The Impact of Empathy on Worldwide Religious Conflict: Insight from The Gaza Situation


Dina Haya Sufya(1*), Lailatul Munawwaroh(2), Nurfarida Deliani(3)

(1) Fakultas Psikologi, Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau, Indonesia
(2) Fakultas Tarbiyah dan Ilmu Keguruan, Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau, Indonesia
(3) Fakultas Dakwah dan Ilmu Komunikasi, Universitas Islam Negeri Imam Bonjol Padang, Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This study aims to examine the effect of empathy on religious conflict, using Gaza as a case study. The method employed was simple regression analysis on a sample of 151 Muslim students aged 18-25 years. This research applied a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design to analyze the relationship between variables. The results indicate that empathy significantly affects religious conflict, with a coefficient value of sig = .000 (p < .05). These findings suggest that empathy can be one of the factors in reducing tensions between groups in religious contexts. However, this study is limited to a student sample and a single case context, so the results must be generalised cautiously. Future research should expand the demographic scope and consider other socio-cultural factors to gain a more comprehensive understanding. These findings are expected to contribute to developing empathy-based interventions to reduce tensions in religious and social contexts.

Keywords


Emphaty; Religious conflict; Gaza

Full Text:

PDF

References


Adegbola, O., & Zhang, W. (2020). Examining determinants of adherence to peace journalism: Empathy, reporting efficacy, and perceived journalistic roles, Media War & Conflict 15 (3), 280-297. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635220948548.

Andrade, C. (2021). The Inconvenient Truth About Convenience and Purposive Samples. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 43 (1), 86–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0253717620977000.

Betancourt, & Hector. (2004). Attribution-emotion processes in white’s realistic empathy approach to conflict and negotiation. Peace and Conflict Journal of Peace Psychology, 10 (4), 369-380. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327949pac1004_7.

Cikara, M., Bruneau, E. G., & Saxe, R. R. (2011). Us and them: Intergroup failures of empathy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(3), 149-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411408713

Cohen, Y. (1988). War and social integration: The effects of the israeli-arab conflict on jewish emigration from israel, American Sociological Review, 53 (6), 908-918. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095899.

Darvasi, P. (2019). Peace, conflict, and empathy: Leveraging violent games for global good. In: Barton, G., Garvis, S. (eds) Compassion and empathy in educational contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18925-9_8

Dodi, L. (2021). The hidden resolution approach by madurese ulama as a community-based model of religious conflict prevention and resolution, Al-Tahrir Jurnal Pemikiran Islam, 21 (2), 285-314. https://doi.org/10.21154/altahrir.v21i2.2685.

Duriez, B. (2004). Are religious people nicer people? Taking a closer look at the religion–empathy relationship, Mental Health Religion & Culture, 7(3), 249-254. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670310001606450.

Eisenberg, N., Sallquist, J., French, D. C., Purwono, U., Suryanti, T. A., & Pidada, S. (2009). The relations of majority-minority group status and having an other-religion friend to Indonesian youths’ socioemotional functioning. Developmental Psychology, 45(1), 248–259. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014028

Hall, D., L., Matz, D., C., & Wood, W. (2009). Why don’t we practice what we preach? A meta-analytic review of religious racism, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14 (1), 126-139. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309352179.

Héliot, Y., Gleibs, I. H., Coyle, A., Rousseau, D. M., & Rojon, C. (2019). Religious identity in the workplace: A systematic review, research agenda, and practical implications. Human Resource Management, 58(5), 545–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21983

Ho, M., Worthington, E., & Davis, D. (2017). Be a peace maker: Examining the relationship between religiousness and intergroup forgiveness. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 23(4), 427–431. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000266

Hojat, M., Louis, D. Z., Maxwell, K., Markham, F. W., Wender, R. C., & Gonnella, J. S. (2010). Patient perceptions of physician empathy, satisfaction with physician, interpersonal trust, and compliance. International Journal of Medical Education, 1, 83–87. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4d00.b701

Holmes, M., & Yarhi-Milo, K. (2016). The psychological logic of peace summits: How empathy shapes outcomes of diplomatic negotiations. International Studies Quarterly, 61(1), 107-122. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqw034

Huber, J., & MacDonald, D. (2011). An investigation of the relations between altruism, empathy, and spirituality. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 52(2), 206–221. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167811399442

Iannello, N., Hardy, S., Musso, P., Coco, A., & Inguglia, C. (2019). Spirituality and ethnocultural empathy among Italian adolescents: The mediating role of religious identity formation processes. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 11(1), 32–41. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000155

Japhet, N. (2022). Grassroots muslim women in religious conflict prevention in tanzania: Roles, contributions, and challenges, Ijoresh Indonesian Journal of Religion Spirituality and Humanity, 1 (2), 147-166. https://doi.org/10.18326/ijoresh.v1i2.147-166.

