Being in someone else's shoes: understanding N.Ireland through perspective taking in the classroom
Cowley, Michelle (2007) Being in someone else's shoes: understanding N.Ireland through perspective taking in the classroom. Southampton, UK, University of Southampton (Working papers).
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Description/Abstract
Northern Ireland has historically been the most divided society in the United Kingdom. The psychological barriers to peace have often seemed senseless to outside observers. This paper reports an experiment demonstrating such difficulties in negotiating a peace settlement. Students were randomly assigned to one of two imaginary societies known as the Plutats (Protestants) or the Camtas (Catholics). They were instructed to negotiate a peace settlement on behalf of their people, and they did not know that their predicament was analogous to that of Catholic and Protestant societies of N. Ireland. Students were told that both societies had used mass bombing and assassination strategies, and that 3000 of their people had each been killed. Students first apportioned blame equally to each society, decided that both societies should cease military offensives together, and they chose a map that shared the land between the two societies equally. However, after receiving an envelope containing information randomly labelling one society as the ‘landowners’ and the other as the ‘terrorists’ they each: blamed one another, would not cease military offensives, and the ‘landowners’ refused to share the land equally with their ‘terrorist’ counterparts, even though they had been equally violent. The result is discussed in light of bridge-building initiatives to heal post-terrorist societies using perspective taking psychology (Galinsky et al., 2005).
| Item Type: | Monograph (Working Paper) |
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| Related URLs: | |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) L Education > L Education (General) |
| Divisions: | University Structure - Pre August 2011 > School of Social Sciences > Sociology and Social Policy |
| Item ID: | 43577 |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Jan 2007 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Mar 2012 13:51 |
| Contributors: | Cowley, Michelle (Author) |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Status: | Unpublished |
| Publisher: | University of Southampton |
| URI: | http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/43577 |
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