Youths’ Social Cognitive Responses to Scenes of Ethnic Violence
This project investigates the effect of exposure to media depictions
of ethnic and political violence on American adolescents and on
inter-ethnic relations in American Schools. In a study that will take
place in two ethnically different suburbs of Detroit -- one that is
predominately Arab-American and one that is predominately
Jewish-American -- we investigate the way such exposure interacts with
personal and contextual factors to affect attitudes, beliefs, and
stereotypes regarding other ethnic groups. We are particularly
interested in the extent to which variations in beliefs, attitudes,
and stereotypes about other ethnic groups can be accounted for by
differences in media exposure to ethnic violence and/or differences in
identification with the aggressors and victims of violence,
differences in empathy, and differences in ethnic and social identity.
We also want to determine the age course of such effects and how those
relations vary by the socio-ethnic context in which the child lives.
The principal investigator on this project is
L. Rowell
Huesmann. Co-investigators include
Jeremy Ginges,
Paul Boxer, and Eric Dubow.
Effects on
Children of Persistent Exposure to Extreme Political Violence
This project aims
to advance our understanding of how persistent and extreme exposure
to political conflict and violence combines with cognitive,
emotional, and self processes to influence the psychosocial
adjustment of children. We will study those processes in two linked
samples: Israeli (Jewish and Arab) and Palestinian children living
in the conflicted areas of Israel and Palestine. The project entails
a cohort-sequential prospective longitudinal design. We begin by
conducting extensive assessments on samples children and their
parents at three ages: 8. 11 and 14. We then conduct follow-up
interviews on each child for three years, concluding when the
children are, respectively, 11, 14, and 17 years old. This design
will permit us to analyze the ways in which ecological contexts
marred by constant ethnic and political conflicts and frequent
eruptions of politically-motivated violence affect children’s
psychosocial adjustment from the critical developmental period of
middle childhood through middle adolescence. The principal
investigator on this project is
L. Rowell
Huesmann. Co-investigators include
Jeremy Ginges,
Paul Boxer, Eric Dubow, Simcha Landau, Jacob Shamir, and Khalil
Shikaki.
Determinants of
Popular Support for Terrorism in Three Muslim Societies
This
project investigates the determinants of popular support for terrorism
among ordinary citizens through surveys conducted in three important
Muslim societies: Indonesia, Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), and
Algeria. Although the September 11 attacks on the United States have
given increased visibility to the problem of terrorism, terrorist
organizations have been operating in Indonesia, Palestine, and Algeria
well before that date and have carried out numerous acts that brought
death or injury to civilians. Understanding the extent, locus, and
determinants of popular support for terrorist organizations and their
activities is of strategic as well as theoretical interest. Insurgent
groups that use terrorism require the support of a constituent
population, and the attainment of such support is one of the most
important goals of these groups. Many counter-terrorism experts
consider nothing to be more critical in the fight against terrorism
than denying popular support to those who carry it out. Against this
background, this study will test a series of hypotheses in order to
identify the determinants of attitudes toward terrorism and to develop
a model of the process or processes by which these attitudes are
formed. The principal investigator on this project will be
Mark Tessler.
Co-investigators will include
Jeremy
Ginges and
Lawrence Pintak.
A Study of Popular Support for Islamic Terrorism and Perceptions of
the United States in Indonesia
Indonesia holds
the potential to be either an important strategic ally or a critical
strategic threat in Southeast Asia. It is the world’s most populous
Muslim country with an established infrastructure of terrorist groups
motivated by radical political Islam and networked to Al Qaeda. While
these networks have not been able to obtain a critical mass of popular
support, recent political changes mean that this could change in the
near future. The goal this study is to investigate the strategic
threat of international Islamic terrorist networks in Indonesia. This
will be achieved through an empirical analysis of changing levels of
popular support for Islamic terrorism over time; an analysis of causes
of popular support or opposition to Islamic terrorism in Indonesia;
and an investigation into the interaction between media driven
perceptions of the United States and support for terrorism. Through
surveys, we will investigate the cognitive processes underlying
individual judgments as to whether to support or oppose terrorism in
the name of radical Islam, and what, if any, aspects of the “policies,
posture and behavior” of the United States are important in
influencing such attitudes. The principal investigator on this project
will be Mark
Tessler. Co-investigators will include
Jeremy Ginges
and Lawrence
Pintak.
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