Intractable conflicts constitute violent and threatening environments that lead to intense emotions and polarized attitudes. Sadness is one emotion frequently elicited by the price of such conflicts. This investigation characterized the effects of sadness on conflict‐related information processing and attitudes in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Findings from four experimental studies suggest that both incidental and integral sadness can induce a depolarization of political attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 163), sadness reduced the effect of political ideology on conflict‐related decisions. Sadness reduced the effect of political ideology on in‐group bias in resource allocation in Studies 2 (N = 213) and 4 (N = 274), willingness to negotiate in Studies 1 and 3 (N = 174), and openness to information supporting the out‐group's perspective (Study 4). Overall, in addition to its more negative implications, these results suggest that sadness (compared to both the non‐emotional and anger conditions) may have a bright side, since it may induce depolarization of political attitudes in intractable conflicts.

中文翻译：

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悲伤的光明面：悲伤在群体间冲突中的消极作用

棘手的冲突构成了暴力和威胁性的环境，导致强烈的情绪和两极分化的态度。悲伤是这种冲突的代价经常引起的一种情感。这项调查的特点是悲伤对以巴冲突中与冲突有关的信息处理和态度的影响。来自四项实验研究的结果表明，偶然的悲伤和内心的悲伤都会引起政治态度的消极化。在研究1（N  = 163）中，悲伤降低了政治意识形态对与冲突有关的决定的影响。悲伤降低了研究2（N  = 213）和研究4（N  = 274）中政治意识形态对资源分配中群体偏见的影响，降低了研究1和研究3（N = 274）进行谈判的意愿（N  = 174），并且开放信息支持小组的观点（研究4）。总体而言，除了更负面的影响外，这些结果还表明，悲伤（与非情绪和愤怒条件相比）可能有一个光明的一面，因为它可能导致棘手的政治态度出现两极化。