Boaz Hameiri
Biographic Data
| ID | 1926316 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Boaz Hameiri |
| GIVEN NAMES | Boaz |
| FAMILY NAME | Hameiri |
| SIGNATURE | HAMEIRI B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tel Aviv University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0241-9839 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The role of partisan news and political parasocial relationships in shaping meta‐perceptions: Cross‐national evidence
Communities worldwide face growing polarization, often fueled by misperceptions. Across three studies, we investigate the relationship between partisan news media exposure and meta‐(mis)perceptions (e.g., meta‐prejudice, meta‐dehumanization) in the United States and Israel. We also examine whether this relationship is moderated by political and religious affiliation, and whether partisan news media exposure is associated with meta‐perceptions thr…
One Size Might Not Fit All: A Tailored Approach to Psychological Intergroup Interventions
Despite growing efforts to improve intergroup relations, the effectiveness of psychological intergroup interventions is often limited. We argue this modest impact stems from a one-size-fits-all approach that overlooks targeted outcomes and individual psychological profiles. Through a large-scale intervention tournament ( N = 3,685) examining Jewish-Israeli attitudes toward Palestinian citizens of Israel, we discovered that interventions show dist…
Narratives About Deported Migrants Who Served in the U.S. Military Reduce Animosity Toward Migrants in the United States
Animosity toward immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, has reached high levels in many parts of the United States. What can be done to counteract anti-immigrant hostility? One solution is to implement media interventions, which are uniquely positioned to reduce animosity. We thus conducted two studies to assess the efficacy of three media interventions to reduce anti-immigrant attitudes. In Study 1 ( N = 2,050), we conducted an inter…
When victimhood threatens democracy: Competitive victimhood predicts anti-democratic policy support through dehumanization for Republicans and Democrats
Both Republicans and Democrats claim that they are victimized by the out-party, yet little is understood about whether and how this competition is associated with toxic polarization. The current work aims to illuminate the psychological processes through which competition for victimhood promotes support for anti-democratic policies among partisans. To do this, we conducted a nationally representative survey (N = 2000) to examine whether partisans…
Increasing Perceived Outgroup Heterogeneity Following Exposure to Extreme Violence: An Intervention Tournament in Times of War
Exposure to political violence often drives individuals toward extreme attitudes and greater support for retaliatory policies, including heightened perceptions of outgroup homogeneity. In violent intergroup conflicts, such perceptions can be especially dangerous, as they may justify indiscriminate violence against the outgroup. The current research aims to address Jewish Israelis’ perceptions of Palestinians’ variability following the October 7 H…
Environmental taxation triggers persistent psychological resistance to climate policy
Environmental taxation is often lauded as an effective tool for changing consumer behavior, but it can also trigger substantial psychological resistance, especially among disproportionately affected groups, such as the Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community, potentially creating a broad anti-environmental backlash. In the current study we provide novel empirical evidence for the psychological mechanisms that can drive such reactance and its pot…
Gone too far? The paradoxical effect of political elite radicalization
How does the rise of ideologically extreme leaders affect attitudes and beliefs among their supporters? Previous research on paradoxical thinking suggests that when individuals are exposed to a radicalized version of their held beliefs, they moderate them in response. However, it is yet unknown whether, how, and among whom, such moderation occurs in response to radicalization of individuals' favored leaders. The proposed study examines how an unf…
Humorous Responses to Gender Injustice: The Contrasting Effects of Efficacy and Emotions on Women’s Collective Action Intentions
Research has shown that subversive humor may be used to challenge existing societal hierarchies by confronting people with prejudice. Expanding on this literature, we hypothesized that humor would create two simultaneous and offsetting psychological mechanisms: increasing collective action motivation by signaling speaker power and inspiring efficacy and decreasing collective action motivation by reducing negative emotions towards men as the power…
Exploring Different Psychological Processes in a Media Intervention That Reduces Dehumanization Towards Muslims
