Legitimizing inclusion: Psychological interventions increase support for minority inclusion in the political game, but less so during wartime

Abstract

Minority inclusion is important to ensure proper representation in democracies. Yet, even in democracies, minority inclusion in politics has historically been challenged by members of majority groups, largely due to perceived threat. Existing literature recognizes psychological factors—namely, values, threats, and norms—driving support for political inclusion, but knowledge of relevant interventions remains limited. We designed psychological interventions, presented as news articles, and tested which ones increased mainstream Jewish majority group members' support for the Palestinian Arab minority's political inclusion in coalition formation in Israel. We employed this context, where the perceived ties between the minority's identity and the identity of the rival in the ongoing conflict make the threat particularly salient, in two critical timepoints: the run-up to a decisive election (Study 1, N = 1248) and during an ongoing war (Study 2, N = 1391). We found that during the run-up to the election, interventions targeting value conflict, tension reduction, and norm perceptions increased support for political inclusion, but none of them had the same effect during the war. These findings illustrate the potential of a real-world intervention tournament, with implications for the promotion of political inclusion in the field.