Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict
We report a series of experiments carried out with Palestinian and Israeli participants showing that violent opposition to
compromise over issues considered sacred is (i) increased by offering material incentives to compromise but (ii) decreased when the adversary makes symbolic compromises over their own sacred values.
the use of material incentives to
promote the peaceful resolution of political and cultural conflicts may backfire when adversaries treat contested issues as
sacred values.
Instrumental decision-making involves cost–benefit calculations regarding goals and entails abandoning or adjusting goals
if the costs outweigh the benefits.
Our experiments tested the general hypothesis that, when reasoning about sacred values, people would not apply instrumental (cost–benefit) calculations but would instead apply deontological (moral) rules or intuitions.
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