Dehumanization continues to be prevalent today and predicts detrimental intergroup consequences. Thus, it is important to identify novel interventions that reduce dehumanization and explore the mechanism(s)—both established (e.g., empathy induction, intergroup contact) and relatively understudied (e.g., humor)—driving the effects. To address this issue, in Study 1 (N = 2,349), we conducted an “intervention tournament” and found that a video (i.e.…
Perceiving change on the rival side of the conflict: A pathway to peace-building
Intervention Tournaments: An Overview of Concept, Design, and Implementation
A large portion of research in the social sciences is devoted to using interventions to combat societal and social problems, such as prejudice, discrimination, and intergroup conflict. However, these interventions are often developed using the theories and/or intuitions of the individuals who developed them and evaluated in isolation without comparing their efficacy with other interventions. Here, we make the case for an experimental design that …
Empathy, Dehumanization, and Misperceptions: A Media Intervention Humanizes Migrants and Increases Empathy for Their Plight but Only if Misinformation About Migrants Is Also Corrected
Anti-migrant policies at the U.S. southern border have resulted in the separation and long-term internment of thousands of migrant children and the deaths of many migrants. What leads people to support such harsh policies? Here we examine the role of two prominent psychological factors—empathy and dehumanization. In Studies 1 and 2, we find that empathy and dehumanization are strong, independent predictors of anti-migrant policy support and are a…
Reducing Islamophobia: An assessment of psychological mechanisms that underlie anti-Islamophobia media interventions
Western countries have witnessed increased hostility towards Muslims among individuals, and structurally in the ways that the media covers stories related to Islam/Muslims and in policies that infringe on the rights of Muslim communities. In response, practitioners have created media interventions that aim to reduce Islamophobia. However, it is unclear what causal effects these interventions have on reducing Islamophobia. Here, we test the effect…
Advancing support for intergroup equality via a self-affirmation campaign
Members of historically advantaged groups are often unwilling to support actions or policies aimed at reducing inequality between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, even if they generally support the principle of equality. Based on past research, we suggest a self-affirmation intervention (an intervention in which people reflect on a positive trait or value in order to affirm their positive self-image) may be effective for increasing the willin…
Translating social science for peace: Benefits, challenges, and recommendations
Giving peace a chance: Lessons from translational research in Colombia
Are societies in conflict more susceptible to believe in Covid-19 conspiracy theories? A 66 nation study
Putting science to work for peace: A special issue in honor of Emile Bruneau
Exposure to a media intervention helps promote support for peace in Colombia
Intergroup Contact Reduces Dehumanization and Meta-Dehumanization: Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Quasi-Experimental Evidence From 16 Samples in Five Countries
In 16 independent samples from five countries involving ~7,700 participants, we employ a mixture of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and quasi-experimental methods to examine the effect of intergroup contact on (a) the blatant dehumanization of outgroups, and (b) the perception that outgroup members dehumanize the ingroup (meta-dehumanization). First, we conduct a meta-analysis across 12 survey samples collected from five countries regarding eight …
The collective praise intervention: A brief intervention highlighting prosocial behavior reduces hostility towards Muslims
Muslims are consistently the target of dehumanization and hostile policies. Previous research shows that interventions that highlight the hypocrisy wherein people collectively blame entire groups for the heinous acts of individual members of outgroups but not ingroups are effective in reducing animosity towards Muslims. However, these interventions rely on aversive materials (e.g., terrorist acts), which can hinder the scalability of intervention…
Ethos of conflict as the prism to evaluate the Northern Irish and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts by the involved societies: A comparative analysis
The present study compared participants’ evaluations of their own conflict with their evaluation of another conflict. These evaluations were examined through the prism of the ideological ethos of conflict (EOC), which was seen as the major contributing factor in the development of the biased perceptions, divergent understandings, and emotional responses previously observed among groups in conflict. The participants in the study were students: Pro…
Exaggerated meta-perceptions predict intergroup hostility between American political partisans