Khoury‐Kassabri, M., Khoury, N & Ali, R. (2015). Arab youth involvement in delinquency and political violence and parental control: The mediating role of religiosity, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 85 (6), 576-585. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000079.

Kiersma, M. E., Chen, A. M., Yehle, K. S., & Plake, K. S. (2013). Validation of an empathy scale in pharmacy and nursing students. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 77(5), 94. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe77594

Kimani, J. (2021). Role of church justice and peace commission and conflicts management in pastoral communities, European Journal of Conflict Management, 2 (1), 22-41. https://doi.org/10.47672/ejcm.787.

Klimecki, O. (2019). The role of empathy and compassion in conflict resolution. Emotion Review, 11(4), 310–325. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073919838609

Levy, Y. (2018). Theorizing desecularization of the military: The united states and israel, Armed Forces & Society, 46 (1), 92-115. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x18806516.

Lima, F. F. d., & Osório, F. d. L. (2021). Empathy: Assessment instruments and psychometric quality – A systematic literature review with a meta-analysis of the past ten years. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. 781346. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.781346

Lopatin, E., Samuel-Azran, T., & Galily, Y. (2017). A clash-of-civilizations prism in German media? Documenting a shift from political to religious framing of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Communication and the Public, 2(1), 19–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047316689795

Łowicki, P., & Zajenkowski, M. (2019). Empathy and exposure to credible religious acts during childhood independently predict religiosity. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 30(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2019.1672486

Lukens-Bull, R., & Woodward, M. (2010). Goliath and David in Gaza: Indonesian myth-building and conflict as a cultural system. Contemporary Islam, 5(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-010-0145-4

Malakcioglu, C. (2022). Empathy assessment scale. North Clin Istanb, 9(4), 358–366. https://doi.org/10.14744/nci.2022.55649

Mayer, W. (2013). Religious conflict: Definitions, problems, and theoretical approaches. In W. Mayer & B. Neil (Eds.), Religious conflict from early Christianity to the rise of Islam (pp. 1–20). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110291940.1

O’Driscoll, D., Taylor, L., & Dautel, J. (2018). Intergroup resource distribution among children living in segregated neighborhoods amid protracted conflict. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 24(4), 464–474. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000348

Rosler, N., Cohen‐Chen, C., & Halperin, E. (2016). The distinctive effects of empathy and hope in intractable conflicts, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 61 (1), 114-139. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002715569772.

Roy, S. (2011). Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector (Revised Ed.). Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46n3sw

Sasse, J., Nazlic, T., Alrich, K., Frey, D., & Baumert, A. (2022). Mitigating intergroup conflict: Effectiveness of qualifying subjective justice views as an intervention technique in comparison to empathy induction. Social Justice Research. 35, 107–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-022-00387-2

Salas-Wright, C. P., Olate, R., & Vaughn, M. G. (2012). Assessing empathy in Salvadoran high-risk and gang-involved adolescents and young adults. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 57(11), 1393–1416. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X12455170

Slater, P. B., Moore, K. L., Sharkey, F., & Hasson, F. (2022). Development and psychometric test of the ‘empathy and understanding in the dementia index’ for health professionals. International Journal of Research in Nursing, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3844/ijrnsp.2022.1.10

Taylor, L., K., Humer, J., T., and Dautel, J. (2022). Predictors of out‐group empathy among majority and minority children in a conflict‐affected society, Children & Society, 36 (5), 949-967. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12549.

Trothen, T., J. (2016). Engaging the borders: Empathy, religious studies, and pre‐professional fields, Teaching Theology & Religion, 19 (3), 245-263. https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12336.

Vos, B., Zomeren, M., Gordijn, E., & Postmes, T. (2013). The communication of “pure” group-based anger reduces tendencies toward intergroup conflict because it increases out-group empathy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(8), 1043–1052. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213489140

Zhang, N., & Sun, X. (2022). Performance differences between high and low empathy ability in conflicts of interest: An erp study, Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 15, 2979-2987. https://doi.org/10.2147/prbm.s380838.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.15575/jpib.v7i2.33454

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2024 Dina Haya Sufya

Lihat Statistik View MyStat

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.