The way we approach war and peace underestimates the role that emotions play.

Mari Fitzduff, a social psychologist, is amongst the most pioneering in looking at how behavioural genetics, biopsychology, political psychology, and social and cognitive neuroscience influence decisions in times of war and in peace negotiations. She argues that we don’t take enough consideration of the ‘human’ in the conflict, and even the human causing the conflict. After all, men and boys with guns have basic human needs too, like the need to belong, and find it hard to process facts in a highly charged emotional state. This might be knowledge that we commonly tap into in social and behaviour change programmes, but it is highly underutilised in peacebuilding intervention design.  Fitzduff further offers 10 key lessons for peacebuilding (see graphic).

Anti-dehumanisation efforts are critical in peacebuilding processes.

Getting different groups of people to empathise with one another and form a new collective identity is regarded as one the most important strategies in peacebuilding efforts. One of the main reasons that violence erupts is the formation of perceptions of ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’, and at times even differences within an in-group. The late prominent neuroscientist Emile Bruneau’s work has been focused on the impact of dehumanisation on driving conflict, and places it as the central cause of most conflicts. Dehumanisation is a special form of marginalising groups, which goes beyond affect or dislike for people. In fact, different brain regions are activated when people talk about groups that they dehumanise rather than those that they dislike. This means that we need a different approach in how we design interventions that tackle this facet of conflict.

In the space of in-group and out-group sentiments, social and behavioural science has been used in various ways. One example is the Colombian project ‘Romper el Silencio’. The project (whose title translates to ‘Breaking the Silence’ in English) seeks to promote perceptions of unity through a multi-media approach. Intended for Colombian adolescents and young people (between 12 and 17 years of age), as well as their families and teachers, the initiative includes a fictional thriller series, documentaries, video profiles, podcasts, and social mobilisation activities. While the drama is not focused on dehumanisation per se, it does prompt more positive meta-perceptions or mentalising between groups, by showing that people have more of a shared experience than they might think. This could potentially lead to a process of preventing conflict between groups.