People’s actions toward a competitive outgroup can be motivated not only by their perceptions of the outgroup, but also by how they think the outgroup perceives the ingroup (i.e., meta-perceptions). Here, we examine the prevalence, accuracy, and consequences of meta-perceptions among American political partisans. Using a representative sample ( n = 1,056) and a longitudinal convenience sample ( n = 2,707), we find that Democrats and Republicans e…
The paradoxical thinking ‘sweet spot’: The role of recipients’ latitude of rejection in the effectiveness of paradoxical thinking messages targeting anti-refugee attitudes in Israel
The current research examined whether for a message that is based on the paradoxical thinking principles—i.e., providing extreme, exaggerated, or even absurd views, that are congruent with the held views of the message recipients—to be effective, it needs to hit a ‘sweet spot’ and lead to a contrast effect. That is, it moderates the view of the message's recipients. In the framework of attitudes toward African refugees and asylum seekers in Israe…
Self-censorship orientation: Scale development, correlates and outcomes
Self-censorship is defined as intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in absence of formal obstacles. We conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal research to develop a quantitative measure of individuals’ Self-Censorship Orientation (SCO) and investigated its correlates and outcomes in the context of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Stage 1 investigated the factor structure of the scale and its convergent …
Exploring ourselves within intergroup conflict: The role of intragroup dialogue in promoting acceptance of collective narratives and willingness toward reconciliation
Support for Self‐Censorship Among Israelis as a Barrier to Resolving the Israeli‐Palestinian Conflict
Self‐censorship, defined as an “act of intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in the absence of formal obstacles” often serves as a barrier to resolving intractable conflicts. Specifically, in order to protect the group, and in absence of objective constraints such as institutionalized censorship, individuals practice self‐censorship and support its practice by other society members. This prevents free flow and transpar…
Paradoxical Thinking Interventions: A Paradigm for Societal Change
Social problems such as intergroup conflicts, prejudice, and discrimination have a significant effect on the world's population. Often, to facilitate constructive solutions to these problems, fundamental attitude change is needed. However, changing the beliefs and attitudes to which people strongly adhere has proven to be difficult, as these individuals resist change. In this article, we offer a new and unconventional approach, termed paradoxical…
Self-censorship of Conflict-related Information in the Context of Intractable Conflict
Self-censorship is of great importance in societies involved in intractable conflict. In this context, it blocks information that may contradict the dominant conflict-supporting narratives. Thus, self-censorship often serves as an effective societal mechanism that prevents free flow and transparency of information regarding the conflict and therefore can be seen as a barrier for a peacemaking process. In an attempt to understand the potential eff…
Are societies in conflict more susceptible to believe in Covid-19 conspiracy theories? A 66 nation study
Exploring Different Psychological Processes in a Media Intervention That Reduces Dehumanization Towards Muslims
Dehumanization continues to be prevalent today and predicts detrimental intergroup consequences. Thus, it is important to identify novel interventions that reduce dehumanization and explore the mechanism(s)—both established (e.g., empathy induction, intergroup contact) and relatively understudied (e.g., humor)—driving the effects. To address this issue, in Study 1 (N = 2,349), we conducted an “intervention tournament” and found that a video (i.e.…
Reducing Islamophobia: An assessment of psychological mechanisms that underlie anti-Islamophobia media interventions
Western countries have witnessed increased hostility towards Muslims among individuals, and structurally in the ways that the media covers stories related to Islam/Muslims and in policies that infringe on the rights of Muslim communities. In response, practitioners have created media interventions that aim to reduce Islamophobia. However, it is unclear what causal effects these interventions have on reducing Islamophobia. Here, we test the effect…
The collective praise intervention: A brief intervention highlighting prosocial behavior reduces hostility towards Muslims
Muslims are consistently the target of dehumanization and hostile policies. Previous research shows that interventions that highlight the hypocrisy wherein people collectively blame entire groups for the heinous acts of individual members of outgroups but not ingroups are effective in reducing animosity towards Muslims. However, these interventions rely on aversive materials (e.g., terrorist acts), which can hinder the scalability of intervention…
