Reconciliation (cont....)

The research in early childhood reconciliation behavior is limited but at least one early childhood study reveals important information about children and post-conflict interactions. The study involved controlled observation of children in Russia, the US, Sweden, and Italy. They ranged in size from 20 participants to 120 participants, split nearly evenly between boys and girls, and all aged three to seven years old. Although the research was limited in scope and did not involve cross-cultural conflicts, it produced three results that I find of value to this project: (1.) through controlled observation they “consistently demonstrated a tendency in young children to make peace with their peers following a conflict-induced separation.” (Butovskaya et al. 248) and (2.) Within the Russian and US findings a conclusion was drawn that “Perhaps the simplest way of explaining these results is to suggest that both interactions and relationships matter to young children and that young children’s peacemaking reflects children’s motivation to repair damage to both” (Butovskaya et al. 252). And finally, a very interesting thesis in this study finds that the children’s tendency to make peace increases as they get older and may have roots in cultural expectations. This age related result counters the theory that the behavior is only innate and adds to the complexity of the discussion. It may also be that this age related result correlates to normal childhood physiological developments. If humans are born with some ability to reconcile post-conflict, and environmental influences can change our use of this inherent talent, won’t some cultures build upon this talent and learn to get better at post-conflict management while others lose (perhaps un-learn) the ability and find themselves with fewer ways to manage conflict after it has started?

The importance of the relationship between the suggested innate capacity we have to reconcile and the potential for that capacity to be enhanced or diminished through societal learning is significant. To a certain extent this single childhood study puts us on notice that even if we can rely on our parties having the capacity to reconcile, we must also concern ourselves with the varying levels of ability to access that capacity in each of them. The evidence explored so far strongly suggests that we are going down the right path in expecting people we work with in conflict to have the ability to reconcile their differences, and perhaps the desire as well.

Next time we'll dive into cooperation....