What is it about?
Receiving help from a former enemy might seem like a step toward peace, but in post-conflict societies the reality is more complicated. This research examined how Kosovan Albanians reacted when Serbia, their former opponent, offered COVID-19 test kits during the pandemic. Across two studies with over 800 participants, we found a striking pattern: people with low prejudice actually showed more negative emotions, less trust, and greater perceptions of Serbian dominance after receiving the help than when no help was offered. People with high prejudice showed these negative reactions regardless, suggesting their views were largely fixed. The key mechanism was perceived outgroup dominance: even less biased individuals interpreted the help as a strategic attempt to control or subordinate them, which in turn drove more negative emotions toward the outgroup.
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Why is it important?
This research challenges the intuitive idea that humanitarian gestures automatically improve relations between former adversaries. In post-conflict societies, where histories of violence and unresolved grievances run deep, even well-intentioned acts of help can be misread as threats. Conducted in Kosovo during an active global crisis, the findings show that crises do not reset intergroup dynamics but can instead reactivate old suspicions. For policymakers and peacebuilders, this is a crucial warning: intergroup support initiatives in post-conflict contexts need to be accompanied by trust-building measures and clear communication about intentions, particularly when the helping party has not fully acknowledged past wrongdoing.
Perspectives
This paper emerged from a broader interest in how postconflict dynamics shape the reception of prosocial gestures between former adversaries. What makes it unusual is the context: Kosovo during the COVID-19 pandemic, a setting that allowed us to test how a real-world act of outgroup help, Serbia's donation of test kits, affected intergroup emotions and perceptions in a society still navigating the aftermath of war. The findings push back against a simple optimism about humanitarian solidarity. Even people who are not particularly prejudiced against the outgroup can misread help as a dominance move when the relationship lacks the foundation of trust and accountability. That finding, replicated across two studies, has implications well beyond Kosovo, for any context where groups with a violent shared history are expected to cooperate during a crisis.
Dr Islam Borinca
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Crisis complicates peacebuilding in postconflict societies: COVID-19 support triggers negative outgroup emotions among individuals with low and high prejudice., Peace and Conflict Journal of Peace Psychology, July 2022, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/pac0000631.
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