“Making peace” between groups in conflict is an appealing concept, but what does it take to actually do it?
A new study from the Peace and Conflict Neuroscience Lab (PCNL) at the Annenberg School for Communication found that exposure to targeted media interventions—in this instance, a five-minute video—can bolster reintegration efforts between former enemies.
The newly published Nature Human Behaviour study, “Exposure to a media intervention helps promote support for peace in Colombia,” explores the impact of media interventions on brokering peace among former members of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and non-FARC Colombians. It was the last major field research conducted by former Annenberg Research Associate Emile Bruneau before he passed away from brain cancer in 2020.
Bruneau observed many decades ago—not as a scholar but as a volunteer in Ireland during “The Troubles” and at the end of the apartheid in South Africa—that just because conflict resolution efforts should be helpful in particular contexts does not mean they will be in practice. As a neuroscientist deeply passionate about understanding the biological roots of conflict and applying research to promote peace, Bruneau was drawn to the internal multigenerational conflict between Colombians previously involved in the violence-ridden guerilla group and the rest of the population.
Bruneau worked with Colombian practitioner Andrés Casas, along with Boaz Hameiri (PCNL postdoctoral fellow) and Nour Kteily (Professor, Northwestern University), to test what impactful reconciliation initiatives look like.
After interviewing and surveying Colombians nationwide, Bruneau and Casas uncovered a widely-held negative belief that ex-FARC members didn’t want to reintegrate into society and were unwilling to give up violent tactics.
With Colombian filmmakers, the research team created five-minute videos targeting different psychological mechanisms that served as barriers to successful reintegration. They held an intervention tournament with 10 different versions of the video shown to a large sample of non-FARC Colombians.
The interventions increased empathy for the other side and combatted the misperception that people are unable or unwilling to change, says Kteily. All of this suggests that it is possible to meaningfully change how members of the public feel about reintegration in five minutes or less, with no actual person-to-person contact.
This story is by Katie Sanders. Read more at Annenberg School for Communication.
