Thinking about the distant future promotes the prospects of peace: A construal-level perspective on intergroup conflict resolution

Abstract

The current research reveals that the pursuit of peace entails an inherent paradox. The urgent need to save lives and alleviate human suffering necessitates swift solutions to the problem of intergroup conflict. However, because the human mind associates peace with longer time horizons, people anticipate peace more when considering the distant rather than the near future. Six experiments demonstrate a robust and large effect whereby thinking about the distant future promotes the prospects of peace compared to thinking about the near future. These experiments also provide evidence for the role that construal fit, that is, the tendency to match high temporal distance with abstractness, plays in this effect. We discuss implications for shorter-term and longer-term peace interventions.