Ed Cairns suggests remedies

Despite recent positive headlines about Northern Ireland, society there is still largely segregated along Catholic/ Protestant lines. This is surprising, because during the last 20 years the government in Northern Ireland has spent money to encourage contact between the two communities.

It would appear that this policy has been less than successful. For example a recent Young Life and Times survey of 16 year-olds in Northern Ireland revealed that some 29 per cent of these young people, who have spent their most formative years in the post-Good Friday era, reported that they had no friends from the other community.

In a series of studies, based mainly on random sample surveys of the adult Northern Irish population, we have begun to explore when cross-community contact works, why it works and how it impacts on intergroup attitudes.

Threats and emotions

We distinguish between realistic threats, which may endanger the very existence of the in-group, and symbolic threats, which may spell danger to the in-group’s value system, belief system, or worldview. We have found that those who identify strongly with members of their own group are more concerned with symbolic threats (such as clashes over the flying of flags, the painting of kerbstones, or exactly which route should be followed by a march) rather than realistic threats, such as issues like job opportunities.

We have also begun to explore for the first time in Northern Ireland what researchers call ‘secondary’ emotions (e.g., nostalgia, guilt) and which are seen as more unique to humans compared with ‘primary’ emotions (e.g., anger, pleasure).

Evidence suggests that individuals attribute more specifically human secondary emotions to their ingroup compared to the outgroup. Currently we are beginning to accumulate evidence that that more effective contact with members of the other community in Northern Ireland means that people are more likely to see members of the other group as nuanced human beings with a fuller range of emotions.

Fostering trust

We are not, of course, claiming that community relations schemes that embody our findings will lead to the members of Northern Ireland’s two traditions becoming friends for life.

What our evidence does suggest is that intergroup contact, which embodies our findings, has the potential to ensure that people in conflict understand the other group’s perspective, feel less anxious when interacting with the other community and  regard ‘them’ as equally as human as members of their ingroup. This, in turn, can lead to greater intergroup trust and even perhaps to a measure of intergroup forgiveness for past wrongs.

Our work is supported by the Templeton Foundation, The Russell Sage Foundation, The Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (Northern Ireland) and the Economic and Social Research Council (UK).

Ed Cairns is Professor of Psychology at the University of Ulster