When "enemies" become close: Relationship formation among Palestinians and Jewish Israelis at a youth camp.

Abstract

Having close relationships with outgroup members is an especially powerful form of intergroup contact that can reduce prejudice. Rather than examine the consequences of forming close outgroup relationships, which has previously been studied as part of intergroup contact theory, we examine how outgroup relationships-relative to ingroup relationships-form in the first place. We collected 7 years of data from Jewish Israeli and Palestinian teenagers attending a 3-week summer camp at Seeds of Peace, one of the largest conflict transformation programs in the world. We tested how being assigned to share an activity group (e.g., bunk, table, dialogue group) influenced relationship formation among outgroup pairs (Jewish Israeli-Palestinian) compared with ingroup pairs (Israeli-Israeli, Palestinian-Palestinian). Existing research offers competing theories for whether propinquity is more impactful for the formation of ingroup or outgroup relationships; here, we found propinquity was significantly more impactful for outgroup relationships. Whereas 2 ingroup participants were 4.46 times more likely to become close if they were in the same versus different bunk, for example, 2 outgroup participants were 11.72 times more likely to become close. We propose that sharing an activity group is especially powerful for more dissimilar dyads because people are less likely to spontaneously engage with outgroup members in ways that promote relationships. Thus, structured, meaningful engagement can counteract homophily. Furthermore, in this setting, propinquity proved to be an even better predictor of outgroup (vs. ingroup) relationship formation than that pair's initial outgroup attitudes. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for intergroup processes and relationship formation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).