the piece is, again, focused on the topic of preventing or countering violent extremism (P/CVE), the relevance of its insights into quantifying the cognitive simplification that contributes to polarisation and conflict extends to the field of peacebuilding as a whole. In particular, the article explores the metric of integrative complexity, situated on a one-to-seven scale, as a means of determining an individual’s propensity to favour the black-and-white understandings that lay the narrative foundation for conflict: a lower score indicates a propensity for binary thinking, while a higher figure demonstrates that an individual has retained the cognitive capacity necessary to integrate and consider multiple perspectives. Previous studies have found that a significant drop in the integrative complexity of polarised parties drastically increased the likelihood of a short-term escalation in violent conflict; integrative complexity interventions, thus, seek to tackle the binary thinking which prioritises one value or facet of an individual’s identity at the expense of others. Interestingly, this source moves quickly from the example of P/CVE programmes to focus on broader, global patterns of integrative complexity interventions. Since 2010, more than 80 such programmes have been conducted globally in states ranging from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Pakistan, with a notable impact on the reduction of prejudice and violence amongst participants. Though certainly not a panacea for all instances of intergroup conflict, the concept of integrative complexity interventions introduced by Nemr and Savage introduces a novel manner of targeting the individual cognitive factors that render actors susceptible to the polarised worldview central to violent conflict, a vital step in ensuring the positive behavioural changes necessary for a lasting peace.
Ayub, Asma, et al. 2022. “Promoting Cognitive Complexity Among Violent Extremist Youth in Northern Pakistan”. Journal of Strategic Security 15, no. 1: 14-53. Link: https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.15.1.1943.
This source is an academic paper published by joint team from the University of Cambridge’s Psychology Department as well as Social Welfare, Academics, and Training for Pakistan, a Pakistani trust established to provide support for vulnerable youth in the country’s volatile Khyber and Swat districts. The piece focuses on the work of the Sabaoon Centre, a civilian deradicalisation facility targeting teenage members of violent extremist organisations (VEOs). As with other reintegration frameworks, such as those employed as part of UN DDR programmes deployed in post-conflict environments, the Sabaoon centre seeks to address structural push factors concerning a lack of employable skills and a limited education; what makes the centre’s approach unique, however, is its simultaneous emphasis on the psychological pull factors of participation in violent conflict. Key to this is the notion of integrative complexity, with the Sabaoon Centre leveraging a four-stage process to promote perspective taking and assist former militants in developing the cognitive skills needed to challenge the simplistic narratives which facilitate polarisation and VEO recruiting. The interventions begin through the superficial exploration of social dilemmas employing cultural themes and narratives similar, but not identical, to those experienced in daily Pakistani life. Following this, the interventions instigate conflict to provoke low complexity responses by the group, before prompting individuals to identify the underlying range of values and emotions which underpin these dilemmas. This comprehensive approach has proven remarkably effective at preventing recidivism among former youth fighters, raising interesting implications regarding its applicability to the reintegration and rehabilitation of ex-combatants in international peacebuilding efforts.
Tracy, Jared. Published in November 2020. “A Team Approach: PSYOP and LRA Defection in 2012”. https://arsof-history.org/articles/20nov_a_team_approach_page_1.html: https://arsof-history.org/articles/20nov_a_team_approach_page_1.html
This source is a historical account produced by Dr. Jared Tracy of the United States Army Special Operations History Office, the organisation tasked with preserving the institutional memory of Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF). The article focuses on the contributions of Psychological Operations (PSYOPs) specialists to Operation Observant Compass, the Department of Defense’s commitment to the international manhunt for Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony in Uganda. Dr. Tracy’s work explores the PSYOP effort alongside civil society organisations run by former LRA members to produce and disseminate two key narratives through mass media: the prospects that existed for future defectors upon reintegration into Ugandan society and messages of forgiveness launched by members of local families, which urged LRA fighters to return home. Small-unit cohesion amongst LRA groups relied heavily upon a simplified understanding of the relation between fighters and Ugandan communities. LRA members were frequently reminded of the irredeemable nature of their actions and were set in inherent opposition to the rest of local society. The PSYOP campaign’s production and dissemination of messages of forgiveness thus served to challenge this binary understanding of an irreparable gulf which separated LRA fighters from their previous lives and communities, a highly effective approach which saw more than 5% of the LRA’s total strength defect in the first six months alone. Though certainly focused on the military’s involvement in peacebuilding, this case also serves as a powerful demonstration of the ability of carefully selected narratives to lay a crucial cornerstone for future peace – the immediate reduction of armed conflict without a single shot being fired.
Gitau, Lydia, and Wendy Lambourne. 2013. “Psychosocial Interventions, Peacebuilding, and Development in Rwanda.” Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 8, no. 3: 23-36. Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48603463.
This source is an article produced by two Australian psychologists specialising in post-conflict interventions, Lydia Gitau and Wendy Lambourne, for the Journal of Peacebuilding & Development. The piece focuses on the integration of psychosocial interventions, aimed at fostering the resilience and cohesion needed to allow survivors of violent conflict to reconnect with their community and culture, into large-scale peacebuilding efforts. Contemporary peacebuilding frameworks are often criticised for an excessive state focus that develops and strengthens institutions, not individual or community resilience. The context of Rwanda offers a particularly powerful example of this. Despite numerous institutional steps to address the long-term effects of the genocide, ranging from the development of national civic education to the employment of traditional gacaca trials to promote communal justice, the state remains far from a ‘nation at peace’, a reality a reality exacerbated by a continued lack of social trust among its ethnic groups. The value of this article, thus, lies in its introduction of a novel approach in which psychosocial interventions complement large-scale, top-down reforms implemented in the aftermath of conflict. Though certainly a polarising example, faith-based NGOs have played crucial roles in these interventions, bringing together participants into shared workshops aimed at addressing feelings of mistrust among Tutsi survivors and confronting the shame displayed by Hutus. Such programmes centre around trauma education, in which participants are afforded a space in which to understand and relate to one another’s experiences, while also being granted the opportunity to cement these personal, cross-group connections through shared projects such as goat-raising or faming. Ultimately, the provision of institutional goods and services are simply one facet of post-conflict peacebuilding, with psychosocial interventions serving as a vital means of ensuring that the physical, psychological, spiritual, and relational needs of population emerging from inter-group violence are similarly met.