Samer Halabi

Intergroup Helping as Status Relations: Effects of Status Stability, Identification, and Type of Help on Receptivity to High-Status Group's Help

Integrating research on social identity processes and helping relations, the authors proposed that low-status group members who are high identifiers will be unwilling to receive help from the high-status group when status relations are perceived as unstable and help is dependency-oriented. The first experiment, a minimal group experiment, found negative reactions to help from a high-status outgroup when status relations were unstable. The 2nd and 3rd experiments, which used real groups of Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews, replicated this finding and showed that high identifiers were less receptive to help from the high-status outgroup than low identifiers. The 4th experiment, a help-seeking experiment with real groups of competing high schools, found that the least amount of help was sought from a high-status group by high identifiers when status relations were perceived as unstable and help was dependency-oriented. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.

“Justified dependency”: Effects of perceived stability of social hierarchy and level of system justification on help-seeking behavior of low-status group members

Recent research on intergroup helping has shown that receiving and seeking help can be a way in which groups assert or challenge the existing hierarchy. The present research, consisting of two studies conducted in the Arab–Jewish Israeli context, examined how the manipulated perceived stability of social hierarchy and dispositional levels of system justification (SJ) influence the willingness of Arab participants to seek assistance from a Jewish helper (representing low- and high-status groups in Israel, respectively). As expected, findings indicate that Arab participants who perceive the social hierarchy as just and stable, show a significantly higher preference to seek dependency-oriented help from Jews. On the other hand, those characterized as low SJs report overall low willingness to seek help from Jewish group members, but show some readiness to seek autonomy-oriented help when status relations between Arabs and Jews are perceived as stable. Theoretical and practical implications for intergroup helping relations are discussed.

Group apology under unstable status relations: Perceptions of insincerity hinder reconciliation and forgiveness

This research examined the effects of structural conditions on perceptions of and responses to an apology offered by an advantaged majority group to a disadvantaged minority group. We used the dramatic regional changes of the Arab Spring to manipulate the instability of status relations between Israeli Arabs and Jews. In two studies, we found that under instability (vs. control), both Israeli Jews (advantaged group members; Study 1) and Israeli Arabs (disadvantaged group members; Study 2) perceived an apology offered to the Arab minority by the Israeli Prime Minister as insincere and manipulative (i.e., intended to serve the Jews rather than the Arabs). Perceived insincerity, in turn, led to reduced forgiveness and conciliatory tendencies among Israeli Arabs (Study 2). These findings shed light on how structural factors might render group apologies counterproductive in promoting positive intergroup relations. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Peace vision and its socio-emotional antecedents: The role of forgiveness, trust and inclusive victim perceptions

The present study conceptualized peace vision as the view of peace as desirable, feasible, and requiring substantial concessions by both parties and examined the social-emotional factors contributing to its endorsement among Israeli Jews (N = 400). In line with our theorizing, we found that trust in Palestinians and inclusive victim perceptions (the view that both conflicting groups have suffered due to the conflict) were significantly and positively associated with peace vision endorsement both directly and indirectly, through facilitating forgiveness. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results in terms of the sustainability of peaceful coexistence between conflicting groups.

Positive responses to intergroup assistance: The roles of apology and trust

Recent research on intergroup helping has shown that offers of help from a high- to a low-status group can be responded to negatively by members of the low-status group. The current research, consisting of two studies, explored factors that can influence how helping by a high-status group is responded to and how much it is sought by members of a low-status group, specifically considering the roles of intergroup trust and apologies in this process. Study 1 investigated reactions of Israeli-Arabs to help offered by Israeli-Jews. Study 2 examined willingness of Israeli-Arabs to seek help from Israeli Jews. Converging results across the two experiments showed that responses to assistance were most positive and helping was most strongly sought when there was an explicit apology by a representative of the outgroup for a recent transgression and Israeli-Arab participants had a relatively high level of intergroup trust. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.

Attributions of responsibility and punishment for ingroup and outgroup members: The role of just world beliefs

People have a need to believe that the world is a just place. When confronted with injustice, this just world belief (JWB) is threatened. The present research, conducted in the context of relations between Israeli Jews and Arabs, examined how group membership of actor and participants’ beliefs in a just world affect attributions of responsibility and punishment as a function of culpability of the actor. In particular, after measuring their JWB, Jewish participants (n = 214) read a description of a Jewish or Arab driver who was guilty or nonguilty in a car accident in which an innocent pedestrian was injured. As predicted, participants attributed less blame and recommended less severe punishment for an ingroup than an outgroup member for the same event and stronger beliefs in a just world predicted recommendations for less severe punishment for ingroup members. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.

The Intergroup Status as Helping Relations Model: Giving, Seeking and Receiving Help as Tools to Maintain or Challenge Social Inequality

Recently, research on helping has broadened the emphasis in this field from research on who gives help to whom, when and why (Dovidio et al., The social psychology of prosocial behavior, Mahwah, NJ, 2006) to a broader consideration of helping relations between individuals and groups (Nadler, The oxford handbook of personality and social psychology, New York, 394–419, 2012). This emphasis on relations considers the readiness to seek, give and receive help, and the short- and long-term consequences for the helper, the recipient and the relations between them. Further, this emphasis on helping relations has also seen the extension from interpersonal helping to intergroup helping. Following an introduction that presents these past trends in social psychological research, the first part of the chapter will presents and discusses the Intergroup Helping as Status Relations (IHSR) model (Nadler, Journal of Social Issues 58:487–502, 2002), and related research. This model suggests that as giving help is associated with greater dependency on help with fewer resources, giving or receiving help has an impact on status relations between helper and recipient (Nadler, Journal of Social Issues 58:487–502, 2002; Nadler and Halabi, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91:97–110, 2006). Therefore, although giving help is often an expression of true caring, the readiness to seek, give and receive help from the outgroup is affected by people’s motivation to protect or challenge existing social inequality (Nadler and Halabi, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Oxford, 759–765, 2015). In the second part, we review recent research on psychological dynamics that turn helping into relationships of empowerment and equality rather than dependency and inequality (i.e. trust, perceived sense of control, common ingroup identity, apologising). In a third section, we focus on how the recipient’s social status determines whether helping develops into dependency- or autonomy-based relationships, and on the stigmatic effects of help-seeking by members of high- and low-status groups (e.g., Nadler and Chernyak-Hai, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 106:58–72, 2014). In the final section of the chapter, we discuss the conceptual and applied implications of this body of research for social psychological research, theory and the applied contribution towards combatting social inequality.

Can we forgive a militant outgroup member? The role of perspective-taking

Whereas previous research has commonly studied the effects of perspective-taking for harmless targets, we examined whether the effect of perspective-taking might extend to a violent outgroup target. That is, our target not only held members of the adversary group responsible for his plight but also issued a severe threat to them (suicide bombing). We report findings from two studies that were conducted within the intergroup relations between Israelis and Palestinians, defined by a prolonged and violent conflict. Study 1 found that perspective-taking with a radicalised and threatening Palestinian target could successfully be induced among Israeli participants and, as a result, led to their improved motivation to forgive the target. Study 2 directly manipulated threat in addition to perspective-taking. Irrespective of the presence of threat, perspective-taking led to improved motivation to forgive the target as well as to increase interpersonal liking for the target. Increased liking fully mediated the effect of perspective-taking on forgiveness. Theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.