Getting respected despite our differences : (re-)establishing positive relations through a respectful treatment

Can respect help to re-establish social relations within and between groups- also in situations of intergroup conflict? In the present lines of research, I propose respect to be of fundamental importance for social cohesion within and between groups. I conceive of respect as recognition as an equal (Honneth, 1995, Simon, 2007) and develop an integrative conceptualization and measurement in order to examine its role for intergroup reconciliation (Chapter 2 and 4). I present two studies examining the distinct influence of respect and disrespect as compared to a neutral condition at first within groups and then between groups (Chapter 3). Within groups, a respectful treatment seems equivalent to a neutral treatment and both increased group identification, group-serving motivation, and category salience equivalently when compared to a disrespectful treatment. As opposed, a respectful treatment between groups decreased category salience compared to disrespectful treatment and may benefit to overcome intergroup boundaries. In the context of intergroup conflict, I present five studies (Chapter 5-7) examining the role of respect on the willingness to reconcile between victims and perpetrators (Shnabel & Nadler, 2008). Here, I focused on how the willingness to reconcile is affected by a respectful message in addition to needs-based messages, or alone. Results revealed that respect had a consistent effect on the willingness to reconcile of victims, in addition to the needs-based message. More importantly perceived respect was the central mediating process between manipulated respect and the willingness to reconcile for victims and perpetrators. I discuss theoretical and practical implications of respect for relations within and between groups as well as methodological limitations and challenges in the experimental study of respect (Chapter 8).