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Browsing Faculty by Author "Ben Hagai, Ella"

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    Beliefs Predicting Peace, Beliefs Predicting War: Jewish Americans and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
    (Wiley, 2013-12) Ben Hagai, Ella; Zurbriggen, Eileen L.; Hammack, Phillip L.; Ziman, Megan
    Jewish Americans’ beliefs about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can serve either to inhibit or to facilitate the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Attitudes toward conflict resolution and beliefs about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its origins were assessed among a sample of 177 Jewish Americans. Endorsement of a monolithic view of the conflict represented the strongest predictor of non-compromising attitudes toward the Palestinians. Endorsement of dehumanizing and delegitimizing statements about the Palestinians predicted non-compromising attitudes to a much lesser extent. A zero-sum view of the conflict and beliefs about collective victimhood did not predict non-compromising attitudes toward conflict resolution. Findings are discussed in terms of their challenge to theories of collective victimhood in conflict settings and their support for the centrality of narrative in conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
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    Between Tikkun Olam and Self-Defense: Young Jewish Americans Debate the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
    (PsychOpen, 2017) Ben Hagai, Ella; Zurbriggen, Eileen L.
    In this study, we examined processes associated with ingroup members’ break from their ingroup and solidarity with the outgroup. We explored these processes by observing the current dramatic social change in which a growing number of young Jewish Americans have come to reject Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. We conducted a yearlong participant observation and in-depth interviews with 27 Jewish American college students involved in Israel advocacy on a college campus. Findings suggest that Jewish Americans entering the Jewish community in college came to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a lens of Jewish vulnerability. A bill proposed by Palestinian solidarity organizations to divest from companies associated with Israel (part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions or BDS movement) was also interpreted through the lens of Israel's vulnerability. As the college’s Student Union debated the bill, a schism emerged in the Jewish community. Some Jewish students who had a strong sense of their Jewish identity and grounded their Judaism in principles of social justice exhibited a greater openness to the Palestinian narrative of the conflict. Understanding of Palestinian dispossession was associated with the rejection of the mainstream Jewish establishment’s unconditional support of Israel. Moreover, dissenting Jewish students were concerned that others in the campus community would perceive them as denying the demands of people of color. We discuss our observations of the process of social change in relation to social science theories on narrative acknowledgment and collective action.
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    Intersecting Alliances: Non-Palestinian Activists in Support of Palestine
    (American Psychological Association, 2018-01) Hill, Sophia; Ben Hagai, Ella; Zurbriggen, Eileen L.
    Influenced by social identity theory, psychologists have focused primarily on the role of shared identity in leading people to engage in collective action. In this study, we are concerned with the factors that lead individuals who do not share a collective identity to act in solidarity with an outgroup. We explored this question by looking at the narratives and motives that brought non-Palestinian university students to participate in collective action for Palestine. In-depth interviews with campus activists and a yearlong observation of campus debates over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict suggested a number of motives for solidarity activism. First, activists drew parallels between their in-group collective narrative and the collective narrative of the Palestinians. Second, an intersectional narrative of identity increased activist self-efficacy by highlighting the ways that activists were both marginalized and privileged. Third, activists explained their affinity to these narratives as rooted in personal experiences with marginalization and discrimination. A final motive arose through the practice of coalition building that further empowered students of different minority groups. Findings from this study contribute to an understanding of the current surge in Palestinian solidarity activism on college campuses in the United States.
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    Negotiating privacy and intimacy on social media: Review and recommendations
    (American Psychological Association, 2016) Zurbriggen, Eileen L.; Ben Hagai, Ella; Leon, Gabrielle
    Social media pose a privacy paradox: most users indicate they are concerned about their privacy, yet they share personal information widely on social media platforms. The affordances of social media (connectivity, visibility, social feedback, persistence, and accessibility) and their ability to enhance social communication and interpersonal relationships help to explain their attraction for users. At the same time, the risks to privacy are real and serious. We review privacy issues in a variety of domains of social media use including friendships, romantic relationships, parental, workplace/professional and therapist/client. To resolve the privacy paradox and fully protect privacy will likely require changes in laws, technology, and individual and social practices. These changes are worth pursuing so that people can reap the benefits of social media use without losing the many benefits of privacy.
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    Queering Bem: Theoretical Intersections between Sandra Bem’s Scholarship and Queer Theory
    (Springer, 2015) Balzer Carr, Brandon; Ben Hagai, Ella; Zurbriggen, Eileen L.
    Sandra Bem revolutionized psychology with her research on gender, androgyny, and gender schematicity, which culminated in her book, The Lenses of Gender. Her work also provides a model for how to cross inter-disciplinary lines to enhance scholarship and reach political goals. We analyze similarities and differences between Bem's scholarship and scholarship in queer theory, a theoretical movement in the humanities that analyzes discourses that construct man/woman and straight/gay binaries. There are important overlaps between Bem’s lenses of gender (biological essentialism, gender polarization, and androcentrism) and the ideas of many queer theorists. There are also several interesting differences between Bem’s ideas and queer theory: attention to the intrapsychic processes that make up gender, the extent to which individuals can be liberated from gender, proliferating versus contesting gender, intersectionality, and epistemology and methodology. By assessing the similarities and differences between Bem and queer theorists, we show that the two complement each other, affording a better understanding of gender and sexuality. Additionally, both Bem and queer theory lend insight into feminist and queer activism. The theoretical and political advances that can be made by integrating Bem’s ideas and those of queer theorists serve as examples for why it is worthwhile to cross disciplinary lines.
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    Reflections on Harmdoing
    (American Psychological Association, 2015-08) Ben Hagai, Ella; Crosby, Faye J.
    In this discussion we touch on a major theme of the six articles in this issue: the negative harmful consequences of doing harm and especially of engaging in violence. We then bring into relief two connected questions that emerge from the pieces: What are the antecedents or causes of violence? How can one prevent further violence? We close by mentioning questions for further research.
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    “We Didn’t Talk About the Conflict”: The Birthright Trip’s Influence on Jewish Americans’ Understanding of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict
    (American Psychological Association, 2018-02) Ben Hagai, Ella; Whitlatch, Adam; Zurbriggen, Eileen L.
    Emerging adulthood is a time of identity exploration during which youth actively engage with beliefs and values that shape their political orientation. In this study, we examine the processes and consequences of young adults’ exploration of their Jewish identity as it is embedded in the Birthright trip (a free 10-day trip to Israel that is offered to Jewish American emerging adults). In a pretrip/posttrip survey, we found significant increases in Birthright participants’ endorsement of the Jewish root narrative on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict (Jewish people want to live in peace but must defend themselves), disavowal of the Palestinian narrative and understanding of the conflict, sense of collective victimhood, and understanding of the conflict as a zero-sum game. In a separate interview study, participants’ narratives of the trip suggested that identification with the Israeli soldiers as being “just like us” as well as border-making between safe (Jewish) and unsafe (Arab) spaces, led to an understanding of the conflict that was based on the Jewish root narrative. Our findings highlight some less examined consequences of identity exploration among emerging adults who are members of groups enmeshed in violent conflict.