The neural mechanisms of threat and reconciliation efforts between Muslims and non-Muslims

ABSTRACT

To reduce the escalation of intergroup conflict, it is important that we understand the processes related to the detection of group-based threat and reconciliation. In the present study, we investigated the neural mechanisms of such processes using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Functional neuroimaging techniques may shed light on quick, automatic responses to stimuli that happen outside of conscious awareness and are thus increasingly difficult to quantify relying only on participants’ self-reported experiences. They may further provide invaluable insight into physiological processes occurring in situations of sensitive nature, whereby participants–deliberately or not–may withhold their honest responses due to social desirability. Non-Muslim Western Caucasian participants watched short video clips of stereotypical Middle-Eastern Muslim males threatening their ingroup, offering reconciliation to the ingroup, or making a neutral statement. Threatening statements led to increased activation in the amygdala, insula, supramarginal gyrus, and temporal lobe. Reconciliation efforts led to increased activation in the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, and caudate. The results suggest that threat detection is a relatively automatic process while evaluating and responding to reconciliation offers requires more cognitive efforts. The implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Intergroup conflict
• intergroup processes
• fMRI
• social neuroscience
• terrorism
• stereotypes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Bicentennial Scholarship awarded to Dorottya Lantos by the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies; European Association of Social Psychology Travel Grant awarded to Dorottya Lantos; Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship [1000458] awarded by the Australian Heart Foundation to Pascal Molenberghs; ARC Discovery Grant [DP130100559] awarded by the Australian Research Council to Pascal Molenberghs.