Students in Israel participate in an activity as part of a study conducted by a Stanford-led research team of psychologists. (Image credit: Kinneret Endevelt)
After teaching Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli middle school students in Israel that groups of people are capable of change, Stanford researchers saw significant improvements in the teens' cooperation. Jewish-Israelis and Palestinian-Israelis have spent decades in conflict over disputed territories. The mutual distrust and skepticism have built to a point that the two groups struggle to work cooperatively on solving their issues. But a Stanford-led research team of psychologists found that teaching Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli teenagers that groups are generally capable of change - without ever mentioning a specific adversary - can significantly improve their ability to cooperate. The team's latest research was published Oct. 6 in Social Psychological and Personality Science . Amit Goldenberg, a graduate student working with psychology professors Carol Dweck and James Gross, was lead author on the paper, along with co-authors Kinneret Endevelt, Eran Halperin and Shira Ran of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel.
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