Ethos of conflict as the prism to evaluate the Northern Irish and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts by the involved societies: A comparative analysis
The present study compared participants’ evaluations of their own conflict with their evaluation of another conflict. These evaluations were examined through the prism of the ideological ethos of conflict (EOC), which was seen as the major contributing factor in the development of the biased perceptions, divergent understandings, and emotional responses previously observed among groups in conflict. The participants in the study were students: Pro…
The paradoxical thinking ‘sweet spot’: The role of recipients’ latitude of rejection in the effectiveness of paradoxical thinking messages targeting anti-refugee attitudes in Israel
The current research examined whether for a message that is based on the paradoxical thinking principles—i.e., providing extreme, exaggerated, or even absurd views, that are congruent with the held views of the message recipients—to be effective, it needs to hit a ‘sweet spot’ and lead to a contrast effect. That is, it moderates the view of the message's recipients. In the framework of attitudes toward African refugees and asylum seekers in Israe…
Environmental taxation triggers persistent psychological resistance to climate policy
Environmental taxation is often lauded as an effective tool for changing consumer behavior, but it can also trigger substantial psychological resistance, especially among disproportionately affected groups, such as the Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community, potentially creating a broad anti-environmental backlash. In the current study we provide novel empirical evidence for the psychological mechanisms that can drive such reactance and its pot…
Gone too far? The paradoxical effect of political elite radicalization
How does the rise of ideologically extreme leaders affect attitudes and beliefs among their supporters? Previous research on paradoxical thinking suggests that when individuals are exposed to a radicalized version of their held beliefs, they moderate them in response. However, it is yet unknown whether, how, and among whom, such moderation occurs in response to radicalization of individuals' favored leaders. The proposed study examines how an unf…
Humorous Responses to Gender Injustice: The Contrasting Effects of Efficacy and Emotions on Women’s Collective Action Intentions
Research has shown that subversive humor may be used to challenge existing societal hierarchies by confronting people with prejudice. Expanding on this literature, we hypothesized that humor would create two simultaneous and offsetting psychological mechanisms: increasing collective action motivation by signaling speaker power and inspiring efficacy and decreasing collective action motivation by reducing negative emotions towards men as the power…
Perceiving change on the rival side of the conflict: A pathway to peace-building
Advancing support for intergroup equality via a self-affirmation campaign
Members of historically advantaged groups are often unwilling to support actions or policies aimed at reducing inequality between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, even if they generally support the principle of equality. Based on past research, we suggest a self-affirmation intervention (an intervention in which people reflect on a positive trait or value in order to affirm their positive self-image) may be effective for increasing the willin…
Translating social science for peace: Benefits, challenges, and recommendations
Exposure to a media intervention helps promote support for peace in Colombia
Self-censorship orientation: Scale development, correlates and outcomes
Self-censorship is defined as intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in absence of formal obstacles. We conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal research to develop a quantitative measure of individuals’ Self-Censorship Orientation (SCO) and investigated its correlates and outcomes in the context of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Stage 1 investigated the factor structure of the scale and its convergent …
Exploring ourselves within intergroup conflict: The role of intragroup dialogue in promoting acceptance of collective narratives and willingness toward reconciliation
Support for Self‐Censorship Among Israelis as a Barrier to Resolving the Israeli‐Palestinian Conflict
Self‐censorship, defined as an “act of intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in the absence of formal obstacles” often serves as a barrier to resolving intractable conflicts. Specifically, in order to protect the group, and in absence of objective constraints such as institutionalized censorship, individuals practice self‐censorship and support its practice by other society members. This prevents free flow and transpar…
Self-censorship orientation: Scale development, correlates and outcomes
Self-censorship is defined as intentionally and voluntarily withholding information from others in absence of formal obstacles. We conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal research to develop a quantitative measure of individuals’ Self-Censorship Orientation (SCO) and investigated its correlates and outcomes in the context of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Stage 1 investigated the factor structure of the scale and its convergent …
Paradoxical Thinking Interventions: A Paradigm for Societal Change
Social problems such as intergroup conflicts, prejudice, and discrimination have a significant effect on the world's population. Often, to facilitate constructive solutions to these problems, fundamental attitude change is needed. However, changing the beliefs and attitudes to which people strongly adhere has proven to be difficult, as these individuals resist change. In this article, we offer a new and unconventional approach, termed paradoxical…
Self-censorship of Conflict-related Information in the Context of Intractable Conflict
Self-censorship is of great importance in societies involved in intractable conflict. In this context, it blocks information that may contradict the dominant conflict-supporting narratives. Thus, self-censorship often serves as an effective societal mechanism that prevents free flow and transparency of information regarding the conflict and therefore can be seen as a barrier for a peacemaking process. In an attempt to understand the potential eff…
Exaggerated meta-perceptions predict intergroup hostility between American political partisans
People’s actions toward a competitive outgroup can be motivated not only by their perceptions of the outgroup, but also by how they think the outgroup perceives the ingroup (i.e., meta-perceptions). Here, we examine the prevalence, accuracy, and consequences of meta-perceptions among American political partisans. Using a representative sample ( n = 1,056) and a longitudinal convenience sample ( n = 2,707), we find that Democrats and Republicans e…
The paradoxical thinking ‘sweet spot’: The role of recipients’ latitude of rejection in the effectiveness of paradoxical thinking messages targeting anti-refugee attitudes in Israel
The current research examined whether for a message that is based on the paradoxical thinking principles—i.e., providing extreme, exaggerated, or even absurd views, that are congruent with the held views of the message recipients—to be effective, it needs to hit a ‘sweet spot’ and lead to a contrast effect. That is, it moderates the view of the message's recipients. In the framework of attitudes toward African refugees and asylum seekers in Israe…
Intergroup Contact Reduces Dehumanization and Meta-Dehumanization: Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Quasi-Experimental Evidence From 16 Samples in Five Countries
In 16 independent samples from five countries involving ~7,700 participants, we employ a mixture of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and quasi-experimental methods to examine the effect of intergroup contact on (a) the blatant dehumanization of outgroups, and (b) the perception that outgroup members dehumanize the ingroup (meta-dehumanization). First, we conduct a meta-analysis across 12 survey samples collected from five countries regarding eight …
The collective praise intervention: A brief intervention highlighting prosocial behavior reduces hostility towards Muslims
Muslims are consistently the target of dehumanization and hostile policies. Previous research shows that interventions that highlight the hypocrisy wherein people collectively blame entire groups for the heinous acts of individual members of outgroups but not ingroups are effective in reducing animosity towards Muslims. However, these interventions rely on aversive materials (e.g., terrorist acts), which can hinder the scalability of intervention…
Ethos of conflict as the prism to evaluate the Northern Irish and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts by the involved societies: A comparative analysis
The present study compared participants’ evaluations of their own conflict with their evaluation of another conflict. These evaluations were examined through the prism of the ideological ethos of conflict (EOC), which was seen as the major contributing factor in the development of the biased perceptions, divergent understandings, and emotional responses previously observed among groups in conflict. The participants in the study were students: Pro…
Intervention Tournaments: An Overview of Concept, Design, and Implementation
A large portion of research in the social sciences is devoted to using interventions to combat societal and social problems, such as prejudice, discrimination, and intergroup conflict. However, these interventions are often developed using the theories and/or intuitions of the individuals who developed them and evaluated in isolation without comparing their efficacy with other interventions. Here, we make the case for an experimental design that …
Empathy, Dehumanization, and Misperceptions: A Media Intervention Humanizes Migrants and Increases Empathy for Their Plight but Only if Misinformation About Migrants Is Also Corrected
Anti-migrant policies at the U.S. southern border have resulted in the separation and long-term internment of thousands of migrant children and the deaths of many migrants. What leads people to support such harsh policies? Here we examine the role of two prominent psychological factors—empathy and dehumanization. In Studies 1 and 2, we find that empathy and dehumanization are strong, independent predictors of anti-migrant policy support and are a…
Reducing Islamophobia: An assessment of psychological mechanisms that underlie anti-Islamophobia media interventions
Western countries have witnessed increased hostility towards Muslims among individuals, and structurally in the ways that the media covers stories related to Islam/Muslims and in policies that infringe on the rights of Muslim communities. In response, practitioners have created media interventions that aim to reduce Islamophobia. However, it is unclear what causal effects these interventions have on reducing Islamophobia. Here, we test the effect…
Advancing support for intergroup equality via a self-affirmation campaign
Members of historically advantaged groups are often unwilling to support actions or policies aimed at reducing inequality between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, even if they generally support the principle of equality. Based on past research, we suggest a self-affirmation intervention (an intervention in which people reflect on a positive trait or value in order to affirm their positive self-image) may be effective for increasing the willin…
Translating social science for peace: Benefits, challenges, and recommendations
Giving peace a chance: Lessons from translational research in Colombia
Are societies in conflict more susceptible to believe in Covid-19 conspiracy theories? A 66 nation study
Putting science to work for peace: A special issue in honor of Emile Bruneau
Exposure to a media intervention helps promote support for peace in Colombia
Perceiving change on the rival side of the conflict: A pathway to peace-building
Humorous Responses to Gender Injustice: The Contrasting Effects of Efficacy and Emotions on Women’s Collective Action Intentions
Research has shown that subversive humor may be used to challenge existing societal hierarchies by confronting people with prejudice. Expanding on this literature, we hypothesized that humor would create two simultaneous and offsetting psychological mechanisms: increasing collective action motivation by signaling speaker power and inspiring efficacy and decreasing collective action motivation by reducing negative emotions towards men as the power…
Exploring Different Psychological Processes in a Media Intervention That Reduces Dehumanization Towards Muslims
Dehumanization continues to be prevalent today and predicts detrimental intergroup consequences. Thus, it is important to identify novel interventions that reduce dehumanization and explore the mechanism(s)—both established (e.g., empathy induction, intergroup contact) and relatively understudied (e.g., humor)—driving the effects. To address this issue, in Study 1 (N = 2,349), we conducted an “intervention tournament” and found that a video (i.e.…
Increasing Perceived Outgroup Heterogeneity Following Exposure to Extreme Violence: An Intervention Tournament in Times of War
Exposure to political violence often drives individuals toward extreme attitudes and greater support for retaliatory policies, including heightened perceptions of outgroup homogeneity. In violent intergroup conflicts, such perceptions can be especially dangerous, as they may justify indiscriminate violence against the outgroup. The current research aims to address Jewish Israelis’ perceptions of Palestinians’ variability following the October 7 H…
Environmental taxation triggers persistent psychological resistance to climate policy
Environmental taxation is often lauded as an effective tool for changing consumer behavior, but it can also trigger substantial psychological resistance, especially among disproportionately affected groups, such as the Jewish ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) community, potentially creating a broad anti-environmental backlash. In the current study we provide novel empirical evidence for the psychological mechanisms that can drive such reactance and its pot…
Gone too far? The paradoxical effect of political elite radicalization
How does the rise of ideologically extreme leaders affect attitudes and beliefs among their supporters? Previous research on paradoxical thinking suggests that when individuals are exposed to a radicalized version of their held beliefs, they moderate them in response. However, it is yet unknown whether, how, and among whom, such moderation occurs in response to radicalization of individuals' favored leaders. The proposed study examines how an unf…
Political science (20 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (20 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Politics (9 works) · Psychological intervention (9 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (8 works)